Juno News - Maxime Bernier excluded from federal leaders’ debate

00:00:00.000 I want to shift focus a little bit and bring on a guest.

00:00:04.340 My guest today is Maxime Bernier,

00:00:06.840 leader and founder of the People's Party of Canada.

00:00:09.480 So Maxime Bernier founded that party in 2018

00:00:12.360 after leaving the Conservative Party of Canada.

00:00:15.340 He was a member of parliament under the Conservatives

00:00:17.740 for the riding in Beauce, Quebec from 2006 to 2019.

00:00:22.240 During his time in the Harper government,

00:00:23.940 he was in cabinet, he was minister of industry,

00:00:26.280 minister of foreign affairs,

00:00:27.640 and then minister of state for small business.

00:00:30.780 It's great to have Maxime on the show today.

00:00:34.480 And Maxime, thank you so much for joining us.

00:00:37.540 Thank you, Candice.

00:00:38.480 I'm very pleased to be with you.

00:00:40.740 Great.

00:00:41.580 So I want to talk a little bit about the recent decision

00:00:43.580 made by the Leaders Debate Commission.

00:00:46.440 They came out with new eligibility rules

00:00:49.000 for participating in the debate.

00:00:51.540 Now, we all hope that an election is coming very soon.

00:00:53.780 We all hope that we'll be able to vote

00:00:56.020 to replace this terrible Justin Trudeau Liberal government.

00:00:59.420 But it's important that we hear from other parties.

00:01:01.320 And it seems to me, Max,

00:01:02.660 that the Leaders Debate Commission

00:01:04.480 has changed its rules deliberately to exclude you.

00:01:07.420 So I'll just run through a little bit

00:01:08.660 about what's happened.

00:01:09.880 Back in 2021, they stated that parties need to have

00:01:14.280 either 4% of the vote, one elected MP,

00:01:17.320 or 4% in polling.

00:01:19.680 Most recently, you're polling at around 5% of the country,

00:01:23.660 but you don't have any seats.

00:01:25.400 And so the new rules that they brought in

00:01:27.060 says that you now need to meet two of the three criteria,

00:01:30.400 meaning that you have to have an MP,

00:01:32.800 4% nationally polling, and 4% in the last election.

00:01:38.260 And so it seems like they've changed these rules, Max,

00:01:40.900 deliberately to exclude your party.

00:01:43.060 So my question to you is, why do you think they're doing this?

00:01:47.800 You're right about that.

00:01:48.960 Actually, they're changing their rules at every election

00:01:52.160 to be sure that we won't participate.

00:01:54.420 Why they're doing that?

00:01:55.560 Because they don't want to have a real debate

00:01:57.720 at the Leaders Debate.

00:01:59.020 We are, as you know, Candice,

00:02:00.560 the only national political party that is speaking,

00:02:03.620 you know, against mass immigration,

00:02:05.520 for mass deportation, on a very, very important issues

00:02:09.720 for the country, we are the only voice.

00:02:12.220 And actually, we had 840,000 people, Canadians,

00:02:16.120 who voted for us at the last election.

00:02:18.360 So for me, that's censorship.

00:02:21.120 They are censoring these people, and our voice is not there.

00:02:24.820 Actually, you're right, you know, I had a discussion

00:02:28.320 with the Leaders Debate Commission a couple of months ago,

00:02:31.560 and they called us because they said, you know,

00:02:34.060 that will be the same criteria.

00:02:36.200 Bernier had more than 4% of the vote at the last election,

00:02:40.560 so he will be in the national debates.

00:02:42.560 And by the way, we want to have an interview with Bernier,

00:02:45.860 and we are doing that, we, the Leaders Debate,

00:02:48.860 with every leader to know what would be the best format

00:02:52.360 for the Leaders Debate.

00:02:54.960 So I was very pleased with that.

00:02:56.720 But that was a huge surprise for us.

00:02:59.800 Last week, they came with a new rule.

