Andrew Lawton: What it's like to date the very political Pierre Poilievre
Andrew Lawton: What it's like to date the very political Pierre Poilievre
BOOK EXCERPT: When he was courting his future wife, Poilievre brought the same mix of cockiness and charm that has marked his rise to the cusp of political power
By: Andrew Lawton
Several months after Poilievre’s final break-up with Jenni Byrne, a younger Senate staffer caught his eye. Anaida Galindo was working on Parliament Hill as the executive assistant to then Conservative senator Diane Bellemare. She bumped into Poilievre no fewer than six times in the fall of 2012. Downtown Ottawa is like a small town in that sense.
The first encounter was when she was picking up dry cleaning on Sparks Street. They said hello and carried on with their days. On the fifth run-in, Poilievre was about to strike up a conversation with her when a journalist inconveniently intercepted him to ask him something. On the sixth occasion, Poilievre made his move. Rather than asking for a phone number or email address, he asked Galindo for her Facebook coordinates.
Somewhat taken aback, Galindo lied and said she didn’t have Facebook, but told him she would get in touch with him. She was apprehensive about following up, aware of the challenging dynamic that came with him being a member of Parliament and her a staffer, not to mention the eight-year age gap between them. She waffled on whether to make contact for twenty-four hours before deciding to go.
Galindo sent a message to Poilievre’s personal email address using the internal Parliament Hill email directory. Poilievre’s response was a reflection of the confidence, or perhaps cockiness, people see in his approach to politics. He sent her a day, a time, and a place. They’d have coffee Friday at 8:30 a.m. at Bottega, he told her.
Galindo was miffed at Poilievre’s presumptuousness. He didn’t ask if she wanted to go out, let alone when or where. When she asked her boss, Bellmare, for advice, the senator encouraged her to go for it. She did.
Poilievre’s and Galindo’s first date was Friday, November 9, 2012. The café, La Bottega Nicastro in Ottawa’s Byward Market district, didn’t open until 9 a.m. They were able to sit inside while the workers were setting up. What was supposed to be a quick coffee before work stretched into a four-hour-long date that included lunch. The date lasted so long that Poilievre got a parking ticket. By its end, neither had tired of the other’s company.
Poilievre texted Galindo almost immediately after, telling her he wanted to see her Sunday before he had to fly to Calgary for the week. She agreed to meet again.
This time, the date would be for dinner. Poilievre opted to take Galindo to a Moxies restaurant near the Ottawa airport. It was Remembrance Day, 2012. They were slightly more disciplined with time on this occasion, given that Poilievre had a flight to catch. At the end of the dinner, he tried a few times to kiss Galindo. She kept saying no. They nevertheless parted on pleasant terms and Poilievre made his way to the airport as Galindo drove herself back home to Orleans. She never made it inside.
Just after she pulled into her driveway, Galindo saw a text from Poilievre. It said that she had made him miss his plane because she wouldn’t kiss him. Poilievre had, in fact, missed his flight (although it’s dubious whether it was Galindo’s fault) and now had a free evening on his hands. She agreed to get together again.
True to form, Poilievre chose the location and told Galindo he’d be there in half an hour. When she arrived, he was already there waiting. He went running towards her, grabbed her, and attempted another kiss. This time, she didn’t say no.
It was only their second date. The server at the restaurant commented that they looked cute together. At one point in the evening, Poilievre took off his glasses, looked into Galindo’s eyes and told her it was their first night as a couple. Soon after, he asked to meet Galindo’s father.
They had only been together for two weeks when Poilievre, on Mount Royal in Montreal, told Galindo he loved her. She wasn’t ready to say it back to him yet, but soon fell in love with him, too. She met his mother, Marlene, a little over a month later when he brought Galindo home to Calgary for Christmas. After about a month together, Poilievre wrote Galindo a poem that referenced their six early encounters and the missed flight. It must have sealed the deal. It wasn’t long after that she moved in with him …
Late in 2016, Poilievre brought Anaida Galindo back to the site of their first kiss, Preston Street in Ottawa’s Little Italy, and got down on one knee to ask her to marry him. She said yes. They eloped to Portugal, marrying on New Year’s Eve 2017.
