Long-simmering tensions within the Conservative movement are bursting out into the federal election, experts say — undercutting Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre's efforts to present himself as a unifier who can take on U.S. President Donald Trump.

Those tensions materialized again after ex-Reform Party leader Preston Manning and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, both Western-populist-styled Conservatives, made a series of controversial statements that raised the ire of former Stephen Harper ca…