Liberal staffers plant ‘stop the steal’ pins at Canadian conservative conference

Campaigners with Canada’s Liberal party had some very American-esque politicking over the weekend, when Liberal operatives were found to have planted “stop the steal” buttons at a conservative conference to link the Conservative party to Donald Trump.

Two Liberal party staffers infiltrated last week’s Canada Strong and Free Network Conference (CSFN) in Ottawa at which they strategically placed provocative buttons designed to create the false impression that Conservative supporters of party leader Pierre Poilievre were embracing Trump-style rhetoric, highlighting internal party divisions.

The operation was exposed when a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) politics reporter overheard staffers boasting about their actions at an Ottawa pub, where they were drinking with other Liberal war room colleagues on Friday night.

One button featured the phrase “stop the steal” – directly echoing Trump’s baseless claims about the 2020 election results being stolen from him. Another displayed the name of Conservative national campaign director Jenni Byrne crossed out, with “Kory Teneycke” written underneath – referring to a leading Conservative strategist who has been publicly bashing Poilievre.

The CSFN conference, Canada’s less idealistic version of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), serves as a key gathering for conservative-minded Canadians to discuss policy proposals and network.

The incident comes in the final stretch of a heated campaign only weeks away from elections, in which the Liberals who hold a polling lead have consistently sought to characterize Poilievre as Canada’s version of Trump.

Poilievre’s confrontational style with mainstream media, his “Canada First” campaign slogan, and his frequent attacks on the CBC specifically as “government-funded media” have fueled these comparisons, despite his insistence on fundamental differences between himself and the US president. Just this Sunday on Radio-Canada’s popular talk show Tout le monde en parle, when asked if he was a “mini-Trump, medium Trump or large Trump”, Poilievre quipped about his lighter weight before emphasizing his “completely different story” as the child of middle-class teachers compared to the US president’s inherited wealth.

The Liberal party confirmed the incident on Sunday evening, saying some campaigners had “regrettably got carried away” with buttons “poking fun” at reported Conservative infighting. Liberal spokesperson Kevin Lemkay added that Liberal leader Mark Carney had made it clear “this does not fit his commitment to serious and positive discourse”.

Over the years, Poilievre has proudly associated himself as a culture warrior for Canada’s right, saying he wants the country to move away from “woke” to “warrior” and appearing on rightwing media like Canadian influencer Jordan Peterson’s show.

The Liberal party has been able to take advantage of linking Poilievre to Trump after near country-wide disappointment and disapproval that followed the US president’s targeting of Canada as the supposed “51st state” and choosing to include its previously friendly neighbor in mass tariffs. As a result, there has been a near-total plunge in Canadian tourism to the United States, and the Liberals hold a tight lead in the polls under new leader Carney.

“Despite their public claims, it’s clear that it’s the Liberals who are attempting to bring American-style politics to our country,” Conservative party spokesperson Sam Lilly said in a statement to CBC.