Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ The future of the People's Party of Canada after Trudeau's reign： A special discussion with Maxime Bernier

00:00:00.000 Oh, hello, my rebels. You know, I'd like to check in with Maxime Bernier.

00:00:03.800 Although I believe that Pierre Polyev and the conservatives are the only likely pragmatic

00:00:10.440 choice to defeat Trudeau, I have a soft spot for Bernier because he's a true believer.

00:00:17.740 But how does he fit in to a world where a lot of conservatives have decided to back

00:00:22.180 Polyev? I'm going to ask him that question. What is his role? How does he stay relevant?

00:00:26.700 And we're also going to talk about some of his battles. He's still fighting from the

00:00:31.720 COVID times. That and more up next. But first, can you do me a favor and go to the website

00:00:38.100 rebelnewsplus.com? And here's why it's a favor to me and why you might think it's worth doing

00:00:43.120 for you. For me, it's how Rebel News survives. We don't take any government money. We don't

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00:00:52.340 on your $8 a month for the video version of this podcast. And that's why you should get

00:00:57.920 it. Because it's a great podcast, if I may say so myself. We put a lot of effort into

00:01:02.500 the video side of things. But also, it is how we survive. And it is important in this country

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00:01:14.380 go to rebelnewsplus.com, click subscribe, $8 a month, and Bob's your uncle, as they say.

00:01:20.400 Here's today's show. Tonight, what's Maxime Bernier of the People's Party up to? We'll

00:01:31.260 find out with a feature interview, and he'll have a new argument about why people should

00:01:35.940 support him. It's September 2nd, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.

00:01:42.320 Shame on you, you censorious bug.

00:01:50.400 The other day, I was talking about the unanimity in our different political establishments 0.79

00:01:59.500 amongst the court system, in the political system. I remember the election debates in 2021 in the

00:02:08.860 federal election, and you had five party leaders who were indistinguishable on the issues of the

00:02:14.900 day. You might remember that in 2021, COVID and the brutal lockdowns and mandates and soon a no-fly

00:02:25.140 list for anyone unjabbed. These were the hot issues of the day. And yet, the only political party leader

00:02:30.740 that had a dissenting opinion was denied participation in the leaders' debates. I'm talking about Maxime

00:02:37.240 Bernier, the leader of the People's Party. It's important that our political system includes

00:02:43.980 dissidents. We know this. For example, our legal system has pros and cons, the prosecutor and the

00:02:49.980 defendant, the plaintiff and the defendant, not just one side. We know this from our political system.

00:02:55.880 The office of the leader of the opposition is specifically set aside for the country's

00:03:01.420 biggest complainer. He's called the loyal opposition, because although he's loyal to the

00:03:06.520 country, he expresses it through his opposition to the policies of the day. I think in the age of

00:03:12.320 cancel culture, what we do to anyone who is a dissident, we try and silence them completely.

00:03:19.200 And so it's a pleasure to catch up, as we do from time to time, with Maxime Bernier, who joins us now for

00:03:24.900 this special feature interview. Mr. Bernier or Maxime, I mean, we've known each other for a long time.

00:03:29.620 Great to see you again. Thanks for taking the time.

00:03:32.880 Thank you, Ezra. I'm very pleased to be with you today.

00:03:35.400 You know, I was just thinking back to that election debate where you would expect the

00:03:40.380 controversies of the day to be battled over back and forth. But the only leader who actually

00:03:47.020 dissented from the establishment narrative was you. And you weren't allowed in. You were kept out

00:03:53.100 by the debates commission, the same people who tried to keep out rebel news.

00:03:57.020 Why was that? Why do they not want you even to have a platform? I mean, journalists love

00:04:04.520 controversy, you would think. But why do they want to silence you rather than engage with you?

00:04:09.880 The liberals and the conservatives, the NDP and all these establishment political parties

00:04:15.460 didn't want another narrative. They didn't want somebody that will challenge everything that they

00:04:21.860 did during the COVID hysteria. And actually, I was supposed to be there because I was

00:04:28.100 be able to participate in the national debates at our first election as a new political party in 2019.