00:03:02.260 And you're right, because they can use the polls,

00:03:05.560 and they are saying, you know, 28 days before the election,

00:03:09.020 they will do an average of polls across the country,

00:03:12.000 and if we don't have 4%,

00:03:13.700 we won't be able to participate in the national debates.

00:03:17.020 They did the same thing in 2021,

00:03:19.700 and they used, and we were at that time

00:03:21.760 about at 4.5% in the polls,

00:03:24.600 and they used, you know, a very,

00:03:27.720 a poll that was putting us at 1%,

00:03:30.420 our average went down to 3.2%,

00:03:32.880 and they said, you're not able to participate.

00:03:35.720 So they are using the same tricks to us

00:03:39.680 to be sure that we won't participate.

00:03:42.480 And that's why, you know, I'm saying Canadians,

00:03:45.020 if you believe in this democracy,

00:03:47.360 because that decision is undemocratic,

00:03:50.160 and it is unfair,

00:03:51.880 and we need to be there to have that debate

00:03:56.020 with other leaders.

00:03:57.220 So we have a petition on our website,

00:03:59.440 People's Party of Canada at CA,

00:04:01.140 they can sign our petition,

00:04:02.440 they can write to the leaders' debate,

00:04:04.440 and I will have a meeting this afternoon

00:04:07.220 with a lawyer in Toronto if we can, you know, do something.

00:04:10.880 But I looked at the legislation creating the leaders' debate,

00:04:15.420 and there's no appeal there,

00:04:17.120 so that would be very difficult for us to sue them

00:04:21.120 or do something under the law.

00:04:24.020 Well, as you might remember, back in 2019,

00:04:26.380 True North took the leaders' debate commission to court.

00:04:28.960 We demanded a stay,

00:04:31.420 and a federal judge actually intervened

00:04:33.620 and ruled on our behalf

00:04:34.880 and said that Andrew Lawton would be allowed

00:04:37.180 to report on that election

00:04:39.080 and get into the leaders' debate.

00:04:40.420 So, you know, we've had some luck suing them, Maxine.

00:04:43.020 You might have to do the same.

00:04:44.820 I want to ask you about immigration,

00:04:46.620 because that is one of the strongest issues

00:04:49.120 that you've been speaking about

00:04:50.720 since the inception of the People's Party.

00:04:53.780 Back in 2018, that was one of the things

00:04:55.520 that was the starkest difference

00:04:56.760 between you and the Conservatives.

00:04:58.880 I think the problem of unchecked mass immigration 1.00

00:05:02.480 without any kind of integration program

00:05:05.260 has just absolutely deteriorated the country,

00:05:08.820 and things have gotten so much worse since then,

00:05:12.020 to the point where poll numbers actually reflect the fact

00:05:14.180 that Canadians do want to curb our immigration program.

00:05:17.820 Even the Liberals have had to admit that.

00:05:20.220 What is your position now in 2025

00:05:22.680 when it comes to deportations

00:05:24.680 and Canada's immigration policy?

00:05:27.760 Yeah, what we said in 2019, you know,

00:05:30.660 we wanted at that time to have fewer immigrants, 1.00

00:05:32.860 a maximum of 150,000 a year,

00:05:35.960 with also being sure that we'll do an interview with them.

00:05:40.000 That was a very reasonable position at that time.

00:05:43.000 But some people were saying,

00:05:44.460 because of that position, that we were racist.

00:05:47.260 And actually, you know, that's not,

00:05:49.660 we don't do politics based on race.

00:05:52.320 We don't do identity politics.

00:05:54.120 We are doing politics based on conviction

00:05:56.160 and our strong vision for this country.

00:05:58.200 So now our position, because of that mass immigration, 1.00

00:06:01.400 because of the unvetted immigrants 1.00

00:06:03.440 that are foreigners that are coming here 1.00

00:06:05.740 and our open borders policy,

00:06:08.000 we need to have a moratorium on immigration.

00:06:10.340 That's our position.

00:06:11.660 And actually, that will help to solve the housing crisis.

