PPC leader Maxime Bernier on federal politics & Alberta sovereignty.
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Summary
In this episode, I sit down with the leader of the Alberta Parti Quebecois, Jean-Francois Laclos, to talk about his party and his vision for the future of the country. We talk about the need for more autonomy for the provinces, the challenges facing the federal government, and why the PPC is the only party with a serious chance of winning the next election.
Transcript
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Thanks for coming in. I see you're all stampeded up this week.
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Yes, absolutely. You know, for me, I like to be here. You know, people, journalists from Toronto
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used to call me the Albertan from Quebec, and I'm very proud of that. I like to be here. We
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have the same kind of values and vision. Well, there is. I mean, that's something I've talked
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about in the past back when I was involved in independence movements. There's more in common
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with a lot of Quebecers than we might think in Alberta. I mean, we're clashing because of the
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battles over the federal system. But if we had our own provincial autonomy, I got a feeling
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we wouldn't be fighting with each other nearly as much. Absolutely. And for me, that's a good
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thing that you're asking for more autonomy. You're asking the federal government to respect
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our constitution, respect our charter of rights and freedom. And it's all about that, the PPC.
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You know, we created that party based on four principles, as you may know, individual freedom,
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personal responsibility, respect and fairness. And we are doing politics differently. And
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when I'm seeing that 32% of Albertans are ready to separate more than in Quebec. In Quebec,
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it's at 30%. There's a challenge here for establishment politicians, and they don't want to engage and
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they don't want to have a discussion. And for us, Western alienation is there. And we have a solution
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for that. And we're speaking about that solution, not only here in Alberta, but also outside Alberta.
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Well, outside of Alberta as well, that same poll, I think you're referencing also found that 21% of
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Ontarians felt they would be better outside of Confederation. Like what an indication that this
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country is broken when across the country, even the ostensibly the most powerful province in the
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country and citizens aren't feeling well in control of their affairs there either.
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Absolutely. And the solution to that is to stop to interfere in provincial jurisdiction, but also to be sure
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that this country will be freer and more prosperous. And the way to do that is to build pipelines. And we have the
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solution for that is to change the equalization formula to be less generous. But we are the only national
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political party that is saying that because all these establishment politicians, including Pierre
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Poliev, that is a career politician, he jumped into politics at 25 years old, he never had a real boss in his life.
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And so he cannot understand and he's doing politics based on polling and focus group. And it's not popular to speak for
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less equalization money and changing the formula in Eastern Canada. So they don't want to speak about that. But
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that's important, like you just said, for the prosperity of our country, but for the unity of our country.
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And you've been outspoken on other things. Something that was interesting, I just kind of reviewed your recent
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tweets and the United Nations and some of the, as we seem almost sometimes beholden to international
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interests when we can't seem to get our domestic affairs in order, but nobody speaks up about that.
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No, no, I'm the only one I said that at the debate in 2019, when I was on the stage, because as you know,
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at the last election, didn't want us to be there. But at the next one, I'll be there because the rule was
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for us to have 4% of the vote, we had 5%, more than the Green Party, only after three years. And so I'll be
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there and I will have the discussion. And I said at that time that the UN is a dysfunctional organization.
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Actually, we are giving to the UN every year, a billion dollars over there. What I'm saying we can
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save money because our goal is not for us not to be part of the UN. Yes, as a country, we will be part
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in the UN will participate, but at one condition, everything that they must do must be in line with
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our values. If it's not in line with our values, they won't have our money. So I believe that we can
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save a lot of money. Yeah, because I mean, they're not going to change their values anytime soon.
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So, I mean, you've been traveling across the country. The last time I had you on the show,
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you were on the East Coast at that time. So you're still organizing. I imagine, I mean,
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with the minority government, you're always preparing for the next election. How's that been going?
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Yeah, absolutely. You're right. You know, I did a road trip last May in Atlantic Canada,
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in the Maritimes, road trip, because as you know, I didn't have the right to travel across the country.
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Now I can travel by plane. So I'm doing that. I'm here. And in Atlantic Canada, actually, our goal was
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to build a party, being sure to be ready for the next election, because like you just said, we don't
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know. It can be this far. It can be in three years, in four years, but we will be ready. And I did some
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rallies over there also. I was in D.C. two days ago. I'm here for the weekend. I'll be back also.