00:04:36.220 And for that election in 2021, the debate commission, you know, decided with the pressure

00:04:44.320 of these establishment political parties to create a new rule for the People's Party of Canada.

00:04:49.660 They said, you know, Bernie will need 4% of the vote. And we had the election before 1.6%.

00:04:57.920 So that was the reason why they didn't allow me to participate in these debates. And actually,

00:05:05.600 you're right. The narrative about COVID was the same. And everybody was saying, you know,

00:05:10.340 that vaccine is safe and effective. Everybody were OK with the huge deficit and the spending

00:05:16.420 to tell our people, stay at home, but we will give you money that we don't have. And by after that,

00:05:23.940 we all know that that created inflation. So I was not part of this debate. Yes. But the good news,

00:05:29.900 Ezra, is that the next general election in 2025, October 2025, we had 5% of the vote at the last

00:05:37.700 election. So I will be there. I will be able to participate. And I can tell you,

00:05:42.860 I would answer the question, but I will ask a lot of questions.

00:05:47.400 Well, that's great. I didn't know that. Now I'm worried they're going to change the rules on you

00:05:50.640 as they've done before. Well, listen, we were talking about something that happened three years

00:05:54.600 ago, the 2021 debate. But the reason we're inviting you on the show today is that there was another

00:05:59.940 institution that does not countenance dissent. And that's our justice system. Just a few days ago,

00:06:07.680 your court case where you were a plaintiff suing the federal government to challenge the

00:06:14.160 constitutionality of the no-fly list for unjabbed people, it was thrown out. You appealed and you

00:06:21.200 appealed all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada, which just said, no, we're not interested

00:06:26.120 in hearing the matter. It is moot. So even though you sued promptly in the middle of the no-fly zone,

00:06:34.740 your lawyers moved quickly, you put your arguments forward, you brought your witnesses,

00:06:39.140 you cross-examine theirs. When they dropped the no-fly list, the court said, oh, we don't have

00:06:45.200 to talk about it anymore. We can evade it. I think that's inappropriate. I think that our Supreme Court

00:06:50.840 has evaded dealing with this civil liberties bonfire. And I find it a very disappointing proof

00:06:57.340 that not just our political system that we just talked about, but our legal system is shut out to

00:07:03.100 anyone who dissents too. What's your take on having the door slammed in your face this week

00:07:09.260 by the Supreme Court?

00:07:11.600 It was a sad day for the democracy. It was a sad day for our constitution and our charter of rights.

00:07:19.100 But, you know, we started that early in 2022. When I'm saying we, me and Brian Petford,

00:07:26.440 the former premier of Newfoundland, and he's the only live person that was part of that

00:07:34.800 signature for the charter of rights, he participated in the redaction of our charter of rights.

00:07:41.680 So I was very pleased and encouraged to sue the federal government with Brian. So we did that early

00:07:49.020 in 2022. And we worked very hard with our lawyers because we had witnesses and we did what we must

00:07:58.520 do. And I believe that you must remember, Ezra, at that time, we had a couple of witnesses that were

00:08:05.220 saying, you know, all that travel ban mandate that they were telling Canadians, the federal government,

00:08:14.460 you don't have the right to travel if you don't have the vaccine. But we had proved that the doctor

00:08:21.400 working with the federal government and with Transport Canada said that all that was not based

00:08:28.580 on science. And we had these witnesses in our case saying that. But the problem is the federal government

00:08:36.400 try always to postpone and postpone and postpone that lawsuit. And in the middle of that, the government

00:08:43.820 decided to withdraw all the restrictions. But actually, the sad things that happened at the

00:08:50.980 first at the federal court, the judge didn't look at all the facts and the proof and the witnesses that

00:08:58.700 we have. The judge didn't take one minute to look at all our witness and our counter, our experts,

00:09:06.440 where they were saying the judge told us, you know, I didn't look at that because now, you know,

00:09:11.520 these restrictions are not enforced. So that's moot. And that's it. And we were very not happy with

00:09:19.680 that decision. We appealed that decision at the federal court of appeal. And the federal court of

