OTTAWA–Pierre Poilievre’s announcement that he was bowing out of the Conservative leadership race was treated as breaking news last week — but it came as little surprise to those who were working on his bid.

Despite his reputation as a sharp-elbowed and ideological partisan, Poilievre had needed regular encouragement to stay in the race.

“We kept having to give him these pep talks every couple of days to try and convince him that this was right, and he could win it and he should just do this for the good of the party,” said one former member of Poilievre’s team, who spoke on the condition they not be named.

“But he had truly been really grappling with the sacrifice that was going to be involved,” the source continued.

“These were issues he was struggling with all the way through.”

That struggle was largely kept private. To the outside world, the 40-year old MP presented himself as an ambitious politician with his eye on a leadership role within the Conservative party. His team of supporters within the party included heavyweights like John Baird, a former cabinet minister; Jenni Byrne, a senior Conservative political operative; and Rachel Curran, Stephen Harper’s former director of policy.

Poilievre said last week that he dropped out of the race to spend more time with his family, and declined to comment further when contacted by the Star.

But that someone like him didn’t have the stomach for the race to replace Andrew Scheer may say something about how gruelling the next five months are expected to be — with friends and political allies dividing themselves into camps, and candidates openly sniping at rivals on social media while whispering in journalists’ ears.

Indeed, had Poilievre stayed in the race, he would no doubt have had an unpleasant fight ahead. His announcement immediately sparked speculation about the “real” reason he dropped out, with rumours swirling in Conservative circles.

“Look, leadership races are ugly business and people float rumours,” said Kory Teneycke in an interview earlier this week.

Teneycke, a former spokesperson for Harper, said he’s remaining neutral in the race, although his consulting firm is doing work for Peter MacKay’s leadership campaign. But Teneycke had a big role in forcing the leadership race in the first place — he openly criticized Scheer after the party’s poor performance in October’s election and starting an online campaign to oust him. Teneycke was hardly the only one who felt Scheer’s time was up.

And so the Conservatives’ current leadership race kicked off on a nastier note than the 2017 race that followed Harper’s decision to step down, perhaps one of the reasons high-profile contenders like Jean Charest and Rona Ambrose decided against running.

Some in the party have called for candidates to rise above this internecine bickering. The Conservatives could use the leadership race to reflect on where the party has been and where it’s going. So far, however, there’s been little of that type of grappling from the current slate of candidates, including perceived front-runners Peter MacKay and Erin O’Toole.

That could change if New Brunswick MP John Williamson enters the race. A “movement conservative ” who is currently kicking the tires on a leadership bid, Williamson has experience both in politics and beyond, including stints with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, in Harper’s PMO, and on the National Post’s editorial board.

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Whether Williamson decides to enter the race or not, whoever is on the ballot when the Conservatives select their next leader on June 27 will be pressed to articulate what they believe the party should stand for in 2020.

And whoever wakes up leader on June 28 will have to try to move the party beyond the acrimony of the Scheer years — and of this leadership race.

Correction — Feb. 1, 2019: An earlier version of this story referred to Pierre Poilievre as a Quebec MP. Poilievre is an MP for Carleton in Ontario.

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