Juno News - Maxime Bernier vows to grow PPC after surviving leadership review

00:00:00.000 You're tuned in to The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:00:07.760 Welcome back to The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:00:10.220 Well, we've talked about it at great length on this program,

00:00:13.060 the significant rise in People's Party of Canada support

00:00:16.460 from the 2019 election where the party got 1.62% of the vote

00:00:21.460 to this past election in September where they nearly tripled that,

00:00:25.940 coming up at 4.94% of the vote, more than double what the Green Party got.

00:00:32.060 Nevertheless, after two unsuccessful elections,

00:00:34.720 Maxime Bernier, the founding PPC leader, put himself through a leadership review

00:00:39.600 and the results came in this past weekend.

00:00:43.420 And of 57.5% of the PPC members who voted in the leadership review,

00:00:50.220 Maxime Bernier had the support of 95.6% of them.

00:00:53.940 The question was very simple.

00:00:55.660 Do you support Maxime Bernier remaining as leader of the People's Party of Canada?

00:01:00.280 So PPC leader Maxime Bernier has said he has a renewed mandate

00:01:03.740 and he's forging ahead into the next election whenever that may come.

00:01:07.480 And he joins us now.

00:01:08.700 Maxime, always a pleasure to talk to you.

00:01:10.360 Thanks for coming on today.

00:01:12.100 Thank you, Andrew.

00:01:12.820 I'm very pleased to be with you and very proud with that result.

00:01:17.500 I believe that we have a strong mandate to go on and push our ideas.

00:01:22.340 So why did you decide to have a leadership review?

00:01:26.000 Because, you know, after three years, yes, like you said, I fronted that party.

00:01:33.040 And after three years, I didn't win the last election.

00:01:35.900 I didn't win my own former riding in boats in 2019.

00:01:41.020 I didn't win my own riding in boats in 2021.

00:01:43.660 And I said, it must be the time to have a leadership review.

00:01:48.760 And I think yet to have a mandate to do what we need to do as a political party that is growing.

00:01:55.080 And we decided to do that with an independent firm based in Montreal.

00:02:01.740 The process started early November up to last Friday.

00:02:09.120 So very pleased, good result.

00:02:11.960 And now we're ready for the future.

00:02:15.060 Now, I know that when the leadership review was announced, there was a cutoff point.

00:02:19.860 No one who became a member after September 20th, the election, could vote in it.

00:02:25.660 Did that exclude people that may have previously left the party because they might have had some concerns over your leadership?

00:02:33.100 Well, you know, we decided we needed a date for that.

00:02:36.900 So we decided the election date would be a good date just to do the cutoff.

00:02:41.560 And we did it with that date.

00:02:43.040 No, when we said that publicly and on social media, we didn't have any members that called us or sent an email about, oh, you know, I didn't have time to renew my membership.

00:02:54.580 So, no, I think it was a fair process.

00:02:58.380 So moving ahead, you've got this mandate, 95.6% of those who said they supported you.

00:03:04.980 What do you believe is the benchmark for success moving forward?

00:03:08.840 Because I know you've talked about in the past how it took the Green Party 30 years to get to the point where they're at now, which a lot of those gains tend to have been rolled back in the last election.

00:03:19.640 But for you, looking ahead to the next election, where do you need to go to convince your members and your supporters that the PPC is still on the right track?

00:03:27.800 I believe that the next election, it will be important for us as a political party to have a seat and actually for me as a leader to have a seat.

00:03:37.000 And I can tell you that I don't know where I will run, but I believe that maybe it won't be in Quebec.

00:03:44.100 We will look at all the ridings and take the best one for me where I have the better chances to win that riding so it can be out west.

00:03:54.200 And my goal is to move in that riding that we will choose a couple of months before the election.

00:04:01.080 And so I wish I'll be able to be back in Parliament.

00:04:04.920 That would be an important goal for me personally.

00:04:07.300 And for the party, I believe that, you know, from 5%, 4.9%, like you said, you know, if we can go to 8%, that would be great also.

00:04:17.780 Step by step, we need to be there.

00:04:19.920 Actually, right now in the polls, we are around 10%.

00:04:23.620 So let's build that party.

00:04:26.040 And that's what we are doing right now.

00:04:28.320 Actually, Andrew, what we want to do, we want to re-approve or approve candidates as soon as possible early next year.

00:04:36.620 So we don't want to do like we did before the last general election.

00:04:42.160 We were rushing to approve our candidates at the last minute.

00:04:46.440 We will do that in the beginning of next year with an open and fair process.

00:04:51.400 And our candidates will be able to be active on social media to campaign in their riding.

