Former Conservative leader and Conservative-Saskatchewan Elect Andrew Scheer says Pierre Poilievre will “absolutely” stay on as the party‘s leader, despite losing his own seat and leading the party to its fourth failed attempt to defeat the Liberals.

“Pierre is a fighter, and he’s doing it for the people who have been left behind for this government. That’s really what inspires him,” Scheer said in an interview with CTV’s Power Play on Wednesday.

In a significant upset, Poilievre lost in the Ottawa-area riding of Carleton – a seat he’s held for 20 years – by more than 4,300 votes to Liberal candidate Bruce Fanjoy. The party itself also lost after having a more than 20-point lead in the polls earlier this year.

According to a Conservative campaign source speaking to CTV News on background, Poilievre is “making calls to the grassroots” and “will get a seat” as party members want to see him back in the House of Commons.

But the process to get another seat – which could take months – would require a Conservative MP to step aside and the federal government to call a byelection.

Asked by host Vassy Kapelos whether someone will relinquish their seat for Poilievre, Scheer didn’t answer directly, saying “these are early days.”

“I am very confident that as we get through the difficult days, the next days and weeks, as we figure some of these things out, we’re going to come out the other side with a more united team, with a bigger team, with more representation from more provinces, and Pierre is the man to deliver that victory,” Scheer said.

When asked why Poilievre failed to win his own seat, Scheer admitted there is “more work to do” but argued the party “saw historic gains.”

“There’s another step to this journey, but there’s an incredible base of support here that we could not have achieved without Pierre Poilievre’s inspirational leadership,” Scheer added.

According to Elections Canada, the Conservatives received 8,086,051 votes in this latest federal election, accounting for 41.3 per cent of the vote.

While the result is the party‘s highest total for the party since Brian Mulroney‘s Progressive Conservatives won a majority government in 1988 with 43 per cent of the popular vote, Poilievre still lost the popular vote to the Liberals, who garnered 43.7 per cent of the vote share.

Scheer slams criticism from PC premiers

On Wednesday, both Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston criticized the Conservative campaign and shed more light on the apparent rift between the federal and provincial conservatives.

Asked why he didn’t make joint campaign announcements with Poilievre during the federal election, Ford said, “I shouldn’t interfere.”

“Last time I checked, Pierre Poilievre never came out in our election. Matter of fact, him or one of his lieutenants told every one of his members, ‘don’t you dare go out and help the PCs.’ Isn’t that ironic,” Ford said.

Meanwhile, Houston told reporters on Wednesday that he hopes the federal Conservatives “do some soul searching.”

“I think the Conservative Party of Canada was very good at pushing people away, not so good at pulling people in. And I think that they probably saw that in some of the results they had across the country,” Houston added.

Speaking to Kapelos, Scheer slammed that assessment, insisting it’s “false by the facts.”

“You can‘t simultaneously say we pushed people away when we got more votes. That’s just factually incorrect. That doesn’t work on a mathematical level,” Scheer said.

Asked whether the Conservatives should take more stock of Ford’s criticism, given the fact he has won three consecutive majority governments in Ontario, Scheer told Kapelos the party is not “worried about interpersonal relationships with someone like Doug Ford.”

“I wish conservatives at other levels around the country would help, would be more cognizant that it’s about the people. It’s about the people that they represent as premiers or as other politicians. It’s not about settling interpersonal differences. I don’t think Canadians care about that,” Scheer added.

When pressed again on whether leaders like Poilievre should have better working relationships with others for the benefit of Canadians, Scheer pushed back.

“There are dynamics that we have to figure out to make sure that doesn’t happen again,” Scheer said. “But again, more people wanted Pierre Poilievre to be prime minister in Ontario than wanted Doug Ford to be premier. That’s just a fact.”

In Ontario, Poilievre won 3,315,575 votes while Ford secured 2,158,452 votes in the provincial election back in February.

Poilievre has yet to publicly address Canadians about losing his seat in the House of Commons. But in his concession speech early Tuesday morning, Poilievre gave no indication he is looking to walk away.

“It will be an honour to continue to fight for you and to be a champion of your cause as we go forward,” Poilievre said to supporters.