They were as discreet as could be. Neither of their families knew they were getting married. They just assumed the couple was traveling around Christmastime as usual; they had gone to Asia for several weeks the year before.
Despite his relish of public life as a politician, Poilievre has always been private about his personal life. He and his bride-to-be saw their relationship as their own and were uneasy about what a guest list would look like if they’d chosen an Ottawa wedding. Neither wanted it to be a political event with a never-ending receiving line. Poilievre’s fiscal prudence also shone through: he did not want to spend tens of thousands of dollars on a one-day party.
The wedding was combined with a honeymoon. She got to choose the former; he chose the latter. Galindo opted for Portugal in part to create new memories. Despite their extensive travels, neither of them had been there. They married in Sintra, a town in the foothills of Portugal’s Sintra Mountains, just west of Lisbon. They stayed at Fortaleza do Guincho, a five-star hotel on the site of a seventeenth-century fortress overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Galindo bought her dress at a Montreal boutique. Since the wedding, she has used the last name Poilievre.
For the honeymoon, Poilievre selected Morocco for its desert landscape, an affinity that began on an earlier trip to Jordan.
Not long after the wedding, Ana, as she is familiarly known, was pregnant with their first child. In October of 2018, their daughter, Valentina Alejandra Poilievre Galindo was born. Pierre shared the news on social media, calling her a “beautiful angel & daughter of a brave mother and overjoyed father.” The couple’s second child, son Cruz Alejandro Poilievre, was born in September 2021. Poilievre would write an op-ed in the Ottawa Citizen using Ana’s pregnancy with Cruz to make an economic point: “Good news: we are having a baby boy in September! Bad news: He will be 50 years old when the federal budget is balanced.”
Poilievre has minimal Spanish, but he’s encouraged Ana to speak it to their children and he’ll occasionally try to repeat words. He’s fond of Spanish cuisine, and has a more diverse palate than Ana.
One person close to the couple says Poilievre is “not domesticated” in any way. He doesn’t cook or clean and has more of an “ask and ye shall receive” attitude about tasks around the house. But he’s never expected Ana to do anything, either, cheerfully offering to pick up food or hire a housekeeper.
In their travels as a couple, Pierre always subjects Ana to his nerdy penchant for history, something one might expect of a man who dressed up as Canada’s first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, to commemorate a federal building named after him in 2012. On a quick getaway to Chicago, he insisted they go to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois.
People who have traveled with Pierre, either on personal trips or parliamentary delegations, say one thing that stands out is how much he wants to learn and listen. “Wherever he goes around the world,” says one,” it’s just never-ending questions to people.”
Another thing he brings to every trip is his obsession with coffee. In any new locale, he will seek out four or five different coffee shops in a day. He has little tolerance for the mass-produced coffee sold at North American chains and frequently complains that no one knows how to make a proper cappuccino, one of his and Ana’s preferred beverages. At one café in his riding, Pierre is permitted to go behind the counter to make his own.
Apart from the travel and their political activities, the Poilievres live a quiet life. When they have time together at home, one of their go-to activities is watching YouTube videos of tiny houses, abodes that are typically between 100 and 400 square feet.
From PIERRE POILIEVRE: A POLITICAL LIFE. Copyright © 2024 by Andrew Lawton. Reprinted by permission of Sutherland House Books.
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It's interesting to think about how we don't actually know that much about who political leaders are as people. Justin Trudeau reeks of social media overexposure, but it's all really a contrivance constructed to project a certain image. We don't actually have a good idea of who he is. Over time, you get a few glimpses every now and then: Stephen Harper cracking jokes on a political rally stage after a rehearsal when he thinks its an empty room, for example. In general, though, people often cast votes based on who they'd rather have a beer with even though the actual experience of having a beer with these guys might totally change their opinion.
This was interesting. I would love to meet Ana and chat with her. I've always been very impressed by her speeches and her support of Pierre. And I seriously love that Pierre had Ana speak first when he won the conservative leadership - I hadn't voted for Pierre at the top of my own ballot - though I had bought a membership to vote in the leadership race, but when he won, and his wife gave the first words rather than him - I realized there was something very unique. I don't always appreciate his certainty about I do appreciate their presence as a couple and how much he seems to be supportive of Ana and love his kids.