Maxime Bernier is one of the most outspoken and controversial figures in Canadian politics. At a time when Canada s political landscape is shifting fast, with rising costs, global instability, and growing frustration with the establishment, Bernier still pushes a message that rejects both the Liberals and Conservatives.
00:09:43.820And he was looking for ideas for his electoral platform for the election of 2006.
00:09:51.040And we had a dinner, me and the president of the institute with Stephen Harper at that time.
00:09:57.020And I told him, you know, if you want to have some support in Quebec, you need to do two things.
00:10:03.260The first one is, you know, lower taxes to Quebecers.
00:10:07.540And if you do that, it will be good for every Canadian across the country because we are paying a lot of taxes here in Quebec with the provincial and federal taxes.
00:10:18.520And second, I said it's very important for you to respect the Constitution because in Quebec we have two national sports.
00:10:26.500First one, you know, hockey and the second one, referendum.
00:10:30.260If you don't want to have a referendum, if you don't want to have a referendum, you need to respect the Constitution.
00:10:37.600So he liked that. He delivered a speech in Quebec in October 2006.
00:10:43.000And at the same time, he did ask me to run.
00:10:46.820You know, that was not part of my priority.
00:10:49.820I did good money in the private sector.
00:11:44.380and they're still doing politics by polling and focus group
00:11:47.660instead of pushing the real conservative free market ideas.
00:11:52.700And so I didn't win the leadership with my electoral platform
00:11:58.100that was based on four principles, individual freedom,
00:12:02.500personal responsibility, respect, and fairness.
00:12:06.040And when I quit the conservative, we created the People's Party
00:12:10.760with the same kind of electoral platform that I had during the leadership contest.
00:12:15.460So for me, you know, that's why I was able to have an economic platform that was very credible because of my past in the private sector before as working in a bank and working in the financial sector.
00:12:33.940So, yes, you're right. I'm not a career politician.
00:12:37.280I was elected for 13 years and I didn't win my election as the leader of the People's Party in 2019.
00:12:45.460And I'm fighting to be back in Parliament.
00:12:48.560We'll see what will happen at the next general election.
00:12:53.160You know, we have, and it's interesting, we have some by-elections coming up.
00:12:56.820And, you know, we've done a couple of shows on by-elections.
00:12:59.140And it's interesting how, you know, given the Iran war and tariffs and everything going on,
00:13:05.700how these have been kind of put in the back burner.
00:13:35.240And actually, we have a candidate in every riding for these by-election.
00:13:42.140I was with them two weeks ago in Toronto and in Montreal, in Terrebonne.
00:13:47.780It would be very, very difficult for us to win in Toronto in these two ridings.
00:13:53.720As you know, that was two liberal ridings.
00:13:57.260I believe that Carney will be able to keep these ridings.
00:14:00.480The one that is the most interesting for us and for Canadians is the riding in Terrebonne near Montreal, because if the Liberals, you know, are able to win that riding, they will have a majority.
00:14:18.040And so they are fighting very hard to be able to win that riding.
00:14:21.840And for us, our candidates did very well in that riding at the last general election.
00:14:29.000We have the same candidate in Terrebonne. And so I hope that, you know, we'll be maybe second or something like that, third, maybe, you know, that there's an opportunity for us. It may be difficult to win. That's the big problem with the first past the post.
00:14:47.820You know, we don't have in Canada, as you know, proportionality in our electoral system.
00:14:54.820And so that would be easier for us to win a seat if we had that system like in Europe.
00:15:02.820But, you know, we're working hard to be ready for the next general election.
00:15:07.820And I believe that will be our chance to have a couple of seats and candidates elected when that general election will be called.
00:15:16.820In these by-elections, we are there, and our goal is to have visibility in the local newspaper and local radio station, and that's an opportunity for us to have more visibility because up to now, there's maybe, you know, 40% of the population who doesn't know that we exist as a political party.
00:15:41.660So we are taking these by-elections. For us, it's a nice opportunity to be out there, to door knock like I did, to meet Canadians and to answer your questions about the preoccupation of Canadians, you know, in Toronto or in Montreal in these three ridings. That was the same preoccupation. The economy, the economy, the economy.
00:16:03.760And so I believe that we are in a recession and it's very tough for young Canadians to have a job. The unemployment rate for youth is about 14 percent. With that mass immigration, it's difficult for Canadians to find a job.