00:06:15.360 Contrary to the conservatives and Pierre Poliev,

00:06:18.240 they don't want to tackle that.

00:06:19.900 They don't want to stop that mass immigration.

00:06:22.360 We need to do that, not only for the economy.

00:06:25.000 As you know, our standard of living is going down,

00:06:29.060 is going down because we, the economy is growing.

00:06:31.660 We have more and more people who are coming to our country, 0.98

00:06:35.400 but the growth of our economy is a little bit slower.

00:06:38.960 So the GDP per capita is lower and we are poor.

00:06:43.300 Our standard of living is going down.

00:06:45.000 So we need to change that.

00:06:46.700 And by the way, it's not only because of the economy,

00:06:50.360 it's because also our, you know, the unity of our country,

00:06:54.160 the social tissue of our country.

00:06:59.220 You know, these people are coming, you said it, you know,

00:07:01.860 they are not integrating into our society.

00:07:03.960 They are living in ghettos and we don't want that. 1.00

00:07:07.420 We want a person that will come here,

00:07:09.420 being able to have a job and being part of our society.

00:07:12.920 But that's why at the same time,

00:07:14.700 we need to end the multiculturalism act. 0.99

00:07:17.800 We need to repeal that act.

00:07:20.300 Nobody will speak about that.

00:07:22.140 And, you know, I like to call my ex-friend,

00:07:24.760 Pierre Poitier, pendering Pierre,

00:07:26.600 because he's pendering to every ethnic communities.

00:07:29.800 And for him, the most important is to have a direct flag

00:07:33.240 to Henry Tsar as soon as possible.

00:07:36.860 For us, it's not that.

00:07:38.140 We need to have that moratorium for a couple of years.

00:07:41.040 And after that, go back to a sustainable

00:07:43.300 and reasonable immigration policy.

00:07:45.360 If you look back at Canada's history, we've had exactly that.

00:07:48.820 We've had periods of huge influxes of immigrants,

00:07:51.660 followed by periods of very low acceptance and low admittance

00:07:55.320 into our country, times where people can just sort of intermix

00:07:58.520 and integrate and form a new kind of culture and society.

00:08:02.700 That hasn't happened in three decades.

00:08:05.040 What would you do about the people, Max, that are already here

00:08:09.160 that have not integrated?

00:08:10.660 People like we see the pro-Hamas protesters going around Canada.

00:08:15.500 We've seen all kinds of conflicts between Hindus and Sikhs

00:08:18.840 turning into violence sometimes, violence between Muslims and Jews.

00:08:23.240 What would you do about the problem of student visas that have been issued,

00:08:29.540 people who have come, who have no interest in appreciating

00:08:34.140 or integrating into Canadian society?

00:08:36.180 How do you fix that problem?

00:08:38.580 Yeah, I will do what I said to one of the students in PEI last summer

00:08:43.840 when I told that students, you know, after your permit,

00:08:46.800 if you're not leaving the country, you must be deported.

00:08:50.640 Actually, you know, we have a lot of illegals in our country.

00:08:54.640 And for me, and based on the law, an illegal, sorry,

00:09:00.840 is a person who came here like a student.

00:09:04.140 But after that, when you have your diploma, you go back to,

00:09:07.140 you must go back to your country of origin. 1.00

00:09:09.800 That was the case in the past.

00:09:11.240 We didn't have any problems with that.

00:09:13.140 But right now, it's not the case with these fake students

00:09:15.980 coming from India.

00:09:17.340 And yes, they have to go back.

00:09:18.840 We will need to deport them.

00:09:21.240 And my opponent, Pierre, said, oh, no, they must stay here.

00:09:26.000 I hope he will change position on that.

00:09:28.440 But that being said, same thing for the, you know, foreign,

00:09:33.140 temporary foreign workers.

00:09:34.940 After your work, you must be deported.

00:09:37.180 But at the same time, if you don't respect our law here in Canada,

00:09:42.040 why the federal government will give you permanent residency.

