Tell us: What would you ask People's Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier?
Yahoo Canada will be talking to Maxime Bernier and we want to know what questions you have for the leader of the People’s Party of Canada (PPC).
After losing Conservative Party leadership to Andrew Scheer last year, Bernier decided to leave the party to start his own.
“The Conservative Party tries to avoid important but controversial issues of concern to Conservatives and Canadians in general. It is afraid to articulate any coherent philosophy to support its positions,” Bernier wrote in a statement last year on the People’s Party website.
“The Conservative Party has abandoned conservatives. It does not represent them anymore. And it has nothing of substance to offer Canadians looking for a political alternative.”
The formal announcement came after the former Conservative MP published a series of tweets criticizing Trudeau’s “extreme multiculturalism.”
5/ Trudeau’s extreme multiculturalism and cult of diversity will divide us into little tribes that have less and less in common, apart from their dependence on government in Ottawa. These tribes become political clienteles to be bought with taxpayers $ and special privileges.
— Maxime Bernier (@MaximeBernier) August 13, 2018
In terms of a platform for the 2019 federal election, a core component released so far is related to maximizing freedom of expression for Canadians, including restricting the definition of hate speech in the Criminal Code, and ensuring that individuals can exercise their freedom of expression and are not discriminated against for doing so.
Just this week, the People’s Party Winnipeg board resigned due to concerns about “racist” supporters of the party.
“Racists, bigots, antisemites and conspiracy theorists have large presence in the public conversation surrounding the People’s Party of Canada,” the Elmwood-Transcona riding association wrote in a letter posted on their Facebook page. “Many of these PPC supporters would deny freedoms to Canadians and close our physical and economic borders.”
“Many more spread disinformation and distrust online via their personal, and sometimes official party channels. None of these are things we would have expected you to stand beside during the leadership campaign.”
The party’s approach to climate change significantly differs from the existing Liberal government. The People’s Party is proposing to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, an initiative Canada signed in 2015 with 194 other countries to limit the global average temperature rise to 1.5 C.
The PPC also wants to get rid of Trudeau’s carbon tax and remove subsidies for green technology.
With regards to health care, the People’s Party wants provincial and territorial governments to be “fully responsible for health care funding and management,” in an effort to deal with issues like wait times in hospitals.
The PPC has also released information on its proposed changes to regulations for firearms, stating that the legal use of guns is “part of Canadian tradition and culture.” The party wants to see a lifetime certification system for firearms owners implemented, which will still include safety training, testing and vetting of applicants.
Although polls in Canada have put the party around two to three per cent support at this point, Canadians will have to wait until election day to see how much of an impact Bernier’s new party really makes.
So what questions do you have for Bernier before you head to the polls? What answers are you still waiting for? Let us know in the comments!