00:16:23.080It's difficult also on our health care system, on our infrastructure.1.00
00:16:31.480And I can tell you that at the door, our ideas on having a moratorium on immigration
00:16:37.820and deporting these criminals who are committing crimes, that's very popular.
00:16:44.220And also, cutting the spending and balancing the budget to be able to cut tax to every Canadians,
00:16:51.120That was also very popular. So our platform, when we are able to speak with Canadians, is well received. So that's why that was important for us to be up there. And as you know, at the next election, that would be the same platform. And that's why I like to say, and that's the reality, we are doing politics differently because we don't change platform at every election.
00:17:18.780You know, what I said in 2019, when we created the party at our first election, it's the same thing today, the same platform with the same bold ideas.
00:17:29.400And, you know, the People's Party will be there when Canadians are ready.
00:17:35.860You know, we have the benefit, Max, of being armchair campaign managers.
00:17:40.820And so over the last couple of days, we were having a discussion about our discussion with you.
00:17:45.740And one of the things that came up consistently was that we see examples in other countries of where certain parties make a huge difference and many parties having a presence in the House or in their government makes a lot of change.
00:18:04.480You know, how is your focus going to take you to that place?
00:18:57.080So it's a little bit more difficult to have visibility in our country.
00:19:01.780The second challenge that we have, you know, podcasts, you said in the beginning that Poliev did two podcasts in the US. I must say that he didn't do that during the election, because he didn't want to have a discussion about his policies. And like you said, his goal is to have a discussion about, you know, everything else than his policies. And he did well.
00:19:25.360for me i believe that you know the goal for polyev in this podcast was to have a good coverage from
00:19:31.440the from the mainstream media and he added so yes he tried to change his image with canadians
00:19:39.280i don't think it would work it's all about ideas and that's the his platform is like the like the
00:19:45.360one like the liberal one on the immigration taxation deficit so but that being said for me
00:19:54.320uh doing some podcasts i did these podcasts during the last electoral campaign in the
00:20:00.800in the us and that helped us a lot to have more visibility but the challenge that we have is you
00:20:08.240know here in canada these conservative podcasts they receive advertising money from the conservative
00:20:16.400party of canada and they are not giving us any visibility so that's a little bit more harder
00:20:23.280and you know at every election we must be part of the national debates with other political parties
00:20:31.040and at every time they are finding a new they are coming the debate commissions that is on the board
00:20:38.480of that debate commissions is former conservative and liberal mps so they don't want us there and
00:20:45.200they are always coming with new rules to be sure that we won't participate in these national debates
00:20:50.960so the big challenge is our the visibility to have more visibility and second our electoral
00:20:57.920system like i said it's first past the post and so what we must do to be able to be successful
00:21:05.600i believe that we will need to have a candidate in every riding at the last election we didn't
00:21:11.920have that at the former election uh for the first time we have we had less than 300 candidates
00:21:19.280so this time uh will be ready we'll have a candidate in every writing so that means
00:21:25.200these candidates will be uh approved and select a couple of months maybe years before the election
00:21:32.640so they will have time to campaign in these in these writings first second uh for me we will
00:21:39.920choose a couple of writings where we did a good score to put a little bit more money there and to
00:21:46.640be able to be competitive in these ridings so i will have to choose a riding in canada and i will
00:21:57.680look at the best riding for myself and run in a riding that i will have more chances to win
00:22:03.920so we'll see and i believe that you know in three years or two years when we'll have an election
00:22:10.000economically it will not be so good uh we will have the same problems and usually when you know
00:22:17.600the economy is not good people will look maybe for an alternative and you know we are gaining
00:22:24.240credibility by saying the same thing and being true to our platform and telling the truth with
00:22:31.280uh based on facts and i believe you know that credibility will come and more people will
00:22:39.040recognize that you know we are doing politics differently and we are serious about these issues
00:22:45.520and so when everything is going on very you know it's very tough for everybody i believe that they
00:22:52.160may be uh more uh more focused to look at another options and will be there so yes but it's
00:23:00.640encouraging because that wind that is coming from europe will come to canada it's a question of time
00:23:07.120and that's why you know we just need i said to our candidates be focused speak about our platform
00:23:13.680educate canadians on our issues our time will come and we just need one or two candidates to
00:23:20.240be in parliament and at that time we'll have that visibility and we will be able to start
00:23:26.080that common sense revolution you know max yeah and i think that's uh very well said
00:23:34.000you know in in the history con is mentioning constitutional monarchies and then you know
00:23:39.120the fact that right now in the uk there's 11 parties with seats there's 18 in australia you
00:23:44.960look at those countries and you think to yourself it does have to come so it's inevitable it does
00:23:50.240make its way to canada and i think mike and i were talking before this show uh to your point when
00:23:56.560times are tough that's when more parties tend to enter our parliamentary system so i think you're
00:24:02.400bang on with that i think what's missing you know and we talk about it on every show like time and
00:24:08.080time again it's an integrated plan for canada and what's missing is you know how are resources tied
00:24:14.800to energy how are uh affordability of homes tied to resources and and energy how are they all
00:24:22.560interconnected and what are our actual integrated goals and you know australia i don't know if i
00:24:28.000just uh talked to a friend of mine from australia the other day and he's telling me about some of
00:24:32.160of the things they did and decisions they made a decade ago that are actually coming
00:24:36.540to bear and the fruits of the labor are happening now.