00:09:46.240 That's the position of the Trudeau government right now.

00:09:49.200 They want to give them a permanent residency.

00:09:52.040 When they don't respect our legislation, they want to give them a nice gift.

00:09:56.840 You know, you are supposed to go back to your country. 1.00

00:10:00.640 But because you're here, we're going to give you the permanent residency. 0.95

00:10:04.040 What is the message that we are sending to the world about that?

00:10:08.800 So our position is, yes, deportation.

00:10:11.200 And we know there's about 50,000 to half a million illegals in our country right now.

00:10:19.000 We don't know the exact number.

00:10:21.000 We don't know who they are.

00:10:22.400 We don't know where they are.

00:10:23.800 We need to put all our resources that we have to find them and deport them. 0.89

00:10:28.800 Actually, it will help us with our relationship with the U.S.

00:10:32.600 President Trump is asking that to us, control our borders, secure our borders, you know, control your immigration, deport the illegals, reinvest in your defense.

00:10:43.200 If we do all that, we won't have 25% tariffs.

00:10:46.600 It's but, you know, Trudeau won't speak about that or the liberals won't speak about that.

00:10:52.400 The only concern right now for the liberals and the conservatives, they agree with that, is to ask the tax, you know.

00:11:00.000 And Poliev wants an election on the tax.

00:11:04.800 But for me, the election must be a referendum, referendum on the immigration, ending that mass immigration and starting that mass deportation. 0.61

00:11:15.400 I think so many Canadians are on board with you with that issue.

00:11:19.400 You mentioned Poliev a few times, and I want to ask you, Max, because you left the Conservative Party of Canada, right?

00:11:25.000 You were an MP for many years under that party banner.

00:11:28.200 You were a cabinet minister in Stephen Harper's government.

00:11:31.000 And you left the party because of Andrew Scheer becoming leader.

00:11:36.000 You didn't think he was strong enough to beat Trudeau, which he wasn't.

00:11:39.600 Under Aaron O'Toole, the party swayed even further to the left and was basically running as a Liberal Party in the last election.

00:11:47.800 But now we have Pierre Poliev and Pierre Poliev is seen as representing sort of more of the conservative right flank of the party.

00:11:54.800 And so I'm wondering, does Pierre Poliev in that leadership role, does that change the equation at all for you?

00:12:02.800 Would you ever consider a day where you would go back towards that party?

00:12:06.800 No, absolutely not.

00:12:07.800 And when I resigned, you may remember I said this party, the Conservative Party of Canada, is morally and intellectually corrupt.

00:12:16.800 Why I said that?

00:12:17.800 I said that because they didn't have the courage to promote the conservative values.

00:12:22.800 They are doing politics following the polls.

00:12:25.800 And yes, right now, Poliev is doing the same.

00:12:28.800 Poliev doesn't do politics by conviction.

00:12:31.800 He's following the polls and the public opinions.

00:12:34.800 And for me, the public opinion has been manipulated by the leftist media and the leftist politicians.

00:12:41.800 So Poliev is a follower, is a follower of the public opinion, is not a leader.

00:12:47.800 We are leading.

00:12:48.800 We have a vision for this country and we are speaking about issues that may not be that popular today.

00:12:53.800 But knowing that is the right thing to do, like for immigration, for example, or the gender ideology. 0.90

00:12:59.800 I said before Trump in 2019 that we must tend that there's only two sexes. 1.00

00:13:04.800 At that time, Trump did nothing about that.

00:13:06.800 I'm very pleased that yesterday he decided to do something.

00:13:09.800 But that's the way we are doing politics.

00:13:11.800 So Poliev now is actually on immigration.

00:13:15.800 Trudeau is stronger on immigration.

00:13:17.800 He did admit that he made a big mistake and now he tried to control immigration.

00:13:21.800 So he has a more anti-immigration in brackets than Poliev on that.

00:13:28.800 And so that's why I'm saying to Canadians, I won't move with Poliev. 1.00

00:13:33.800 We cannot trust him.