00:09:26.720 appeal said, no, everything is OK. You know, the judge did the good thing, looking at saying that it was

00:09:35.780 moot. So they didn't want the federal court and the appeal court, federal appeal court, didn't want to

00:09:44.180 look at the case based on facts. And so we said, let's go to the Supreme Court. And we just had that

00:09:50.140 decision last week. And it's the same thing. So we have a charter of rights, but our court and it's a lot of

00:10:00.360 cases, not only our case, but a lot of cases, the court decided not to look at what happened to us

00:10:06.980 Canadians during that time by applying the charter of rights. They didn't they they find always excuses

00:10:14.740 to not look at that and not look at our case or other cases and not not give a decision based on our

00:10:23.300 charter of rights. They were saying, oh, it's mute or other fake arguments. So that's very discouraging.

00:10:30.240 The court was not there to protect our civil liberties. You're so right. I spoke with one of

00:10:35.320 the lawyers on the file the other day. And, you know, it's just so disappointing that the court

00:10:42.060 couldn't be bothered. The U.S. Supreme Court weighed in on these restrictions within months.

00:10:48.860 It was very quick. And our Supreme Court has not yet actually heard a case emanating from the

00:10:55.120 lockdowns. And I think that that's disgraceful. And I think that they have lost some of their

00:10:59.960 reputation. I was just making a little list who lost their reputation during the civil liberties

00:11:05.760 bonfire the last four years. The media, definitely politicians, the health authorities. I don't think

00:11:14.800 people trust health officers or pharmaceutical companies or even some doctors as much anymore.

00:11:21.920 And what you've described and what we've seen in other cases, I think the courts have burned up

00:11:28.280 their credibility. I think almost every single institution has less public trust today than it

00:11:33.960 did in 2020. What do you think of that?

00:11:36.480 You're absolutely right, Ezra. And I have another example of that. You know, I was a witness in a case,

00:11:42.680 in another case, for a rally that I did in Manitoba. And so we decided to appeal a decision because we

00:11:51.780 receive a ticket. And when I was a witness there, I was in that court. And I can tell you judges and

00:11:58.240 all these, the judge that was there, and they are woke. They are leftist. Before speaking, before giving my

00:12:08.320 testimony, they asked me, can you decline your name? I said, yes. My name is Maxime Bernier. Can you spell

00:12:16.940 your name? I said, yes. M-A-X-I-M-E-B-E-R-N-I-E-R. Can you decline your pronouns? I was so mad. I was,

00:12:27.320 that's the reality is, I was so mad. I said to the judge, look at me. I'm a man and I won't decline

00:12:34.860 any pronouns. That's, that's the court today all across the country. They're woke, they're leftist,

00:12:41.840 and they don't bother about our constitution. That's crazy. Oh my God. You know what? I would

00:12:48.880 have been tempted to say something a little bit more rude than you did, but good for you for

00:12:53.560 standing control. You know, um, a lot of the reverberations will continue in society, but the

00:12:59.640 court cases are coming to a close with the Supreme Court refusing to hear your case.

00:13:04.600 That's the end of that. There's a few more truckers that are finishing up. Tamara Leach 1.00

00:13:09.320 has, I think, one more day of hearings in her very long trial. The Coots truckers are, 1.00

00:13:16.100 have all been through their trial and now they're in their sentencing phase. And Arthur Pawlowski has

00:13:22.300 his appeal in Calgary in about two weeks, but each of those things feels like it's sort of coming to

00:13:29.660 an end. And I don't think that many of them are satisfactory ends, although I'm very hopeful for

00:13:35.040 Tamara Leach, but I think the country has moved on and there's other issues. And I think the number

00:13:40.460 one issue in Canada now, well, if you ask people, I think they would probably say cost of living,

00:13:45.120 cost of rent, cost of food, inflation. But if you just push one ounce harder and say, why?

00:13:52.860 I think a lot of people will say immigration, mass immigration, unvetted immigration, unqualified

00:13:58.120 immigration, in some ways, culturally inappropriate immigration. In many cases, fraudulent immigration.

