Is Poilievre being lobbied off the rails?
Public data shows that Poilievre has been repeatedly lobbied over the past six months by car dealers, insurance brokers, and oil companies.
As Pierre Poilievre calls for an end to the high speed rail project in the Quebec-Windsor corridor, public data shows that he has been lobbied many times in the past six months by oil companies and car companies.
On the Trail has been collecting and aggregating every lobbyist meeting for every elected official in Canada, along with detailed data, dashboards and live metrics about elected officials' stocks and other assets. We have not released the full system to the public yet, but are hoping to give an early test release to $20 a month subscribers in the coming months. The data is sourced from the lobbyist registry, and is publicly available.
The Canadian Automobile Dealers Association (CADA) last lobbied Poilievre on November 26, 2025. CADA calls themselves the “eyes and ears” of the new truck and car dealers in Canada. “CADA speaks out whenever proposed rules, regulations, or legislation may help or hinder the industry,” it says on their site.
The Insurance Brokers of Canada (IBAC) last lobbied to meet with Pierre Poilievre on November 17th, 2025. IBAC represents a large number of insurance brokers across the country, who provide car insurance as well as other kinds of insurance. Their expressed goal on their site is to “promote the interests and value of Canadian insurance brokers.”
On October 9th, 2025, Enbridge lobbied for meetings with Poilievre. Enbridge is one of the largest, and most powerful oil companies in the country, with an estimated market cap of around $170 billion.
Cenovus energy lobbied Poilievre on the 21st of October, 2025. Cenovus is a major oil and gas producer based out of Calgary.
Kal Tire is a well known tire company that is one of North America's largest tire dealers. They lobbied Mr. Poilievre on September 24th, 2025.
Lobbying data does not necessarily mean that Poilievre has met with the groups, but the Conservatives have long been allied with the oil and gas industry. A high speed rail would enable Canadians to rely less on cars to travel within Canada’s most densely populated region. This would have a long term effect on oil and gas profits in Canada.
Poilievre is calling for the end to a major green energy & infrastructure project during a time when Canadians are unable to pay for gas, since gas prices have nearly doubled in every part of the country due to America’s illegal war in Iran, and the subsequent closure of the strait of Hormuz.
Recently, during an international tour, Pierre Poilievre called climate change “BS (bullshit)” on a right wing podcast called TRIGGERnometry, which calls itself a “free speech podcast”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYXMTlcKvN0
Steve Mackinnon, the federal transport minister, blasted Pierre Poilievre’s position.
“Pierre Poilievre, once again, is showing Canadians that he has no vision to create jobs and grow the economy… The Conservatives, as usual, think small. Turning away from nation-building investments is the wrong choice, and one Canadians reject at a time when we need to build and grow.”
Pierre Poilievre’s position seems completely opposed to his past positions, where he has frequently summoned the legacy of John A. Macdonald, specifically calling for a return to the ambition of Canada’s first leader– who is most well known for the Canadian railways that he built from coast to coast.
In this video on youtube, which has 75k views, Pierre Poilievre asks whether Canada would even build the pacific railway today– to a bust of Macdonald.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5qdzzAdoIQ
The train would service 55 per cent of the country’s population, allowing for a carbon-free, high speed transportation solution to travel from Montreal to Toronto in 3 hours, versus the current ~6 hour trip with Via rail or by car– if there's no delays or traffic.
Even fellow conservative Doug Ford has expressed a deep support for the project, saying he believes it should follow the highway, and even be expanded to have a stop in Kingston.
The train is slated to have “shovels in the ground” before the end of the decade, and the Liberals are apparently considering adding it as a “major project” to speed up regulatory work, although when we spoke with the Minister's office, they could not confirm that.