00:13:34.800 But by the way, there's a good news for your viewers and Canadians.

00:13:38.800 Poliev will win the next election.

00:13:40.800 Look at the polls.

00:13:41.800 So there's no spitting the vote.

00:13:44.800 So now Canadians can vote for the People's Party, can vote in line with their values.

00:13:49.800 We will keep Poliev honest.

00:13:51.800 We will push him in the right direction.

00:13:53.800 We will be your insurance policy that Poliev will do what he said that he may do.

00:13:58.800 So we need a voice.

00:14:00.800 And the more the People's Party will have, the more stronger we will be, the more influential we will be.

00:14:07.800 So there's a win-win there.

00:14:09.800 And I'm very pleased to look at the polls.

00:14:11.800 And, you know, we want a lot of people are telling me, I don't vote for you, Bernie, because we want to get rid of Trudeau and the Liberals.

00:14:18.800 That's happening.

00:14:19.800 It's a question of time.

00:14:21.800 Like you said, we want an election as soon as possible, but they need that voice.

00:14:25.800 We need that voice in the leaders debate.

00:14:27.800 And Canadians need that voice in Parliament.

00:14:30.800 So there's no risk to vote for the PPC.

00:14:33.800 You are voting in line with your convictions, in line with your conscience when you're doing that.

00:14:38.800 And for us, we won't do any compromise with our ideas.

00:14:41.800 So answering your questions, no, never.

00:14:44.800 The decision that I took to create the PPC, the People's Party, was the best political decision in my political career.

00:14:53.800 Well, it's interesting because there's so many parties on the left, on the far left, and they all agree with each other on so many of the issues.

00:15:00.800 And typically it's the Conservative Party that is the outlier.

00:15:04.800 And it would be nice if there were more voices to represent Canadians who aren't part of that sort of left wing, woke socialist, I guess, plurality.

00:15:16.800 I don't know if they're the majority of the country.

00:15:18.800 I don't think so.

00:15:19.800 So it does make sense in a multi-party system.

00:15:22.800 I want to ask you about the PPC's electoral record because you used to win both quite handily when you were part of the Conservatives.

00:15:30.800 But in 2019, you lost, you had 38% of the vote back then.

00:15:34.800 Then in 2021, with a weaker Conservative leader, I would argue, you only got 18% there.

00:15:41.800 The PPC polls around 2% nationally right now.

00:15:45.800 So what would you consider to be a win in the next election?

00:15:49.800 What are your goals as party leader?

00:15:51.800 And is there any situation where you would decide to step down and no longer lead this party?

00:15:57.800 Yeah, about stepping down, as you may know, we are and I'm the only leader of a national political party that after every election, every election, there's a leadership review.

00:16:08.800 The last leadership review of my leadership was after the election in 2029, when we had 5% of the vote, you know, and the members of the party said at 96% that they want me to stay.

00:16:21.800 So what I'm telling every Canadian now, after the election, we will have a leadership review like I'm doing.

00:16:27.800 So I'm pretty confident.

00:16:28.800 But like I said, I like what I'm doing.

00:16:30.800 And, you know, it's a long term.

00:16:32.800 It's a revolution that we are looking for.

00:16:35.800 And you cannot do a revolution in one or two elections.

00:16:38.800 It took more than 15 years for the Green Party to have one candidate elected.

00:16:43.800 It won't take 15 years, but I'm there for the long run.

00:16:47.800 I will be there at this election and I can tell you if the members of the party voted for me after the election to stay the leader, I will be there for the 2029 election.

00:16:57.800 That would be another opportunity for the People's Party of Canada.

00:17:00.800 But look at the populist movement, not only in Canada, in Europe, in other countries.

00:17:05.800 Nigel Farage, Nigel, you know, he tried to be elected seven times.

00:17:10.800 And with 15 percent of the vote, he was able to have six MPs elected.

00:17:16.800 So because of our electoral system, that will take time.

00:17:19.800 And I know it.

00:17:20.800 And our supporters know it also.

