Over the past year, if you asked around Ottawa about the transition team that was planning Pierre Poilievre’s first days in government, you were likely to be met with shrugs. The members of the team were not named, and those in the know were not talking.

Such discipline, however, sometimes falters under the influence of a few drinks. That’s what Bryan Evans, a political science professor at Toronto Metropolitan University, found out in late 2024. Around the winter holidays, he ducked into his neighbourhood bar and ran into an old acquaintance. The man wasn’t himself on the transition team, but it turned out he was deeply informed. They slid onto stools for a conversation.

The group was preparing for a Poilievre government to hit the ground running. It was going to be a blitzkrieg.

“You were there at the start of the Mike Harris government.”

“Yeah,” Evans said.

“That’s going to be the playbook.”

It was an ominous sign.