MOOSE JAW — This federal election is about who has the best plans for Canada, and according to the leader of the People’s Party of Canada, his group can win “the battle of ideas.”
Maxime (Max) Bernier was at Moose Jaw’s Western Development Museum on April 19, where he spoke to nearly 50 people about why the PPC has the best platform to address the issues facing Canada.
Six PPC candidates from across Saskatchewan — including Chey Craik from the Moose Jaw-Lake Centre-Lanigan constituency — also attended and briefly discussed why they are running.
'Doing politics differently'
The People’s Party of Canada is “doing politics differently” because it’s not relying on polling or focus groups to determine what issues to pursue, Bernier said. Instead, the party “has a strong vision for this country” that would benefit most families.
The party has had the same platform focus since 2019, as compared to other national parties that always tell people what they want to hear, he continued. Moreover, the mainstream media has manipulated most Canadians into accepting those parties’ messages.
“Our ideas today may not be that popular when we speak about (issues such as) withdrawing from the Paris Accord,” Bernier stated. “We don’t have a majority of Canadians saying, ‘You’re right,’ because they are manipulated by the mainstream media.
“So we need to be out there to speak about our values without doing any compromise. And if you do that, we’ll have a nice future … ,” he added. “We can win the battle of ideas.”
Bernier encouraged attendees to contact 10 people and ask whether they are familiar with the party’s ideas. He pointed out that research shows 70 per cent of Canadians are opposed to mass immigration, something the party has been discussing since 2019.
“That was not that popular (six years ago), but we did it … because with these open borders every year, that is destroying the social fabric of our country,” he remarked, noting Ottawa must pause immigration for several years. “But today, it is (a) popular (topic).”
Mainstream parties' ideas
The PPC leader discussed the recent leaders’ debates and said it was “evident and clear” that Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) leader Pierre Poilievre and Liberal Party leader Mark Carney “are the same” since they are proposing almost the same policies.
Bernier pointed out that Poilievre is supposed to be a conservative, but the only thing he’s conserving is Liberal policies. For example, the CPC leader wants to remain in the climate-focused Paris Accords and spend billions of dollars to fight climate change by subsidizing carbon capture and storage technology to sequester carbon dioxide (CO2) underground.
With a laugh, the PPC leader said CO2 is essential for life since it’s plant food, which means there’s no need to build new technology when trees and plants are “old technology.”
“We need more carbon dioxide, not less,” he stated.
Furthermore, during the TV debates, Poilievre never discussed how mass immigration is reducing Canadians’ economic standards of living, although he mentioned how more housing is required, Bernier said.
“It’s a question of supply and demand. The easiest way to solve the housing crisis is to stop the demand and having a moratorium (on immigration),” Bernier said to applause, adding Poilievre wants to import 1.5 million foreigners over three years.
Bernier discussed his recent appearance on The Tucker Carlson, where they spoke about how mass immigration and open borders are destroying Western civilization.
The PPC leader pointed out that Canada’s population grew 2.4 per cent last year due to mass immigration, while other Western countries’ populations grew by 0.5 per cent. This growth shows, he added, that the “Great Replacement Theory” is not a conspiracy “but is real.”
Economic policy
Meanwhile, Poilievre and Carney plan to run deficits, which means Canadians will pay more in taxes and inflation, said Bernier, pointing out that former prime minister Justin Trudeau doubled the debt during his nine years in office.
However, the PPC proposes balancing the budget in one year by eliminating $10 billion from foreign aid, $2 billion to media outlets, $5 billion from indigenous affairs, $13 billion from equalization payments and $26 billion from subsidizing corporations, he continued.
This $56 billion in cuts would eliminate the roughly $50-billion deficit and create a $6-billion surplus, allowing the government to lower Canadians’ taxes the next year, the PPC leader said.
He noted that his party would also abolish the capital gains tax, cut the business tax rate to 15 per cent so companies can reinvest that money into salaries and productivity efforts, reduce the size of government and reduce federal intrusion into provincial jurisdiction.
Bernier touched on tariffs, saying it’s a bad idea to impose counter-tariffs on the United States since that will only increase costs on everyday goods in Canada, hike taxes, and lead to people losing their jobs. Instead, American consumers will pay for President Donald Trump’s tariffs since that’s how tariffs work.
Bernier noted that Canadians need to be told “the truth” about what the five main federal parties believe and want since they are more interested in acquiring power than in working for Canadians.
“We are telling the truth. And sometimes Canadians are not ready for the truth,” he said, noting that it took the PPC two years to change people’s opinions about the coronavirus pandemic measures, with the Freedom Convoy contributing to lifting those measures.
“… we have the right ideas based on the Western civilization ideas because we believe in you,” Bernier added.