00:14:04.500 I think people are stunned when they learn we have a million foreign students here. And most of them

00:14:10.300 are just in fake degrees. Three quarters of a million foreign workers. You were on the immigration 1.00

00:14:18.340 issue when it was very dangerous to say so. People would call you racist, even for talking about it.

00:14:24.420 What's changed? Why is it now slowly becoming respectable for people to say the things that

00:14:30.200 you've been saying for five years, 10 years?

00:14:31.880 You're right, Ezra. When we created the People's Party in Canada in 2018 and our first election in

00:14:39.680 2019, immigration was part of our platform. And I was saying, you know, we want to lower the number 1.00

00:14:46.400 of immigrants that are coming to Canada, fewer immigrants. And we were used to have that discussion

00:14:52.640 in Quebec because, as you know, Quebec wants to keep their culture. And, you know, in every

00:14:58.740 provincial election in Quebec, you have that discussion, your party will say, you know,

00:15:02.620 maximum of 50,000, another one, 20,000. But nobody will say, oh, you're racist because of that.

00:15:09.260 No, it's a question of a discussion about the level of immigration that you want. So the debate

00:15:15.860 is important all across the country. And we started that debate. And that was very, very difficult

00:15:21.100 because, yes, some people were saying that we were racist because we were raising that subject.

00:15:27.860 And at that time, it was a taboo subject. But when we created the PPC, I said, there's no taboo

00:15:33.740 subject for us. And, you know, I'm saying no to the political correctness. I'm speaking about the

00:15:40.740 facts and the truth and about the vision that we have for this country. And immigration was important

00:15:46.620 at that time. It is even more important today to have a discussion about that. But I'm pleased to say,

00:15:53.560 to be able to see the shape of the public opinion. And, you know, you have in the newspaper,

00:16:01.060 in the mainstream media, maybe every week, something about immigration, what is happening

00:16:06.920 in our country. So, but they won't speak about the People's Party. They won't say that we were the

00:16:12.900 first political party to fight and still the only one to fight to have, you know, a moratorium on

00:16:19.440 immigration. But I believe that because, you know, what is happening in Europe, what is happening also

00:16:26.240 in the UK and everything that you did, Ezra, with, you know, you were there and you are bringing that

00:16:32.400 to Canadians. In UK, it's like Canada, but there may be a little bit more in advance. They have

00:16:40.500 multiculturalism and they have open borders policy. We have the same thing here. And people

00:16:47.820 understand now what is happening, you know, all culture are not equal. And when you have people 1.00

00:16:54.700 coming from the third world, you are bringing that culture and Canada will become a third world 1.00

00:17:01.880 country. You know, we need to stop that. We need to have a discussion about that. And we will speak

00:17:09.500 about that again at the next general election. But because of and also the housing crisis that is

00:17:16.040 there, people realize right now that the real solution to solve the housing crisis is to have a

00:17:24.000 moratorium on immigration. We cannot build all the houses that we need just to be able to

00:17:31.880 insert the demand coming from immigration. You know, that was Poliev who said, Ezra, we built

00:17:39.700 about 240,000 homes last year, but we need to build 700,000 houses every year just to meet the demand.

00:17:51.960 We won't be able to do that. That's not the solution. That's not the real and immediate solution.

00:17:57.900 The real solution that is under the jurisdiction of the federal government is to have a moratorium on

00:18:03.880 immigration. And more people understand because that's having an impact on the, you know,

00:18:09.460 people are not able to buy a house first and also renting an apartment in the big cities in

00:18:15.980 Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. It's very expensive. Our standard of living is going down. We have more

00:18:21.980 people that are coming to the country, but, you know, the liberals are saying, oh, it's good for

00:18:26.460 the economy. It's always, it's always the argument. It's good for the economy. Yes, the GDP is growing,

00:18:32.900 Ezra, but we have more people. And so what is happening? The pie is bigger, but our piece of the

00:18:40.460 pie is smarter. The GDP per capita is smarter. We are poor as individual because of mass immigration. 1.00

00:18:48.600 And more people understand that now. Yeah. It's interesting. You mentioned the province of

00:18:55.760 Quebec. A few days ago, the premier of Quebec, Francois Legault, said that if the temporary

00:19:00.940 foreign workers left, there would be 300,000 fewer foreign people. And that would immediately 0.99

00:19:07.460 relieve pressure on housing.