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During summertime, for me, it's the best time to do rallies, barbecues, meeting our people,
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helping our riding association, our association across the country to raise money. And I'm very
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pleased because we have very strong and generous donors. We are able to work and build this party.
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step by step. And as you know, the platform of our party is always the same. I said the same thing
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in the election in 2019, same thing in the last election, and that would be the same platform.
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So that's why we are able to attract people. Our members and our people know, okay, what we are
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saying today, it will be the same thing tomorrow until we win that battle of ideas, until we win that
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common sense revolution. And I believe that it would happen.
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Well, and you know, it kind of segues into what I was speaking of earlier with a sensitive issue,
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but being able to just speak up and take them on. And that was something, for example,
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Mr. Polian was here a few days ago. We had a good conversation, but I asked about Tamir Leish,
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for example, and he kind of dodged off. We've got some people languishing in jail right now for taking
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part in protests. And our federal candidates don't want to touch that. Did you ask him about pipelines?
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On that interview? No, I don't think so. Yeah, because he doesn't have a solution.
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He's saying publicly that it's for pipelines, but Harper also was for pipeline. And actually,
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we don't have any pipelines right now. And the only way to have that is to use the constitution,
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section 9210. And like that, the federal government will have the full jurisdiction,
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and nobody will be able to stop. If Quebec is against the pipeline, they won't be able,
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because the federal government will have the jurisdiction and the responsibility to build
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pipelines. But Poliaev and all these establishment politicians won't say that because they don't want
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to unplace Quebec or BC. Did you ask a question about immigration? Because he's aligned with also
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the mass immigration. He won't do anything about that. Yeah, well, I'm just remembering the pipelines.
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Actually, we did talk briefly about it because I did ask, as I said, it's a dicey area because you
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want provincial autonomy and respect that. But at the same time, it's a national interest to get the
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pipeline to the coast. And Quebec is saying, well, we're not going to allow an upper pipeline across
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here. What would you do? And I think you spoke a lot along the lines of we would convince Quebec
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as to why the pipeline is a good thing. Yeah, but that's not the solution. The solution is to
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be, you know, upper try to convince Quebec and everybody. The Quebec government is listening to
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the radical environmentalists. And but the reality is they cannot stop a pipeline if we use the
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constitution. And it's easy. You pass a law. You said that pipeline energy is any pipeline is in the
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national interest of our country. And like that, the federal government would be able to do that. And
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actually, we did that more than 100 times in our history since Confederation. That's why we were
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able to build national infrastructure. So that's the solution. They don't want to speak about that.
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And I like Pierre Poliev. You know, he's a good speaker. But if you listen to his sound speech,
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it's a 20 minute sound speech with buzzword. And he did a lot of focus group to be sure to please you.
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So I believe that people are tired of establishment politicians. And Pierre is one of them. And when I
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said, you know, I was a conservative. And I said this party is morally and intellectually corrupt. I said that
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in 2018. And we have to prove now Pierre Poliev is the favor of the month. And in a couple of months
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from now, they're going to go to the left. Because as you know, to be in government, they need to have
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seats in the GTA. There's more seats in the GTA than in all Alberta. So he will go to the left before the
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election to try to please them. So he's doing politics based on survey and polling, not based on
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conviction. That's the big difference between myself and all these establishment politicians.
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And that's the frustration with regional conservative values or, you know,
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liberty values that they aren't shared. And mathematically, a party tends to be beholden
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to central Canada. I see one of the commenters, JB Alberta, said, you know, how do we get the strong
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conservative vote here in central Alberta then to move to the PPC? Because they are wedded to that
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conservative party. Yeah, what I'm telling them, you know, there's no such thing as splitting the vote.
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Pierre Poliev wants to split the liberal vote. That's his job to be in government.
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You know, you voted for the conservative and you had Trudeau two times. So vote for what you believe
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in, vote for your ideas. And, you know, if you want a change, vote for what you want and you'll have
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more chances to have that change, to have what you want. So that being said, if you vote for a PPC
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candidate, I don't believe that a liberal will be elected here in Alberta. So you won't split any vote.
