Steve Outhouse in as next Conservative campaign manager

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Jenny Byrne has stepped down as Conservative campaign manager for the next federal election – to be replaced by Steve Outhouse.

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The Conservative Party has confirmed that Outhouse, fresh off another provincial election victory in Newfoundland and Labrador, will take the reins whenever the next federal election campaign takes place.

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Considering that we are in a minority situation, this could happen at any time.

Carney's government won a vote of confidence on Monday after two Conservatives and two New Democrats abstained from voting. However, there are Liberals who are pushing for a spring election in an attempt to secure a majority government for Prime Minister Mark Carney.

“We have to be ready to go at any given time. My job will be to come in and get everything ready as quickly as possible,” Outhouse said during a Saturday phone call from his home in suburban Ottawa.

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Nova Scotia native with decades of experience in politics and campaigning.

Outhouse is a Nova Scotian who has lived in Ottawa for more than 25 years and has been involved in politics in various capacities since 1998. He has worked with ministers Loyola Hearn, Lisa Wright, Jim Prentice, Lawrence Cannon, Leona Aglukkaq and Gail Shea.

In 2015, Outhouse served as chief of staff to Pierre Poiliève when the current Conservative leader was minister of employment and social development.

Over the years, Outhouse has worked in federal Conservative leadership races, helping Leslyn Lewis go from party outsider in 2020 to finishing third behind Peter MacKay and eventual winner Erin O'Toole. Despite being eliminated after the second round, Outhouse helped Lewis secure the most votes in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia.

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More recently, Outhouse helped the Progressive Conservative Party of Newfoundland and Labrador end decades of Liberal rule in the province.

Tony Wakeham became the 16th Prime Minister of Newfoundland and Labrador on October 29.. Outhouse is still working with Wakeham's team on the transition to the new government and will begin his full-time role as federal campaign manager for Poilievre and his team in early December.

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Outhouse will have to focus the Conservative Party's attention

In this new role, Outhouse will have to focus on a party that has gone from believing it will win the next election to being badly beaten by a revived Liberal Party. Conservatives have come under attack over the past few weeks. intersection of floors, MP resigns and plenty of speculation that others in their circle are considering leaving.

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He will need to ensure that the party does not waste energy on issues that do not matter; it doesn't shift votes in their direction and really focuses the party on what voters care about. The 8.1 million votes that Poilievre and his team received in the April election are the most votes received by any party in a Canadian election other than the 8.5 million votes received by Carney and his team.

To win the next election, Outhouse will need to direct the party to either attract new voters who don't typically vote or attract swing voters who switched from Conservative to Liberal in the last campaign.

In 2023, Outhouse was able to focus the United Conservative Party's efforts under Danielle Smith on winning the Alberta provincial election, despite trailing the NDP just months before the vote.

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You learn to win by losing.

Despite his impressive winning record, Outhouse says it was the defeats he experienced as a campaign manager that taught him more and taught him how to win.

“Losing teaches you a lot; I learned a lot more from losing an election than from winning an election,” he said.

Some of the lessons learned included learning to change structures, relying on clearer data, and how to allocate budgetary resources and campaign funds more effectively.

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As for Poilievre's focus on the issues that matter most to young people, the middle-aged campaign manager fully agrees. He points to his two children, who are now young adults about to graduate from university and unsure of their economic future.

“I appreciate that Pierre is focused on the cost of living and the things that matter. I talk to my kids about issues like buying a house, and it seems foreign to them,” he said.

Expect affordability, housing and cost of living to be at the forefront of Conservative messaging in the next election. No one knows when that will be, but Outhouse said he'll prepare the party – it's literally his job.

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