00:19:09.880 So, only two years, we have passed from 300,000 immigrants temporaires to 600,000 immigrants

00:19:20.220 temporaires. So, we see a real explosion of the number of immigrants temporaires. It's not

00:19:27.720 anything. In two years, ajouter 300,000 immigrants, it makes a huge pressure on the public services, 1.00

00:19:38.540 whether it's education, health, or all the public services publics. It makes a huge pressure on the

00:19:46.780 logement. If you have a little calculation, 300,000 people in two years, it's more than 100,000

00:19:54.540 logements. We are not able to build 100,000 logements. If tomorrow morning, these 300,000 people

00:20:02.380 were not there. There would not be any crisis in the logement. I repeat that. And I know that it's

00:20:08.620 a shock when I say that, but it's factual.

00:20:10.620 I think he's right mathematically. To give him credit, Quebec leaders have always been a little

00:20:17.400 tougher on immigration than other leaders. I think he's normalizing an idea that until about

00:20:25.340 five minutes ago was not just taboo, you would be called racist, which is deporting people. I mean,

00:20:31.300 it's one thing for people to come over here, but when their visa expires or when they're found to be a

00:20:36.280 criminal or when they're found to be a bogus refugee, the idea of actually getting people to 0.91

00:20:41.100 go home, that is still so controversial. I've really never heard anyone in Canada talk about it,

00:20:47.480 but if we have a million foreign students and 750,000 temporary foreign workers, they're going to

00:20:54.040 have to go home. And I guess you could call that deporting or inviting people to self-deport or paying

00:20:59.700 them to get out. But I don't know if the Canadian political class has the stomach to do what has to be

00:21:04.900 done. I don't think so. I said it, and it's part of our platform. We need to deport the illegals. 1.00

00:21:13.120 And actually, when you have a student visa, usually, you know, after you study, when you have your

00:21:21.640 diploma, you go back to your home and there's no, you know, it's normal to do that. You came in Canada

00:21:29.140 to be able to study. And after that, you go back to your country. But all with these fake students 0.73

00:21:35.540 coming from India, sorry, but that's the reality. More of them, the majority of them are coming from 0.96

00:21:41.420 India. And, you know, that's a kind of a fraud because we tell them, you know, come in under the 1.00

00:21:47.980 student international visa. And after that, you'll be able to apply for a permanent residency.

00:21:53.440 But that's not the case. After your study, you have to go back. And I said it, we will need to

00:22:00.620 deport them. But now Trudeau and Poliev are looking to give them a permanent residency. You know, when

00:22:07.200 you cheat and when you don't respect our legislation, why the government will give them, you know, a gift

00:22:14.640 by giving them a permanent residency? No, you cheated. You suppose your permit has expired. You have to go

00:22:22.240 home. If you don't go home, we will need to deport you. And that's the basic logic. If you want to

00:22:30.760 respect ourselves as a country, we must speak about it and do it. But they're too afraid. Poliev and

00:22:37.940 Trudeau, they're too afraid to speak about that. They don't want their pandering to these ethnic 0.96

00:22:42.640 communities. They want vote. They want to have more support. They want to win the election. But when

00:22:48.560 they're doing that, they're not working for all Canadians.

00:22:53.080 You know, there's a lot of different categories of immigrant students. I can't believe there's a

00:22:58.580 million of them. That's more than the number of Canadian university students. But they're not real

00:23:02.000 universities. They're not at McGill or UBC. Some of them are. But most of them are sort of fake,

00:23:07.060 you know, acumen college. Like they're diploma mills is what they're sometimes called.

00:23:13.500 The foreign workers are, we're subsidizing McDonald's and Tim Hortons, which are billion 1.00

00:23:19.620 dollar companies. Why are we subsidizing them and making it hard for young Canadians to find jobs?

