Maxime Bernier and his People's Party of Canada are staring to garner a lot of attention lately. And with the so called "purple wave" gaining momentum they're also coming under fire, which should not come as any real surprise. The party was officially registered by Elections Canada in January of 2019, and less than a year later they ran a nearly full slate of Candidates for the October 2019 federal election.
When they only polled 1.6% of the national vote in 2019 many dismissed the PPC as a fringe party that would quickly disappear. That hasn't happened, instead the PPC is now polling far ahead of the Green Party, with some publications suggesting they could take aim at the NDP's status for third place.
What has happened to breathe life into Maxime Bernier's nascent movenment in such an incredibly short period of time? The obvious answer is covid and the manner in which governments of all levels and affiliations have chosen to respond. Many people recognize the absurdity of mandates calling on a small retail outlet to close, while allowing major multi national chains to stay open. Lockdowns have been both contradictory and unfair.
Not everyone is so blind to situations like we've seen in Toronto, where a restaraunt on the south side of Steeles is forced to shut down, while 100 metres away on the north side of the street, the same type of buisness was allowed to stay open.
And now with all the legacy political parties supporting proof of vaccination systems, those who oppose having to disclose personal medical information have yet another reason to look at the People's Party.
And now the knives are out.....I'm going to address several of the attacks being hurled at Maxime Bernier, PPC candidates and supporters.
The PPC is racist!!!
I've seen this a number of times, both on social media and with mainstream government funded outlest. Right wing extremists, white nationalism.....these are the slurs being used. But are they true? Frankly I have a hard time substantiating any of these claims. If you look at the slate of PPC candidates running in this election you will see that it is fully representative of Canada's diverse population. I don't know specific numbers....I don't know the percentage of men versus women, or visible minorities....because frankly I don't care. What matters to me personaly isn't a person's sex, or the colour of their skin....what matters is where they stand on the issues.
What is most ironic is that this attempt to portray the PPC and it's supporters as racist, often it comes from Liberals, a party led by a man who has worn blackface so many times he can't put a number on it. Imagine if Bernier or O'Toole had been found to have paraded around like Al Jolson while associated as a facutly member of a school....they would have been roasted like Patrick Brown was over false allegations of sexual misconduct.
Now, is that to say there are no racists supporting the PPC? That would be stupid, there are racists in every party....not everyone is as overt as Justin Trudeau of course, but I have zero doubt that there are individuals who harbour racist views in every single party, including the NDP and Greens. I even know lifelong NDP supporters who bemoan that Singh is their leader. They're still voting NDP but they're doing it in spite of Jagmeet Singh being the leader of their party. That on its face is disgusting, but it is what it is.....
They're all anti-vaxxers!!!
This one is even more laughable. On the night of the English language debate, Maxime Bernier took part in a web based Pod Cast style interview along with a candidate who disclosed being fully (two shots) vaccinated against Covid-19.
Only a moron would call a party with vaccinated candidates "anti-vaxxers". What the PPC is in favour of is choice, the choice to decide whether or not to be vaccinated with these mRNA or Vector shots, and the choice of whether or not one wants to disclose that status, one way or the other.
They're Climate Change Deniers...
This is another false claim. Maxime Bernier is on record saying he believes in Climate Change. Where this false attack comes from is the fact that the PPC departs from the legacy parties in how to deal with it. Recognizing that Canada is responsible for just 1.6% of the planet's carbon emissions, it's hard to see for many people what Canada can really do to impact global climate change. Some think we can "signal" to the world how to respond, but at the end of the day Canada is farting into a hurricane when countries like China are firing up more and more coal plants to generate hydro for their exploding economy.
They'll split the vote!!!
This one resonates deeply with those Conservatives who are mortified at the prospect of Selfie Boy Al Jolson winning another election, even a minority mandate. Erin O'Toole has looked at the political landscape in this country and seeing 60% of voters being on the left....he's taken the Conservatives over to that side.
The Conservative Party of Canada has now moved so far left, with promises of a national Covid vaccination ID system, deficits for at leat the next 10 years, no discussion even allowed on issues that matter to Social Conservatives....its gone so far left that Canadian voters of a Liberal left wing mind set have four choices, five for those in Quebec.
On the left there's O'Toole, Trudeau, Singh, Greens and BQ, and on the right there's only the PPC. So the concern of vote splitting should only exist on the left, those on the right don't have anything to split from.....if you're a right leaning Conservative unahppy with the PPC, then you have four or five other Liberal choices to pick from. It's a great time to be a Liberal in Canada, so many choices.....for Conservative minded Canadians, there's only one party with candidates in almost every riding.
If you missed the PPC's debate night broadcast you can watch it here:
https://www.facebook.com/peoplespca/videos/3077510262573251
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