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And that candidate will be insurance police for you, being sure that the conservative will stay
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conservative and will be in the right path. That's what I'm telling people, you know, a vote for
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a PPC candidate in Alberta is a vote for your values. And to be sure, you know, we can be the balance of
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power like the NDP and keep the conservative in the right direction because they will try to please
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everybody and they will go to the left like Harper did. And speaking about conservative, we were in
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government and I was part of that government. I want to ask people, what is the legacy of Stephen Harper? You had
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Stephen Harper for nine years as prime minister, nothing, no legacy. Oh, sorry about that. Maybe
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the whiteboard, dismantled the whiteboard. That was the legacy of Stephen Harper, nothing for the West.
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And, and they will, they are the conservative and polyev and polyev is the candidate of the establishment,
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is the candidates of Harper and the establishment of the conservative party of Canada. And, and they will,
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they will do like they always did policy, I think policies to please Ontario and Quebec. And that's
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why polyev is not able to tell you that he will use the constitution and impose a pipeline on Quebec
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and BC for, for, for the good of our country and the prosperity of our country and the unity of our
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country. And, you know, I'm from Quebec. I can tell you that Quebecers, if you explain them, if you
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explain to them that it's safer for the environment and for the, and for, and for the population to
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transport oil and gas by pipelines, then by trains or trucks, they understand that. And we have a lot of
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pipelines in Quebec, actually. All the gas that is going to the Trudeau airport in Montreal, coming from
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the port of Montreal, it's by pipelines under the city. So we know that pipelines are safe and we need to
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explain that. But these politicians are looking at the poll and they say, oh, can you, Quebecers are,
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Quebecers right now don't want a pipeline, so I won't speak about that. That's not leadership.
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They're, Quebecers right now, if you do a poll, they're against pipeline. Because for the last
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15 years, politicians in Quebec were speaking against pipeline. You just have to go a little bit
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further and explain that to the population. That's the way we are doing politics by conviction. And we
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think that we have the best idea for this country, and that's why we will win the argument and we
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will win the battle of ideas. So if you want a more autonomy in Alberta, I want to give you
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control of your immigration. I want to give you control of your police force. I want to give you,
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if you want a pension plan like Quebec, you must be able everything that Quebec has. It must be the
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same for Alberta and every province. That's a radical decentralization. And if you want to know
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more, people can go on our website, People's Party of Canada, and read the speech that delivered in 2019
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on radical decentralization. So I believe that there's a bright future for Alberta inside this country.
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If they vote for more autonomy at the provincial level, they must show to other Canadians that
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they're serious. They vote for autonomy at the provincial level. And we are the only political
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party at the national level that will do it. Yeah. So what's in your future for your tour in
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the next few days? Oh, you know, I will meet a lot of people here. I'm very pleased. If they want to
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know what I'm doing, they can go on the website peoplespartyofcanada.ca and look at the events.
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I'll do a barbecue tonight and breakfast also here in Calgary tomorrow morning, meeting our people,
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speaking about our values, promoting our vision, because I cannot come from the mainstream media to
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give us some coverage. That's why I want to thank you for that opportunity for me to speak to your
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viewers. I want to thank you for what you're doing as an independent media. You, True North,
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it's important. We need you. And, you know, speaking about the mainstream media, I had a discussion with
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Jordan Peterson and I asked Jordan, what can I do to be able to be more visible in the mainstream media
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too, because they can, they are canceling us. And Jordan told me, Maxime, forget the mainstream media,
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be on social media, speak to the alternative independent media. That's the future and you'll
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be successful. So I'm very pleased that I'm here with you today. Well, thanks. I appreciate you coming
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in and, and we are seeing more, I think people realizing that the legacy media is just sick to
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its core and, but alternatives are coming up. So there's hope things can look positive. Well,
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that's great. So you've got a barbecue and a breakfast and just maybe one more time, where's
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your website? So that, you know, viewers, we got a lot of help.
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People's part of Canada.ca, but also they can follow me on Twitter, Maxime Bernier on Twitter.
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And, you know, I tweeted the information on that and I'll do that also tomorrow morning.
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Excellent. Well, thanks for coming in to talk to us today and enjoy the rest of your visit in Alberta.
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Thank you for giving me that opportunity and have a nice day.