00:04:56.740 That will help us to be ready for the next general election that can be in two years or three years.

00:05:02.020 What you just described of looking for a seat that might be a little bit more winnable than Bose,

00:05:08.480 we saw in the last election Derek Sloan decide to run in a seat that he thought was safe out west and did not particularly well there.

00:05:16.720 A lot of Albertans said they were very frustrated with someone trying to sort of jump into Alberta despite not being from there.

00:05:23.800 Are you concerned that would be your reception if you tried something like that?

00:05:27.000 But first, we must say that he was not a member of the party, didn't create a party.

00:05:33.500 People were voting for him as an independent.

00:05:36.260 And we are a real political party all across the country.

00:05:40.000 We have an organization all across the country.

00:05:43.040 So that's why I said also it must be important for me personally to move in that riding,

00:05:48.080 not just being there a week before the election like Derek did, but to be serious about that and to move there.

00:05:56.200 Actually, I had that discussion when I was in Florida with my wife, Catherine,

00:06:01.260 and she understands that as a leader, my goal would be to be elected.

00:06:05.980 So that's why I believe that moving there before the election, people will look at me as being a real candidate

00:06:15.140 and a real member of parliament if I'm elected for them in that riding.

00:06:20.400 You and I talked about this during the last election when I was out with you in Alberta,

00:06:25.020 and I saw, to your credit, a lot of huge support in places that aren't even traditional conservative strongholds like downtown Edmonton.

00:06:32.360 But one of the things that I've noted and a lot of people have seen throughout the last election

00:06:36.960 was that there was a lot of PPC support from people that might not have been historically conservative voters.

00:06:42.600 They may be non-voters.

00:06:44.000 They might have even been green or NDP voters,

00:06:46.040 but they were very against vaccine mandates and vaccine passports

00:06:49.740 and found the PPC to be the only party pushing for these things.

00:06:54.000 If in two or three years vaccine passports are not a thing, COVID is not a thing, we hope,

00:06:59.680 how do you recapture or maintain those supporters?

00:07:04.400 Yeah, absolutely.

00:07:05.240 I hope it won't be a subject of the next election in three years.

00:07:09.520 We are living in a kind of a totalitarian state here in Canada.

00:07:14.180 So, but you're right saying that all these people, because we were and we are still the only party

00:07:19.440 that is fighting for individual freedom and personal responsibility.

00:07:22.940 So, at the next general election, if it's not the main subject,

00:07:27.480 I believe that the economy will be the subject, like inflation.

00:07:31.300 You know, I spoke about it a long time ago, and inflation is a hidden tax.

00:07:35.800 It's hurting mostly the poor people in our country.

00:07:40.420 We need to fight inflation.

00:07:41.940 We have the solution for that.

00:07:43.500 I'm looking at the conservatives.

00:07:45.120 They're speaking about inflation right now, but the solution is to stop government spending,

00:07:51.040 and they're not credible on that.

00:07:52.840 The rational campaign, they had a plan not to balance the budget in 10 years,

00:07:58.800 so that wasn't serious, and they had a lot of spending.

00:08:02.300 We need to stop the spending.

00:08:03.980 We need to balance the budget.

00:08:05.460 We need to be serious about it, and we have a concrete plan

00:08:08.860 to bring back the economy in a way that it won't hurt Canadians.

00:08:15.740 So, we have a plan to fight inflation, and I believe that can be the subject.

00:08:21.160 If it's not inflation, it can be Western alienation.

00:08:24.620 You were there, Andrew, in Alberta, and you know that there's a lot of Albertans

00:08:28.560 and Western Canadians that are not happy with the Constitution.

00:08:31.840 They are not happy with climate change, with the equalization formula.

00:08:36.100 We are still the only political party that is speaking about that,

00:08:40.020 have a solution for the equalization that must be less generous and fair for every province.

00:08:45.320 Climate change, we're the only one that won't do anything about climate change.

00:08:49.080 We'll let that to provinces.

00:08:50.680 So, there's a lot of many subjects and policies,

00:08:54.640 and I don't know which one will be the subject of that election,

00:08:59.880 but we will be ready, and I believe that we'll be able to grow our support.

00:09:03.480 Let's talk a little bit about the numbers here,

00:09:06.640 because in the last election, the Green Party, as I mentioned earlier, had 2.3%,

00:09:10.640 but still was able to turn that into two seats because of the distribution,

00:09:14.880 whereas the PPC more than double that, but zero seats.

00:09:18.180 So, a lot of this in Canada comes down to where the support is

00:09:21.600 and how centralized or decentralized it is.

