With the 2021 General Election over and the results finalized, Canada is ostensibly in the same position as before Trudeau called the widely undesired snap election.
However, one thing has changed: the People’s Party of Canada is more popular than ever.
Indeed, having risen from obscurity to overshadow the Green Party, the PPC has shown itself to be the first genuinely Right-wing alternative that might go somewhere.
Now the question on many people’s minds is ‘What’s next for the PPC?’ and how will they keep up the momentum they built during their campaign.
We were curious, too, so The Counter Signal sat down with PPC Leader Maxime Bernier to find out.
Note: Minor edits have been made for brevity and clarity.
INTERVIEWER: In this election, the PPC did exceptionally well, receiving 5 per cent of the popular vote and easily outperforming the Green Party, despite not winning any seats. What about your platform do you think led to this massive increase in popular support?
MAXIME: Yes, you’re right. We had about 5 per cent of the vote, and more than 850,000 people voted for us. And actually, it took 25 years for the Green Party to have more than 5 per cent of the vote. And we did that at the second election, in our third year. So, I’m happy with that.
And the theme of the campaign was about being against the vaccine passport, as you may know. We were, and still are, the only National political party against the vaccine passport. And so I was campaigning on that — plus, also, on balancing the budget and being sure that we’ll have a smaller government in Ottawa that will respect provincial jurisdiction and provincial autonomy.
Now, we have to build from there. We will have two years or three years to build and increase the support for our riding organizations all across the country and executive riding associations to be ready for the next election, and we will [be ready].
INTERVIEWER: Something interesting about your support, too, was that you didn’t just get Conservative voters to switch over to the PPC, but also a lot of Left-wing supporters came out in support of you because of your opposition to vaccine passports.
MAXIME: Yes, you’re right about that. And also some people that didn’t [previously] vote. And I can tell you that I’ve met many people who were telling me, ‘Maxime, It will be my first time voting. And I’m very pleased to vote and to vote for the PPC.’
So, I must admit that maybe the majority of our supporters are former Conservatives, but yes, we had other people that believed in freedom that didn’t like the direction of the country. And we also had people who [previously] voted for the Green Party. And they were telling us, you know, the most important thing is to gain back [our] freedoms. And that’s why they voted for the PPC.
INTERVIEWER: Absolutely, and I think the big question for everybody is ‘What’s next for the PPC?’. How do you plan on keeping up the momentum that you built during your campaign?
MAXIME: Yes. What’s next? I’ll be on the road, actually. Right now, there’s an election in Alberta, the municipal election. That will be on the 18th of October.
But also, at the same time, [Albertans] will have the opportunity to vote for senators, and we have a full team. We have three PPC candidates for the Senate. So as soon as I can, I’ll be in Alberta campaigning with our candidates. And, you know, I hope that they win and we’ll see. We are still campaigning.
And actually, the next phase for me will be to — like I said in my speech on the day of the election — that, yes, I don’t have a seat in Ottawa. But, still, we are the only real opposition now because the Conservatives and the other political parties are all the same on the most important issues for this country. Climate change, imposing a carbon tax, mass immigration. They’re saying yes to the vaccine passport. So, what we’ll do next, I’ll be the real opposition on the street with our people, and I’ll be back on the road.
INTERVIEWER: Yeah, I remember during the debate — it was astounding — that Trudeau and O’Toole both agreed on bringing in a massive amount of foreign workers to fill labour shortages.
MAXIME: Yes. And they agree, they agree on the most important [issues]. They want to have 400,000 people coming to this country [annually]. And as you know now, the Trudeau government will change the regulations to accept more refugees.
And here in Canada, we cannot save the world. We need to help real refugees, but not those crossing the border, again, in Quebec at Roxham Road illegally — that’s still happening right now.
So, we will be vocal on these issues. And I believe that more people know that we exist now.
And the good news for us is that I will be part of the national debate for the next campaign. That will give us more visibility and [help us] reach more people. So, I’m glad. We just have to build on that momentum.
INTERVIEWER: Yeah, that was going to be one of my later questions, that you now qualify for subsequent national debates — whenever that is held, as Trudeau has shown a willingness to call snap elections. So, that could even be in the next year or two.
How did you feel about the 2021 debates? And what effect do you think a live debate appearance will have for Canadian voters?
MAXIME: Well, I looked at the statistics after the debate, and most Canadians only watched the first 45 minutes of that debate because it was not a real debate. And so, for me not being there, I was not so happy with that. I believe it was unfair, and the [political] cartel with the establishment politicians and journalists were very happy [that I wasn’t there].
I think that we missed an opportunity to connect with more Canadians in the first hour of the debate. That will be very useful for us in the next campaign.