00:24:40.440I think that's the big thing that I'm always coming up with on these shows as we talked
00:24:48.120How do you, as your party, how do you see that and the integrated plan amongst themselves?
00:24:54.160And the thing I like about talking to you and I was so excited when you came aboard,
00:24:58.780I just did a show on the lithium, right, which, you know, lithium in Quebec is so, you know, you would know the resources in Quebec and becoming a resource economy with what's happening in the world right now.
00:25:11.880I think that is one of the reasons we're also going to see more parties enter the system in Canada.
00:25:18.100No, you're right. Canada must be a rich country.
00:25:22.640And we are not right now because we don't exploit our natural resources.
00:25:26.200And the link that I can do on that is, speaking about integration, you know, the equalization formula, that's the money that the federal government receives from rich provinces, and the federal government is giving that to poor provinces.
00:25:42.940You know, that's having an impact on the development on our natural resources.
00:25:47.940For example, here in Quebec, the Quebec government has a moratorium on the exploitation of shale gas.
00:25:56.940And there's a lot of shale gas here in Quebec. But why Quebec has that moratorium?
00:26:04.940It's because, you know, if they are listening first to the radical leftist environmentalist, but second, if they develop their natural resources like Shell gas, they will receive less money from the equalization formula, and they don't want that.
00:26:24.560Quebec received last year $13 billion. That's half the money in the equalization formula. The money that the federal government is giving under that formula, it's $26 billion. Quebec received half of that.
00:26:43.400So our platform is to cut that, to change that formula, to be less generous and cut that by at least half. So instead of 26, it would be 13. And that's the right incentive for provinces like Quebec, New Brunswick to develop their own natural resources.
00:27:04.760No, and they're not doing that. They will be in a position to do it. So there's a link between equalization and the development of natural resources. But we are the only party that is speaking about that.
00:27:18.940You know, the Conservatives are afraid to, they try to buy vote in Quebec by saying, and when I was with Harper, Harper changed the formula for the equalization money to be more generous to Quebec and New Brunswick to buy votes.
00:27:35.140And Polyev won't touch that. So that's important. You need to have a federal government that will respect provincial jurisdictions that will, you know, repeal all these legislations against, you know, the natural resources in Alberta and being sure that, you know, we'll have a fair equalization formula that will give a right incentive to Quebec and New Brunswick to develop their own natural resources.
00:28:02.280you know I think that the media will refer to your party as a fringe party once you get a seat
00:28:10.380perhaps you will they'll drop that I don't I don't see it though it's not how it goes
00:28:15.540but it seems to me that it's the moments like now where when you push in from the fringe you start
00:28:22.420to really represent voices of people that matter in constituents and in different ridings for
00:28:29.420For example, about industrialization of our own energy resources, getting back to business
00:28:37.720in Quebec and not worrying so much about equalization and putting it more down as a merit-based
00:38:46.760Yeah, it's it's very interesting that it's you've generated a lot of discussion here at TPL over the last couple of days because we're looking at how the rest of the world is handling it.
00:38:58.000And I have to hand it to Paul. He's like, look at this. Look what's going on in Australia. Look what's going on in England, in the UK, across the UK.
00:39:05.640There are these parties that, for example, if you had an ethnicity or an immigrant group, you could create a party that got a seat, that made a difference, that represented that group.
00:39:20.280And we're seeing that in different countries around the world.
00:39:24.560So, you know, you know, there's Canadians out there that think, OK, this could be the moment where we start to see new parties, which I personally feel we desperately need.