00:09:24.500 I know you and I spoke during the election,

00:09:26.740 and you said that the PPC might re-evaluate its position on electoral reform

00:09:31.780 and proportional representation after the election.

00:09:34.860 Have you had a chance to do that yet?

00:09:37.020 No, we didn't look at it right now,

00:09:39.260 but that must be something that we'll look at.

00:09:42.120 But actually, also, our goal for the next election

00:09:45.260 will be to have a candidate in every riding

00:09:47.500 to be able to increase our percentage of the vote.

00:09:50.260 We had only 312 candidates at the last general election,

00:09:57.680 so we'll need to have a full slate, and we'll have time to do that.

00:10:00.960 But also now, after two elections, the 2019 and the 2021,

00:10:06.840 we know where we are stronger.

00:10:09.240 And yes, it's in rural Alberta, rural Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.

00:10:13.740 So we will put more focus on these regions

00:10:17.680 to be able to have some candidates elected also.

00:10:21.180 So we, and we know that the electoral system won't change

00:10:25.140 before the next general election.

00:10:27.340 So we will do our best to be able to elect somebody

00:10:30.440 under the present system.

00:10:33.340 You saw, I know, in the last election,

00:10:35.920 and I think you told this story on the campaign trail,

00:10:38.220 that a whole bunch of reporters were there

00:10:40.180 when you kicked off your campaign.

00:10:41.540 They asked you questions for quite a while,

00:10:43.520 and then at the end of it, didn't really run any stories.

00:10:46.020 And it wasn't until the very end of the election

00:10:48.140 that a lot of media started talking about the PPC.

00:10:51.780 But again, at the same time, you look after the election,

00:10:54.980 the PPC has run twice, has not elected any candidates twice.

00:10:58.660 How do you remain relevant to people?

00:11:00.360 How do you get your message out

00:11:01.460 when you don't have any seats in the House of Commons?

00:11:04.200 Yeah, that's a challenge for us.

00:11:06.240 You know, we are more active on social media.

00:11:09.300 Now we have a bigger team.

00:11:10.600 You know, this party is there for a long term.

00:11:13.280 You know, we won't disappear.

00:11:15.400 We have a person in charge of our social media,

00:11:18.240 a director in charge of our social media now.

00:11:20.860 We have a director in charge of the organization

00:11:23.720 across the country.

00:11:25.160 We are building a team.

00:11:26.760 And as you know, we spent about $1.3 million

00:11:30.700 at the last general election.

00:11:33.000 And because we had 4.9% of the vote,

00:11:35.880 we'll be able to have half of these expenses reimbursed.

00:11:39.080 So we'll have about $600,000 in the bank

00:11:43.940 in a couple of months.

00:11:45.840 We don't, we didn't have,

00:11:47.180 and we don't have any deficit.

00:11:49.660 We didn't run any deficit in the past.

00:11:52.080 We'll have a surplus at the end of this year.

00:11:54.700 Our financial statement is ending.

00:11:57.600 Annual financial statement will be at the end of December.

00:12:00.200 And I can tell you we'll have a surplus there.

00:12:03.060 So we have, we are in a strong financial position.

00:12:05.920 We are building a new team at the head office

00:12:08.280 and also our organization across the country.

00:12:11.800 So the challenge,

00:12:13.020 and I'm a little bit more active on social media.

00:12:15.980 I'm doing more videos.

00:12:17.060 I think it's important.

00:12:18.320 But also I will test the mainstream national media.

00:12:23.000 I'll do a press conference for the end of this session

00:12:27.120 at mid-December and our position

00:12:30.300 and our vision of what happened in parliament

00:12:32.400 since they started that session.

00:12:35.960 So we'll see if they will cover us.

00:12:38.380 But that's a challenge, actually.

00:12:40.500 And my goal also is to be able to travel across the country.

00:12:43.860 As you know, I'm not double-vaxxed.

00:12:47.980 And, you know, actually I had COVID, actually.

00:12:51.220 And so I think I have very good antibodies.

00:12:55.800 But I'm not able to travel by plane or by train

00:12:59.760 across the country.

00:13:00.640 That can be difficult for me.

00:13:02.640 But we'll look what we can do.

00:13:04.460 So my goal is to be on the ground,

00:13:06.600 active on social media.

00:13:08.580 And also I'm doing,

00:13:09.860 I will do some press conference,

00:13:11.620 not one or two every session,

00:13:13.440 we'll see if the mainstream media

00:13:15.340 will be there to cover us.

00:13:17.240 They must be because we are at 10% right now

00:13:20.600 in the polls and the Green Party is around 2-3%.