00:17:22.800 They are there with us for the long run.

00:17:24.800 So about the score of the election.

00:17:26.800 Yes, the first election in 2019, we had 1.6 percent of the vote.

00:17:31.800 Every commentators, mainstream commentators were saying Bernie is dead.

00:17:36.800 The PPC is dead.

00:17:37.800 The second election, we had 5 percent.

00:17:39.800 Oh, they said they have 5 percent because of COVID.

00:17:42.800 This party will go down.

00:17:44.800 Actually, at the next election and this election, I strongly believe that it may be an election on immigration for the future of this country.

00:17:52.800 And so we are we have the solution for that for 5 percent.

00:17:57.800 I hope that we will grow a percentage of the vote.

00:18:00.800 And I want to be elected also.

00:18:02.800 I will have to decide the next couple of weeks where I will run, maybe in Manitoba or back in both.

00:18:09.800 I don't know.

00:18:10.800 I'm doing some consultation right now.

00:18:12.800 But it can be, you know, if we double our score from 5 to 10, you know, it's still be difficult to have a candidate elected.

00:18:20.800 It took 15 percent of the vote for Nigel to have people elected.

00:18:24.800 So and our people know that we want to grow the percentage of our vote to be more influential.

00:18:30.800 And I hope that at this election in 2025, I'll be elected or one of our candidates will be elected.

00:18:38.800 We'll see.

00:18:39.800 But the People's Party is there for the long term.

00:18:41.800 And our goal is to grow a percentage of the vote.

00:18:44.800 And we'll we'll see what will happen.

00:18:47.800 So when when do you expect to make the decision about what riding you will run in?

00:18:52.800 Early February, in a couple of weeks from now.

00:18:55.800 I did call people in Portage Lisgar.

00:18:58.800 As you know, I did run there in the by-election.

00:19:00.800 I had about, I think, 17 or 18 percent.

00:19:03.800 And in both, I have a lot of friends who told me, Maxime, you're a guy from both.

00:19:08.800 You must come back.

00:19:09.800 And so I said, we're going to look at it.

00:19:13.800 And yeah, the decision, I'll take the decision early February.

00:19:17.800 Okay.

00:19:18.800 You mentioned that yesterday Donald Trump signed a number of executive orders.

00:19:22.800 So many of them, Maxime, seem like they could have come right out of your PPC policy book there.

00:19:29.800 So we saw that he withdrew from the Paris Climate Accord.

00:19:32.800 He withdrew from the World Health Organization.

00:19:35.800 Like you mentioned, he got rid of the gender ideology guidelines and got rid of a bunch of the DEI initiatives.

00:19:43.800 So, you know, there are only two genders, male and female, officially the policy.

00:19:48.800 One thing that hasn't gotten a lot of reporting, but is hugely significant, is that he is going to reinstate any service member who is expelled from the military for refusing to take the COVID-19 jab and included full back pay.

00:20:05.800 So what do you make of Trump?

00:20:08.800 What do you make of these executive orders?

00:20:10.800 And how can we get some of these policies implemented in Canada?

00:20:13.800 Answering that question, vote People's Party of Canada.

00:20:17.800 And you'll have more chances to have these policies.

00:20:20.800 That being said about COVID-19.

00:20:22.800 Yeah, we said the same thing.

00:20:24.800 I said during the COVID hysteria, I was the only one there.

00:20:28.800 I was supposed to be crazy, but I was the only national leader there, out there, speaking with people, doing rallies.

00:20:35.800 And I said to all these civil servants who were, you know, not able to work anymore because they decided to not take that shot.

00:20:45.800 I said they must be back to their job and with full compensation.

00:20:50.800 And I'm very pleased that Trump is doing that.

00:20:53.800 That's the policy of the People's Party of Canada.

00:20:55.800 And yes, we want to have the discussion about COVID-19, what happened in our country.

00:21:00.800 We want to reopen that debate, having a full discussion about it, and being able to compensate all these civil servants who lost their job because of their health and personal decision.