00:39:34.260Oh, of course. Of course. And the demographic changing demographics.
00:39:37.200And I think Max hit on it a couple of times.
00:39:40.080You know, the changing demographics and what might not have been the best immigration party policy has actually caused a number of things to happen.
00:39:48.960and that's one of the things that europe saw earlier than us of course being an older country
00:39:53.680much older countries yeah and and it's coming to bear so you know it the way people vote the
00:39:59.440way people vote in factions are changing now and i think our demographic change and also favor new
00:40:06.880parties i think so too and also i may add also younger people are not you know taking their news
00:40:13.920with the mainstream media radio station or tv station they're taking the news with you guys
00:40:20.960with people on on social media and so for us that's an opportunity like i said in the beginning
00:40:27.920we don't have any visibility with the mainstream media but i remember i had a discussion with
00:40:34.880jordan peterson a couple of years ago and i told him you know mr peterson it's very hard for us to
00:40:42.000have visibility in the mainstream media do you have any ideas what we can do and he looked at
00:40:47.440me and he said forget it you know be on social media be active do some videos be out there with
00:40:53.520your ideas you will grow your party will be able to grow and that's what we are doing and it's it's
00:41:00.400great because young people now are on social media tick tock instagram facebook x so we uh we are there
00:41:09.520also. And I believe that, you know, it's the influence of the mainstream media is not the same
00:41:16.720that it that it may be. If you compare that with 10 or 15 years ago, they are less and less
00:41:22.880influence and they are surviving because of the money coming from the federal government to them.
00:41:31.280Yeah, we are delighted that they didn't keep up with this media forum because we love to have
00:41:35.920discussions like this we love to have an open discussion that doesn't have a leading edge of
00:41:41.20010 questions i promise you this had your your history and your bio on it i don't think i looked
00:41:46.080at it once we'd rather have a discussion i think that non-traditional media is giving
00:41:51.040more opportunity for that i wonder if um i wonder if the other two major parties in our country will
00:41:57.360embrace it a little more they don't seem to but on that note if you if you wouldn't mind helping me
00:42:02.000out just for a second, a crew of us are headed off to the Liberal Convention in your neighborhood.
00:42:07.760So my thought was, if there was one question you could ask a Liberal supporter in this country,
00:42:12.800what would that question be? To Carney and the Liberals? Yeah. Yeah. But I will ask a question,
00:42:21.200you know, what are you doing for the sovereignty of our country? Because we are losing our
00:42:31.120sovereignty with mass immigration but also the constitutional crisis that is happening in our0.99
00:42:37.600country they don't speak about that nobody has a question about the constitutional crisis that is
00:42:42.400happening in alberta right now and in quebec in couple of months uh you know which policies carney
00:42:50.240must do to be able to uh preserve our country united and three and there's a chance that this
00:42:58.000country will disappear if alberta vote yes or if quebec vote yes i i don't know what would happen
00:43:05.520with our country so question about you know the future of canada the sovereignty of our country
00:43:11.760uh and the fight for keeping our country and being sure that alberta will be happy in here in canada
00:43:19.120as you know carney signed an agreement with uh premier smith uh nothing is happening there uh
00:43:27.200you know they were supposed to have more economic and and resources development and that's not
00:43:34.240happening and i believe that if they don't have any solution in the near future more people will
00:43:40.400vote on the yes side so that may be and the mainstream media are not asking questions like
00:43:45.520that they are taking for granted that the canada that we know will stay like that and won't change
00:43:51.840in the next couple of years but yes it may change for not the better if we are losing alberta or
00:43:58.480quebec maxime bernier it has been a pleasure chatting with you uh let's stay in touch between
00:44:06.080now and the next general election uh on just about any topic you want to talk about uh it's
00:44:11.680been delightful thanks so much thank you i was very yeah thank you i was very pleased thank you
00:44:16.480guys and yes let's stay in touch so big success for you and have a nice trip in montreal thanks
00:44:23.040so much see you soon bye-bye patriotic means looking up for each other and fixing things
00:44:36.080together true patriotism is being in the country you love surrounded by people you love and great
00:44:42.320weather being a patriot is being a part of your community and caring for it it doesn't matter who
00:44:46.480you are or where you're from patriotism is the one thing we all share it's okay to be critical
00:44:52.560of government and still be a patriot it's gratitude to your country of course i'm a patriot