Additionally, I believe that many people were upset because, as I said before, we had a different point of view on all these important subjects. And we still have a different point of view from these establishment political parties. So I’m looking forward to the debate next election.
I believe that we’ll have more time to build the party and that the next election will be another important step for the PPC.
INTERVIEWER: Regarding building the party, in which ridings or provinces do you think the PPC has the best chance? I noticed that in some ridings, the PPC received 11 per cent of the vote.
MAXIME: Yes, so that’s a deep question for us, and also for me personally.
As you know, I ran two times in Beauce, and I didn’t win in 2019, and I didn’t win the election in 2021. So, before the next election, I will look for a riding where I have a better chance of winning. Last time, it was still in Beauce. Next time, I don’t know. But I can tell you that we will try to pick a riding for me that will be winnable. [And now we] have time to look at it.
We were very strong in Ontario, in Alberta, in Saskatchewan, and in interior BC. So we’ll see what will happen. But I firmly believe that in the next election we’ll have somebody in Parliament.
INTERVIEWER: That’s great to hear.
And you’ve mentioned Alberta. I noticed that you have a pretty large base of support that’s growing there.
At the beginning of the election, you got into a few verbal skirmishes with the Maverick Party. But since then, support for the Maverick Party has dissipated while the PPC remains relevant.
Would you be open to allowing their members to represent the PPC in Alberta, and how do you intend to handle the contentious issue of Alberta’s and Quebec’s relationship?
MAXIME: Well, we have the best platform for Alberta, for Western Canada, and the country, you know, because we won’t sign the Paris Accord, we won’t impose a carbon tax, we will review the equalization formula to be sure that the new formula will be less generous and give the right incentives to have-not provinces, and we are saying ‘yes’ to pipelines by using the Constitution.
So, I believe that people in Alberta really like our platform.
And for the Mavericks, as I said during the campaign, [their party was] not serious. And now we have the proof [it] was not serious.
They had an interim leader that didn’t run during the election. That was not serious. And they did not have a representative in every riding in Western Canada — there were only 23 ridings in which they had a candidate for the last election. So for me, the Maverick Party is no competition, and we’ll campaign for the support of the Conservative voters in Western Canada.
INTERVIEWER: One problem that I think the PPC may have is that much of the Party’s support is solely based on you, its leader — though that may be par for the course in Canada. But if you were ever to step down, do you think the Party could stand on its own? And are there any Party members you can see gaining the same popular support?
MAXIME: First of all, thank you for asking the question.
This month, I’m asking our members if they want to have a leadership review. So I think I will do that. And we will work on it next week, but I want to ask the members. I want to stay as the leader, but I also want to ask them for their point of view.
And that being said, we’ll see what will happen. We have great candidates across the country that ran with us in the first election in 2019 and the second one.
This party is here for the long term. And I believe that after Maxime Bernier, we will have another leader. And the party will grow because we are the only real conservative alternative in this country.
Like I said during the campaign, the only goal of the Conservative Party of Canada is to be in power. And we are living in a Socialist era right now, and that’s why they’re going to the Left because they want to have more support there.
And with O’Toole, they did it. And I believe that, whether O’Toole stays or they have another leader, they will go to the Left because the majority of the population is there.
So, they are not doing politics by conviction; they are doing politics by survey and polling. And, you know, by doing that, they’re giving more credibility to the Leftist narrative because they are Leftists, too.
So, I believe that the PPC will be there. And you know, it can take time, but this party will grow step-by-step and will be the only real Conservative party in Canada for the future.
INTERVIEWER: Very true. O’Toole, actually, despite being more moderate and swinging Left, lost support compared to what Andrew Scheer or Stephen Harper had. And the Party at large seems pretty adamant that they’re going to meander in that Centrist position and then just slowly creep Left as the Liberals drag it that way.
MAXIME: Yeah. I think you’re right. I believe that the Conservative Party will go further to the Left and try to gain support in the GTA in Ontario.
They are taking for granted their support in Western Canada. I believe they are doing that. But I [also] think that people know now that it would be more important to vote for their values than to vote against something at the next general election.
INTERVIEWER: Just to wrap things up, you already mentioned some upcoming events. Do you have any plans for an annual general meeting?
MAXIME: Not now. First, we want to do my leadership review. So that’s most important right now, and then we’ll see.
It can be very difficult because of the COVID restriction. And if we want to do a meeting, we want to do a meeting in person.
So, we’ll wait and look at the opportunities that will come.
But the most important thing is to do my leadership review and get back on the road to campaign — specifically in Alberta to help our three candidates for the senate election. That election will be on the 18th of October. So, the clock is running now.