00:21:12.800 So I'm very pleased with all that, because like you said, you know, Trump is putting his country first.

00:21:18.800 And what we want to do, we want to put Canada first.

00:21:21.800 But for us, it's not a slogan.

00:21:23.800 You know, Trump is against foreign wars and he wants peace in Ukraine.

00:21:28.800 I said that.

00:21:29.800 Poliev is, you know, he wants to give more money and more, more aid to Ukraine.

00:21:36.800 And that's like the conservative, like Harper, you know, the war in Afghanistan.

00:21:41.800 So we are for peace and prosperity like Trump.

00:21:44.800 Migration compact, we want to withdraw from that. 1.00

00:21:47.800 And we, but Poliev is okay with that.

00:21:50.800 So Trump is not a globalist.

00:21:52.800 Trump is putting his country first.

00:21:55.800 We are not globalists.

00:21:56.800 I said that in the debate in 2019.

00:21:59.800 And all our policies are there to put our country first.

00:22:02.800 Yes, the World Health Organization, we must not be part of that.

00:22:06.800 Foreign aid, we must cut that $10 billion and bring that money home.

00:22:10.800 So I'm very pleased with Trump.

00:22:13.800 And about the tariff and the economy.

00:22:16.800 Yeah, that's a challenge.

00:22:18.800 But we just have to let go of the cartel in supply management.

00:22:23.800 Putting more money in our defense and having that moratorium on immigration. 0.52

00:22:28.800 I'm pretty sure that Trump will be happy and we won't have these tariffs.

00:22:32.800 Well, I want to mention, just because you brought it up, you mentioned Harper and the war in Afghanistan.

00:22:38.800 But Maxime, you were the Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2007, 2008, which overlapped with Canada's time in Afghanistan.

00:22:45.800 So do you regret some of the decisions that you made at that time?

00:22:49.800 Do you go back and say that you no longer support that war?

00:22:52.800 Or what is your position on that?

00:22:54.800 No, that war was a mistake, but I was part of the government.

00:22:58.800 That was the main policy of the government.

00:23:00.800 Remember, we did that to save women and young girls.

00:23:03.800 That was a talking point.

00:23:05.800 And now, you know, the Taliban are back.

00:23:07.800 And yeah, I was the Foreign Affairs Minister for a couple of months.

00:23:11.800 And my job was to promote that.

00:23:14.800 But remember, when I was in Afghanistan, I said that the governor over there was not the right person at the right time for the right reason.

00:23:22.800 And, you know, Harper didn't like that. 0.99

00:23:25.800 But at the end, I was not that successful to be a Foreign Affairs Minister.

00:23:29.800 I was very, very good when I was industry minister.

00:23:33.800 I learned a lot doing that job.

00:23:35.800 But when I and so the war in Afghanistan was a mistake.

00:23:39.800 Right now, we can admit that the US was a big, a big mistake.

00:23:43.800 So I like the position that Jean Chrétien took about the war with the, you know, Iraq.

00:23:50.800 He said that, you know, we don't need to be there.

00:23:52.800 And he was strong.

00:23:53.800 And we are we can, as a country, be having a different policy, foreign foreign policies than the US and being friends.

00:24:01.800 So in I did the same with the war in Ukraine.

00:24:05.800 I said we must not participate in that.

00:24:08.800 So, yes, the war in Afghanistan was a mistake. 0.73

00:24:11.800 That was a big mistake from our government, the conservative government, but also the US government at that time.

00:24:18.800 One of the main things that Trump is saying now about Canada is that we don't live up to our NATO obligations of having 2% of our GDP being spent on the military.

00:24:28.800 What is your position on the size of Canada's military, the role and whether we should beef it up and start spending more?

00:24:36.800 Yeah, we must reinvest in our Canadian forces.

00:24:40.800 And our Canadian forces now is a woke organization.

00:24:44.800 You know, it need it needs to be based on meritocracy.

00:24:48.800 It's not the case anymore.

