Bernier boasts hardline conservatism

By COLLIN GALLANT on July 13, 2019.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

Maxime Bernier is promising no retreat from his new party’s hardline stances on ending the equalization, slashing immigration, cutting taxes and pulling Canada out of the Paris Climate Accord.

And a crowd of about 40 supporters of the former federal Conservative Party leadership candidate loved every minute of his speech on Friday morning at the Medicine Hat Golf and Country Club.

“When people ask why are you here (in Medicine Hat), a real Conservative riding, it’s because we’re the real conservative party,” Bernier told the crowd. “Vote for your values this October and you will support a stronger conservative party in this country.”

The Quebec MP and leader of the People’s Party of Canada is touring Alberta this week. The party has now nominated 32 candidates in the province’s 34 ridings, this week to bolster the party that was formed in the fall of 2018.

Friday morning’s breakfast, speech and meet-and-greet was the first public event for the local constituency association, which president Stephen Bogner says was formed by generally non-political people out of general concern.

“Our politics is broken, in case you didn’t notice,” he told the crowd. “It’s important to do what we can.”

Bernier earned generous applause for vowing to use federal power to push through pipeline projects, abolish capital gains taxes, and “do nothing” at the federal level to address climate change. He would cut foreign aid, and shut down the CBC to help balance the budget in two years, he said.

Bernier also said his mission is to quell the emergence of a growing independence movement in Alberta by creating a more level playing field in the country.

He also called federal Conservative Party of Canada Leader Andrew Scheer “weak” and said Premier Jason Kenney’s promised referendum on equalization formula would have little effect.

“He can’t do anything at his (provincial) level, and I don’t know why he’s supporting Scheer when Scheer won’t talk about equalization,” he said.

Referring again and again to the party’s policy book, the 56-year-old former Harper-era cabinet minister and runner-up to Scheer in a CPC leaders race, said there are clear differences that will appeal to voters. The Conservatives, he said, are attempting to woo Liberal voters in order to form government.

Attendee Val Olson, who was runner-up for Medicine Hat’s provincial seat in the 2015 election as a Wildrose Party candidate, has been heavily promoting the party on social media and says she was drawn in due to disillusionment with traditional parties.

“I was a founding member of the party because I was starting to see ‘fake conservatism’ on a provincial level and the federal level,” said Olson. “Maxime’s spoken a lot about that … you’re seeing that with CPC and Liberal positions, there’s nothing differentiating them really.”

The potential of the new party to get elected is still unclear. It sits well back in national polls, though party officials say the establishment of the party at its onset is exceeding other political movements.

Locally, voters have given federal CPC candidates clear majorities, and, provincially, the United Conservatives made the spectre of vote splitting an underlying theme of their recent campaign.

PPC candidate Andrew Nelson is running in Medicine Hat-Cardston-Warner, and said early reaction to the party and his campaign has been positive and inquisitive.

“To be honest the biggest concern people have is with ‘splitting the vote,'” said Nelson. “We’re trying to show them that’s not an issue with us. Andrew Scheer really has moved the party to the left. Him and Trudeau will split that vote, but conservative voters are looking together together.”

Attendees to the event included, among others, local Yellow Vest protest speaker Jurgen Vollrath, several workers from the CPC campaign in 2017, and two recent city council candidates, Michael Klassen and Immanuel Moritz.

Moritz said he attended out of curiosity and attends any time a federal leader visits the city “whether it’s Trudeau or whoever.”

“It’s a made-in-Alberta platform,” said Moritz. “He’s talking about things that we’ve said. Will it resonate with everyone? I don’t think so, but it’s the conversation.”

Mike Heise, a retired teacher who lives in the Hat, said that he too worries about national unity if Alberta’s concerns are not addressed.

“I think we’ll be looking at a replay of what’s happened in Quebec (in the Alberta politics),” he said, noting that he joined the party that morning and plans to let his CPC membership lapse.

Bernier and Nelson concluded the day with an event in Cardston. The tour concludes in the Calgary area this weekend after previous stops in Grande Prairie, Fort McMurray, Red Deer and Edmonton.

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