He was described by various commenters as "sensitive to the Afghan culture, knowledgeable, persuasive, totally committed, and hardworking;" "perhaps one of the brightest and most capable diplomats that have come to Afghanistan over the past five years;" and "the best ambassador I've ever worked for."

"[7] On April 12, 2010, CBC News revealed that Alexander, as a senior official working with the United Nations, alleged that Asadullah Khalid, the former governor of Kandahar Province in Afghanistan, had ordered the killing of five UN workers by bombing, presumably to protect his narcotics interests.

[8] On December 12, 2019, The Globe and Mail published a lengthy opinion piece written by Alexander in which he stated that for most of his time in Afghanistan, he believed that Western strategy "was wrong" in that it did not focus on Pakistan's military support for the Taliban as the root cause of the conflict.

[12] On September 21, 2009, Alexander announced his resignation from the foreign service and his intention to seek the Conservative nomination in the suburban Toronto area riding of Ajax—Pickering.

[28] His initial appearances on the topic did not go well; in a CBC interview he claimed the press was confused about the issue and that the government had not actually agreed to purchase the aircraft, while the video roll in the background showed Minister MacKay saying exactly that.

[29] A follow-up appearance on CTV News's Question Period show was judged by Canadian journalist Aaron Wherry to have been "a bit better", noting that Alexander had conceded the Auditor General's report on the program had to be taken seriously, and had conveyed that the government was doing just that.

[32][34] Alexander's time in office was marked by what a number of commentators described as a surprisingly adversarial approach to politics, in contrast with the expectation of some that he would be a moderate figure.

During the 2015 election campaign, Alexander was known for toeing the party line and accepted the position as front man on a number of highly charged and divisive issues.

Alexander often commented on these issues, in one case tweeting that "Niqab, hijab, burka, wedding veil—face coverings have no place in cit oath-taking!

[40] In an appearance that night on a CBC News Network's Power & Politics panel discussion, Alexander defended the Harper Government's handling the Syrian refugee crisis.

[43] On the same day, Alexander announced that he would be temporarily suspending his campaign for re-election the next morning to return to Ottawa to resume his ministerial duties, receive updates on the refugee crisis, and investigate the case of Alan Kurdi.

[42] On October 8, it was revealed that Canadian immigration officials had been ordered to stop processing all claimants from Syria earlier in the year and that all such claims would have to be vetted by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and personally signed off by the Stephen Harper.

[45] Days later, just two weeks before the election, sources reported to CTV News that Alexander was one of a dozen Tory MPs in the Greater Toronto Area at risk of being defeated.

[46] This came to pass as Alexander won only 16,611 votes to Holland's 27,039—a deficit of almost 12,000 votes—as part of the Conservatives' collapse in southern Ontario (the Tories only retained three seats in the GTA).

[47] A week after the election, Alexander repeated his claim that the media had not sufficiently covered the Syrian refugee crisis and the defeated government's plans in a scrum with Global News.

[48] He has subsequently argued in media interviews that in the context of the election he was prevented by his own party from advertising his government's achievements on immigration and refugee policy.

His leadership platform detailed policies on employment, taxation, innovation, families, education, competitiveness, energy self-sufficiency, cities, agriculture, poverty, homelessness, First Nations peoples, the Métis, refugees, the Monarchy, justice, health care, protecting wilderness, forestry, mining, international diplomacy, terrorism, democratic reform, cyber-security, Canadian culture, northern development, and national defence.

He also called for doubling defence spending and "for an accelerated push to settle all outstanding land claims and to sign treaties with First Nations communities that would empower them to govern themselves".

In a public statement, Postmedia, the parent company of the Ottawa Citizen, called Alexander’s allegations “ridiculous and baseless,” emphasizing that the journalist is a “valued, trusted and esteemed member of the Ottawa Citizen.” Conservative MP Doug Shipley said the entire incident has made him reflect on “what’s real and what’s not real,” noting it’s “a little ironic” that this would come up in a study of “disinformation.”.