00:23:25.460 But there is a category called refugee. And these are people who don't claim to be students.

00:23:30.460 They don't claim to be workers. They're just saying life is really bad for me. I'm in danger back home.

00:23:37.080 So let me in for free. But I just saw the other day, the ranking of countries for asylum,

00:23:43.440 like refugee claims. Number one is India. Number two is Bangladesh. Number three is Nigeria.

00:23:51.480 And number four is Mexico. India is the world's largest democracy. I mean,

00:23:55.480 I wouldn't want to live there myself necessarily, but it's not particularly dangerous. I don't know

00:24:01.300 much about Bangladesh. Mexico is a vacation spot. I mean, again, they've got some drug cartels,

00:24:06.840 but I don't know why we're even pretending that these are refugees and none of them can come 0.59

00:24:12.980 directly to Canada. By the way, they always came through a second place first. I don't know. I just,

00:24:19.200 I feel like that's the worst because everyone knows they're, they're tricksters. Everyone knows

00:24:24.480 they're bogus. Everyone knows they're taking advantage of us. I think that really drives people

00:24:28.880 to hate refugees because people see they're fake. What do you think? Yeah. But actually, you know,

00:24:34.540 we have two new Roxham roads in Canada, the Montreal airport and the Toronto Pearson International

00:24:43.000 Airport. Right. So what is happening? Trudeau, two years ago, decided to change the rules for a person

00:24:51.200 living in India or another country to be able to come to Canada as a tourist, as a visitor. Usually,

00:24:58.340 you had to prove to the embassy over there that you have enough money to pay for your tickets. You have

00:25:05.660 enough money to spend in Canada during your time that you'll be there as a tourist and you have

00:25:11.800 enough money to go back. That was a very important criteria. And after that, the embassy over there will

00:25:19.520 give you a permit just to come to visit Canada. And after that, you go back to your country. But they

00:25:26.600 change that. They don't ask that anymore. So what is happening? They apply as tourists and they don't

00:25:33.560 ask them if they have enough money to stay in Canada. That's not part of the questionnaire anymore.

00:25:38.920 So they're coming in Montreal airport and Toronto person. And when they're there, they said, oh,

00:25:44.740 I'm not a tourist anymore. I'm a refugee. So that's why, you know, we have a new Roxham road,

00:25:51.460 Montreal airport and Toronto airport. And that's because of Trudeau. They changed the regulations.

00:25:57.960 They're not refugees. Absolutely. You're absolutely right, Ezra. You know, I was over in Ireland and 0.75

00:26:04.120 there's different kinds of refugees there. I mean, believe it or not, there's Ukrainian families.

00:26:10.360 Ireland has about 5 million people in it. They accepted 100,000 Ukrainians, which is a huge number.

00:26:16.060 That would be almost like a million in Canada. But I couldn't find any Irish people who said they

00:26:22.480 were really opposed to them. I'm just saying what I heard. And they said that they generally fit in.

00:26:28.140 They're generally law abiding. But I think more than that, people realize they really are coming

00:26:32.360 from a war zone. Now, you might say, why aren't the men back there fighting? But people would say,

00:26:38.260 yeah, you're from a war zone. Yeah, there's women and children here too. And you're sort of fitting in.

00:26:44.240 Like, I was in one small community where the Ukrainian kids were going to school with the Irish kids

00:26:48.480 and it seemed to work. But what the Irish, who were fine with the Ukrainians, and I don't think it was a race

00:26:53.340 thing, although there was a bit of an English, sort of a language and cultural fit, a little bit more.

00:26:59.460 What drove them crazy was when single, military-aged men from Somalia, from Afghanistan, 1.00

00:27:09.200 from one guy told me he was from Palestine, from Pakistan, single guys saying, I'm a refugee.