00:13:23.440 So, and the Green Party is,

00:13:26.080 they're going bankrupt.

00:13:27.800 And we have money in the bank

00:13:29.560 and we're ready to go and grow this party

00:13:33.020 at the next step.

00:13:34.180 And that would be my challenge for the next two years.

00:13:37.880 Yeah, and one interesting dilemma here,

00:13:40.660 and I don't know if they're going to change the rules,

00:13:42.300 but if they keep the same rules

00:13:44.120 the Leaders Debates Commission had in the last election,

00:13:47.240 you would be on the debate stage next time,

00:13:49.480 as I understand it,

00:13:50.160 because the party received 4% of the votes nationally

00:13:52.840 in the previous election.

00:13:54.720 Absolutely, absolutely.

00:13:56.200 And I, you know, I don't expect that they,

00:13:58.360 I don't think that they will change the rules.

00:14:01.120 That would be unfair.

00:14:02.740 So, and I'll be there, I'll be on the stage,

00:14:05.320 and that would be interesting.

00:14:07.100 I'm looking forward for that,

00:14:08.480 because that would be a real debate.

00:14:10.420 We are right now the only real opposition in Ottawa.

00:14:15.100 Look what happened last week

00:14:16.520 with the conversion therapy.

00:14:20.600 The Conservatives, the Liberals,

00:14:22.120 everybody unanimously,

00:14:23.660 they voted for that deal,

00:14:25.260 and we have a different position on that.

00:14:27.200 So, I believe that that debate,

00:14:30.160 when it will happen,

00:14:31.260 will be very interesting,

00:14:32.580 because on climate change,

00:14:33.920 on equalization,

00:14:35.420 on conversion therapy,

00:14:36.980 on inflation,

00:14:38.320 you can name it,

00:14:39.520 we'll have a different position,

00:14:41.260 and Canadians will be able to listen,

00:14:43.940 to have an opportunity to see me debating,

00:14:47.840 but also I will have an opportunity

00:14:49.680 to reach more people

00:14:51.160 that are not maybe on social media.

00:14:53.420 So, I believe the next election

00:14:55.300 would be another important step

00:14:57.080 for the growth of our party.

00:14:59.380 Just one last question, Maxime.

00:15:01.200 I know you have been tweeting about it.

00:15:03.420 You decided to take a few weeks away

00:15:05.660 with your lovely wife in Florida,

00:15:07.820 and I know you just came back,

00:15:09.100 I think, about a week ago.

00:15:10.600 Do you miss Florida yet?

00:15:12.640 Yes, I did for the freedom,

00:15:15.020 because, you know,

00:15:16.260 we are not able to go to a cinema,

00:15:18.760 we are not able to go to a restaurant,

00:15:20.460 we are not able to participate in civil society.

00:15:23.780 I can tell you,

00:15:24.560 when I was in Florida,

00:15:25.960 we enjoyed that,

00:15:27.180 and with friends,

00:15:28.220 so that was fun over there.

00:15:29.860 Now, like I said,

00:15:31.180 I'm going back in a kind of a jail,

00:15:33.400 and actually, for me,

00:15:34.740 as a leader of a party,

00:15:35.980 my goal is to build this party

00:15:37.840 across this country,

00:15:40.940 and if I'm not able to travel,

00:15:42.580 that would be a big challenge for me.

00:15:45.740 And I'm still, you know,

00:15:47.920 I'm back,

00:15:48.540 and it's like we are in the election campaign

00:15:51.040 when I did rallies against lockdown

00:15:53.020 and mandates,

00:15:54.920 and I believe that I'll have to go back

00:15:57.440 and I'll be on the street

00:15:59.300 with our people to fight that

00:16:01.260 and try to preserve the freedom

00:16:04.520 that we must have in this country

00:16:06.620 as a democratic country

00:16:08.040 that we don't have right now.

00:16:10.280 People's Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier

00:16:12.680 is staying on as leader

00:16:13.980 after receiving 95.6% of the vote

00:16:16.840 in the Leadership Review,

00:16:18.500 which just wrapped up on the weekend.

00:16:20.140 Maxime, thanks so much.

00:16:21.100 Merry Christmas to you and Catherine.

00:16:22.860 Thank you.

00:16:23.400 Thank you, Andrew.

00:16:24.000 Have a nice day.

00:16:24.760 Bye.

00:16:25.360 Thanks for listening to The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:16:27.380 Support the program by donating to True North

00:16:29.680 at www.tnc.news.

Juno News - December 07, 2021

Maxime Bernier vows to grow PPC after surviving leadership review

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