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Bernier makes a stop in Bradford to meet with supporters, candidates

People’s Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier stopped by Lions Park on Wednesday morning to meet with candidates and supporters as part of his election campaign tour

The People’s Party of Canada (PPC) leader Maxime Bernier was in town Wednesday morning at Lions Park, where he hosted a meet and greet with supporters and candidates, including York-Simcoe PPC candidate Michael Lotter. 

Bernier is touring Simcoe County this week, with stops planned in Orillia, Wasaga Beach, Barrie, and Midland. 

"Thanks for coming to our little slice of the world to bring the message of freedom to Canadians," Lotter told Bernier.

"Thank you for being here and helping us rebuild this country," Bernier told the group. 

The PPC claims to be the populist party “doing things differently.” The platform’s four principles are individual freedom, personal responsibility, respect, and fairness.

A hot topic for the 2021 election is the COVID-19 vaccine. Bernier said he is not for or against the COVID-19 vaccine and supports freedom of choice, but is not in favour of vaccine passports. 

"We are against vaccine passports, we believe everyone must have the choice if they want the vaccine or not. We believe in freedom of choice," he said. 

Bernier is also against lockdowns, calling them "illegal, immoral and unconstitutional," and promising to fight to keep them from happening again amid the fourth wave of COVID-19. 

Rather than lockdowns, he said Canadians need to learn to live with COVID-19. 

"We need to go back to normal as soon as possible," he said. "Right now our country is bankrupt because of COVID-19."

Bernier acknowledged the virus can be deadly, but mostly "for older people with co-morbidities."

He added, "We know that these people we must protect, and the provincial and federal government didn't do that."

Bernier talked about his recent arrest in Manitoba earlier this summer after hosting a political rally which was not permitted at the time due to COVID-19 gathering restrictions.

"That's Canada in 2021, that is what you call political repression," he said. 

He also criticized Trudeau's spending during the pandemic to help businesses. 

"They (business owners) didn't want any money for the government, they just wanted to be open and work for themselves," he said. 

He called it irresponsible to lower taxes with borrowed money and said that Canadians are paying for the country's deficits through inflation, which he called a "hidden tax" that causes purchasing power and the standard of living to go down.

"We need to be fiscally responsible," he said. 

Bernier said he would commit to getting rid of federal funding for mainstream media like the CBC, and for the United Nations (U.N), which he called 'dysfunctional,' since the majority of the 195 countries involved in the U.N. are not westernized. 

"We don't want to spend money over there," he said. "The other political parties are globalists, but we will work with Canadians, and be sure to keep our country sovereign and independent."

The PPC is running on the same platform introduced in 2019, except for the balancing of the budget, which has been extended from two years to four. Part of the platform calls for "sustainable immigration" - accepting fewer resettled refugees, and limiting the number of immigrants accepted under the family reunification program.

"We want fewer immigrants and the immigration policy must be in line with our economic needs," Bernier told the group gathered at Lions Park. "It's a privilege to be Canadians and we will welcome people that want to come here if they share our values and bring something to our economy."

Bernier said that Canadians are now living in a "socialist era", thanks in part to today's racial and identity politics, and criticized Justin Trudeau's financial support program for Black business owners during the pandemic.

"They are focusing on ethnicity, the colour of your skin, to give you some privileges. That's not the way for us. Everybody is equal before the law, we won't do a program like that, we will abolish it, and if we have a program for entrepreneurs it will be for all entrepreneurs," he said. 

Bernier called Erin O'Toole's Conservative Party "morally and intellectually corrupt", with a goal to be in power by following the Liberals' standpoint on hot button issues including vaccine passports, the carbon tax, and immigration. 

"They are doing politics based on polls and surveys. It's giving more credibility to that leftist narrative," he said, claiming, "Now we are the only real Conservative party, and they are only Conservative by name."

He warned, "We cannot take our freedom for granted. Our freedoms are under attack by the woke, by the activist, leftist journalists."

Bernier is looking forward to the potential opportunity to be part of the political party leader debate, Sept. 8 and 9. 

"That will be very interesting because now Canadians will be able to know us...A lot of Canadians don't know we exist," he said, telling the crowd, "I need your support, I need your vote...

"Canadians need a voice in Ottawa."

He acknowledged his party is small but growing. As of today, there are 250 approved PPC candidates registered in Canada, which is expected to reach over 300 by the weekend. 

"I believe we have more support than what we are seeing in the polls right now," Bernier said. "I may not be prime minister after the election, but we are going and this party is there and we will have that freedom voice in parliament and start that revolution."

Holland Landing couple Nikola and Pauline Koncurat were among the supporters who attended Wednesday's meet and greet.

"We are supporting our leader," said Nikola. 

"I believe in freedom and this is his approach (to politics)," added Pauline. 

Lotter was happy with the turnout for the Bradford event. 

"The support is there. We didn't have 1,000 people but we have enough people to keep spreading the word and that's what counts," he said. 

Lotter said he is feeling more confident this time around as the PPC candidate for York-Simcoe, compared to 2019.

"We have reasons why we have elections and that's because people are upset with what's going on," he said. "People want to be out, people are tired and want a change and that's what's going to force people to come out and vote."

To learn more about the PPC Party's platform visit their website here


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Natasha Philpott

About the Author: Natasha Philpott

Natasha is the Editor for BradfordToday and InnisfilToday. She graduated from the Media Studies program at The University of Guelph-Humber. She lives in Bradford with her husband, two boys and two cats.
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