00:27:18.200 And there's like a hundred of these men coming over together. And they're coming into Ireland from

00:27:24.000 Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, if you recall. So everyone knows they're

00:27:28.140 not coming directly from a war zone. Everyone knows that they ripped up their ID. And everyone

00:27:34.280 feels taken advantage of in a way that they didn't with the Ukrainians. Not everyone loves the fact 0.99

00:27:38.920 there's a hundred thousand Ukrainians in Ireland, but at least they say, okay, their families from 1.00

00:27:42.980 a war zone. Every single person I met in Ireland said that the reason they oppose the refugees is

00:27:49.440 because they all know it's all a lie. And people are going along with the lie. Why are we going along

00:27:56.040 with the lie here in Canada? We must not. And we must help the real refugees. And I'm thinking

00:28:02.200 about, you know, the Christian in Muslim country, you know, we, we must, we must do that. But now all

00:28:10.120 these people are not refugees and we can, we cannot save the world. And we, you know, these politicians

00:28:17.080 who are permitting that, and they're not working for Canadians. It's morally, it's not moral to do that.

00:28:24.720 If you're a politician, your main job is to work for your people. Now they try to save the world and they

00:28:32.200 want to give a better chance to these fake refugees. When we are in the beginning of an economic crisis, 1.00

00:28:38.560 inflation is at the roof and, you know, our center of living is going down. We must focus and put

00:28:45.200 Canadians first. And they're not doing that.

00:28:47.820 I want to ask you a political question because you and I have known each other even before you were an MP

00:28:54.100 and you were in the Montreal Economic Institute. Then you were with the Harper government. Now you're the

00:28:59.120 leader of the People's Party. And, and I know you've had a libertarian freedom oriented point of view for

00:29:05.160 decades. Yeah. I've also known Pierre Polyev for decades too. In fact, we both sort of grew up in Calgary at the

00:29:12.780 same time. Believe it or not, when I ran for office very briefly, uh, he was my

00:29:17.560 communications director in my, in my by-election campaign about 20 years ago. It's a little

00:29:22.220 anecdote for you. And I know that he's, he's said and believed conservative things for a long time.

00:29:29.120 I think both of you have, um, before Pierre Polyev was the leader of the conservative party,

00:29:34.940 you had Andrew Scheer and Aaron O'Toole, both of whom had tremendous weaknesses, both ideologically

00:29:41.400 and politically. They didn't, they were not winners and they had no chance of winning. And I think people

00:29:48.020 were so appalled by how Aaron O'Toole rebuffed the truckers that I think you were there saying, look, I

00:29:56.920 believe in freedom. I've been in government, come to the People's Party, we're what the conservatives

00:30:02.840 should have been. But over the last year, especially Pierre Polyev seems to have consolidated

00:30:10.200 the right of center vote. He's at 40%, 43% in the polls. He's starting very gently to talk about

00:30:20.200 immigration. He talks a pretty good game on CBC, I'll tell you. And I think some people who before

00:30:26.560 were for PPC are saying, you know what, the PPC is better, it's more purist, it's more idealistic,

00:30:34.040 but Polyev has a real chance to win. And because of our first past the post system,

00:30:42.060 it's unlikely a PPC candidate could win. For example, there's a couple of by-elections coming

00:30:46.180 up very soon, one in Quebec, one in Manitoba. What would you say, like a lot of our, talk directly

00:30:52.400 to our viewers. Don't even talk to me now, Maxime. A lot of our Rebel News viewers have a deep

00:30:57.680 affection for you. They remember that you were the only one standing with them during the lockdowns,

00:31:02.780 during the pandemic. In fact, you were charged with a crime for it. So our people have an affectionate

00:31:07.960 love for you, but that's their heart. But their head also says, well, Polyev can win. Speak directly

00:31:15.660 to our viewers and tell them your case. It's all the argument about spitting the vote. Oh,

00:31:22.380 you know, Maxime, I like you. I like your ideas. I like your party. You were with us. But we need

00:31:28.740 to get rid of Trudeau and you won't be prime minister tomorrow. So I cannot vote for you.

00:31:33.520 That's the argument. And I must admit, Ezra, and people are telling me that in my face sometimes.

