PPC Leader Maxime Bernier has frequently chastised the Conservative Party over recent months due to their nearly non-existent response to Trudeau’s pandemic tyranny.
While Bernier has repeatedly opposed the pandemic powers and restrictions of both federal and provincial governments since COVID first made its way to Canada, the Conservative response has been lacklustre at best, if not complicit.
Taking aim at Conservative leadership frontrunner Pierre Poilievre, Bernier wrote, “Congratulations to Pierre Poilievre and the handful of Conservative MPs who are jumping on the bandwagon and finally denouncing Trudeau’s authoritarian measures after two years of complete silence. Hope to see you next weekend in Ottawa [for the Freedom Convoy protest].”
Indeed, it wasn’t until the Freedom Convoy, composed of everyday working-class Canadians (i.e., the Conservatives’ base), took off that any noticeable criticism of Trudeau’s authoritarian measures came out of the CPC.
The Convoy represented a clear message: ‘We’ve had enough. We want our rights back.’ However, as The Counter Signal noted at the time, then-Leader Erin O’Toole purposefully stayed silent as truckers drove across the country, deciding to wait for poll numbers to come in before condemning or condoning the protest.
Meanwhile, Bernier had long attended and led rallies to end the mandates, taking the initiative before it was ever popular.
Of course, this abysmal lack of leadership and failure to act on the part of O’Toole provided the Party with the opportunity to oust him and likewise provided an opportunity for those in waiting to fight over the vacant leadership position.
Those who seized this opportunity are now set to lead the Party, but Bernier clearly isn’t convinced that much will change besides posturing.
And much like the neo-cons of old, Conservatives have only been too happy to dust off the old war machine, with interim-leader Candice Bergen even stating that an escalatory no-fly zone stays on the table — this would likely mean WWIII and active involvement from Canada.
Poilievre, too, has called for more action on the part of Canada, despite Canada already having depleted its weapons supplies to give aid to Ukraine. Conversely, Bernier has remained steadfast in his position that Canada should try to de-escalate.
With Bernier apparently ahead of the curve on issues Conservative voters care about, it isn’t clear what the Conservative Party plans to do to stop the PPC from stripping more voters from them or how long it will be before cohesion returns to the right so that a sizeable movement can be mustered against the Trudeau regime, which has consolidated power with the aid of the NDP.