00:24:50.800 So before reinvesting in our Canadian forces, we must change the culture of the Canadian forces.

00:24:56.800 And I'm not proud of our Canadian forces right now.

00:24:59.800 So let's do that.

00:25:00.800 And we can do that.

00:25:02.800 You know, we have a huge deficit.

00:25:04.800 We can tackle that deficit in one year by cutting foreign aid, saving $10 billion, by cutting corporate welfare, saving $10 billion, by cutting subsidies to the mainstream media, all these subsidies about $2 billion.

00:25:19.800 So let's be serious about our budget, balancing our budget.

00:25:22.800 And after that, the year after, we'll be able to reinvest.

00:25:25.800 And yes, at least 2% of our GDP in our defense.

00:25:29.800 Wonderful.

00:25:30.800 Wonderful.

00:25:31.800 What would you advise or what would you be doing differently when it comes to Donald Trump, the supposed threat of incoming tariffs and just how to make of that relationship?

00:25:41.800 Because if you watch the Canadian media, especially the CBC, basically they're calling Danielle Smith a traitor, suggesting that it's appeasement or even even treason for her to be going down there and negotiating on behalf of Alberta.

00:25:56.800 What would you be doing differently or what would you say should be our approach to dealing with the Americans right now?

00:26:02.800 I'm one good person with Danielle Smith on that.

00:26:05.800 She's doing the right thing for province, but also for the country.

00:26:08.800 Don't forget all the income that the federal government is receiving from the oil and gas industry.

00:26:14.800 It's coming because of Alberta.

00:26:16.800 So being serious about that, she's doing a good job.

00:26:20.800 But actually what I don't like, all these other premiers and the prime minister, they want to be ready to have a trade war with the US, a commercial war with the US.

00:26:30.800 We won't win that.

00:26:32.800 We won't be able, it would hurt our country big, but it will hurt also the US.

00:26:37.800 We need to just sit down with President Trump and tell him your tariff is a tax for US consumers.

00:26:45.800 What do you want?

00:26:46.800 What do you want?

00:26:47.800 You want us to fix our border?

00:26:48.800 We'll do it.

00:26:49.800 You want us to reinvest in our forces?

00:26:51.800 We'll do it because it's good for us and it's good for you.

00:26:54.800 And I understand why he wants that.

00:26:57.800 You know, the last three years, the US were able to stop about 400 terror suspects at their borders and 80% of them were coming from Canada.

00:27:08.800 Last year, they stopped at their borders, 200,000 illegals who were crossing the border from Canada to the US.

00:27:16.800 We need to be serious about that.

00:27:18.800 We are not.

00:27:19.800 We are not.

00:27:20.800 But now the country is ready for a commercial war.

00:27:23.800 That's crazy.

00:27:24.800 That will hurt us and the US.

00:27:26.800 We need to go there and tell the truth and speak like Danielle Smith is doing right now.

00:27:31.800 Well, maybe you should be talking with Kevin O'Leary and getting yourself down to Mar-a-Lago there, Max, so you can have these conversations with the incoming administration because I think we need more voices like yours.

00:27:44.800 So you said that you think that the ballot box issue on this upcoming election will be immigration.

00:27:51.800 Pierre Polyev is trying to make it about carbon taxes and cost of living and I think the Liberals would happily have the election be about Donald Trump.

00:28:01.800 What do you think the biggest issues aside from those three facing Canadians are and what will the PPC do about it?

00:28:10.800 Immigration, yes, the economy and actually also the unity of our country.

00:28:16.800 What is it?

00:28:17.800 Nobody.

00:28:18.800 Okay, well, it looks like we have lost Maxime Bernier there, but we thank him and appreciate him and his time and we will wrap up the show at that.

00:28:30.800 So thank you so much, everyone, for joining and tuning into the Candace Malcolm show.

00:28:33.800 We'll be back again tomorrow.

00:28:35.800 Thank you and God bless.

Juno News - January 22, 2025

Maxime Bernier excluded from federal leaders’ debate

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