00:31:40.040 So, but the good news now, there's a good news. You just said it. Polyev will win. Trudeau won't

00:31:47.000 be able to win. Look at the poll. And he may have one of the biggest majority in the history of this

00:31:52.640 country. You know, Trudeau won't be able. Everything that he's doing, it's doing everything for Polyev

00:32:00.500 being able to beat him. So if you look at the polls and if you believe at the polls, you know,

00:32:06.080 now you can vote for your value. Now you can vote for what you believe. Now you can vote for what

00:32:11.840 you want. If you vote for what you want, you have a better chance to have what you want. So Polyev 0.76

00:32:20.120 will win. He will have a majority. But we need to be there. The PPC need to be there to keep Polyev 0.96

00:32:26.180 honest, to keep him in the right direction. And so, you know, you said it, Polyev is looking in the

00:32:33.100 center, center-right, center-left sometimes. And he'll do compromise to be able to have the support

00:32:39.100 of different ethnic communities. But he's taking the vote coming from the West for granted. And

00:32:45.180 actually, we are not. We are speaking about the real issue. You need our voice in Ottawa. I need your

00:32:52.620 vote, but you need our support in Ottawa. And voting for the PPC, it's a vote for you. It's a vote for the

00:33:00.020 country. And we will support Polyev when he'll be a conservative, for sure. But we will shame him

00:33:06.780 when he won't be. So look, people, you had Stephen Harper. I was with him in 2006. We had a minority

00:33:14.220 government. 2008, a minority government. 2011, a majority national government. So I said to myself at

00:33:22.900 that time, we'll be real conservative. What is the legacy of Stephen Harper after a majority?

00:33:29.060 Niet. He dismantled the wheat board. That's it. There's no legacy with Stephen Harper. He didn't

00:33:36.880 change the equalization formula. You know, he did the biggest deficit in the history of our country

00:33:43.760 at that time. Harper was a good manager of a big, fat, interventionist government. So if you want real

00:33:52.320 reform, you need to put your vote for what you want. And we will push Polyev in the right direction.

00:34:01.160 You know, it took seven times for Nigel in UK to be able to be elected. I'm not telling you that it

00:34:09.660 will take for me seven times, but that the next election, that will be my third one. And we'll see.

00:34:16.360 But we need to move the public opinion on our side. And the more people who speak about the PPC,

00:34:21.900 the more people will be able to convince. And Polyev is a follower, is following the public opinion.

00:34:29.160 And if we have a strong support from five to 10 percent, Polyev will look at that support as a

00:34:35.520 government and he will have to act a little bit. So that's why people need to vote in line with their

00:34:41.140 values if they want to have bold changes in this country. Very interesting. That's the first time

00:34:47.000 I've heard you make this particular case to keep Polyev's Conservatives honest. That's very

00:34:53.640 interesting. And I'm very glad I asked you that question. It's a kind of an insurance policy

00:35:00.740 for the Conservative voters that they will have a better Conservative government.

00:35:06.960 In a way, that's the mission of Rebel News. When there was a Conservative Premier in Alberta,

00:35:12.740 Jason Kenney, Conservative Premier in Ontario, we criticize in good faith from the right. In fact,

00:35:18.880 we were quite critical of Jason Kenney. So that's an interesting... I mean, of course,

00:35:23.060 we're not competitive with politicians, but what is our role when there's a powerful Conservative

00:35:27.460 to hold them honest? Maxine Bernier, it's great to catch up with you. Thanks for taking the time.

00:35:32.080 I'm sorry the Supreme Court denied you your day in court. I think that's atrocious. But it sounds

00:35:36.960 like you have no plans to stop fighting for freedom. So I appreciate you sharing with us

00:35:41.160 your messages today. Great to see you. Thank you, Ezra. Have a nice day. I sure will. There you

00:35:46.080 have it, Maxine Bernier, the leader of the People's Party of Canada. That's our show for today.

00:35:51.340 Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home,

00:35:55.320 good night and keep fighting for freedom.

00:36:02.080 Thank you.

00:36:09.080 Thank you.

00:36:11.080 Thank you.

00:36:13.080 Thank you.

Rebel News Podcast - September 03, 2024

EZRA LEVANT ｜ The future of the People's Party of Canada after Trudeau's reign： A special discussion with Maxime Bernier

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