*This election is very important, if Maxime Bernier gets elected and holds a PPC seat this will be a great game changer for the PPC and Canada!*
Statement - Maxime Bernier Candidacy Announcement in Portage—Lisgar
Press conference, Portage la Prairie, MB, May 12, 2023
Good morning, everyone. Thank you for coming. Merci à tous d’être ici aujourd’hui pour cette importante annonce.
I have some big news to share with you. But first, I want to speak a
little about what’s happening in our country. What I’m about to announce
will make better sense if I give you the context.
Today, our country is at its lowest point in living memory. I say
with the confidence of experience that we no longer have the country I
grew up in. Canada has changed dramatically and for the worse.
For years, we’ve gotten less and less for our dollar, and what we get
is not the same quality as before. Inflation is eating away at our
standard of living. Government and household debt has skyrocketed. Our
healthcare system is hopelessly broken.
But even worse than the state of our economy is the state of our
culture. We are living in highly immoral times. Everywhere you look, you
see examples of moral and cultural degeneracy.
Radical cultural Marxists have seized control of our educational
system, the mainstream media, and governments. They push a program of
anti-life, anti-family, and anti-Canadian values. Gender ideology and
the trans movement are promoting confusion and the mutilation of
children.
It is useless to debate with these extremists. There is no common
ground. They seek only one objective—to destroy Canadian society as we
know it and upend the traditional structures of life which have
underpinned our civilization. Their insanity is undermining our
traditions, our history, and our nation.
The Woke Cult is demolishing the traditional pillars of our society
and aims to establish a twisted and profoundly sick vision of the
future. They are moving at a rapid pace. Do you remember ten years ago?
There was no drag queen story hour where children were indoctrinated
into the cult of transgenderism. Ten years ago, it would have been
unthinkable to indoctrinate seven and eight-year-olds and force
sexuality upon them. Now you can go to jail for opposing the transition
of your child!
We are living in a completely different society, one overtaken by
evil. And do you want to know the worst part? As these perverted ideas
are being pushed everywhere in Canada—there is not a SINGLE MP FIGHTING
AGAINST THIS IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.
Let that sink in.
We are losing our society because few people are fighting for it. The
elites are totally on board with this radical transformation of our
society. And those who reject it are silenced and smeared as intolerant,
racist and transphobic.
And you might ask the question, “Maxime, what about the Conservative Party of Canada?”
The so-called Conservative Party has conserved NOTHING since its
inception in 2003 after the merging of the Canadian Alliance and the
Progressive Conservative Party. As I said when I left that party in
2018, they are morally and intellectually corrupt.
Whether it's gender ideology, mass immigration, climate hysteria, the
cult of diversity, or abortion, the CPC has refused to fight the
necessary cultural battles. They are too scared of negative coverage
from the mainstream media and being called bigots. They have sat on
their hands as the Radical Left has taken over our society.
What is the Conservative Party doing today? Some of their most
prominent MPs, including their Deputy Leader, promote the so-called
“Transgender Day of Visibility.” The men in that party walk around in
pink high heels and prostrate themselves before radical leftists. They
are not coming to the rescue. They will not stop the sexualization of
our children. They will not stop cultural Marxists from rewriting our
history. The Conservatives won’t save us. They have given up.
I am ready to fight. The PPC is ready to fight. I left the
Conservative party for a reason. I know that if we do not fight for our
values and culture, we will lose everything.
That is why I am proud to announce that I am putting my name forward
in the upcoming by-election to be YOUR representative, you the people of
Portage-Lisgar, in the House of Commons. Because families deserve a
strong voice!
This riding has a strong tradition of electing conservative-minded
members of Parliament. It elected a Reform Party member in the 1990s.
And I am the right person, as leader of the People’s Party of Canada, to
represent its voters today.
Today’s fake Conservative Party have no real arguments as to why you
should vote for them instead of the PPC. They can’t compete with our
policies and principles. All they can do is attempt to smear us and
scare Canadians into voting for them.
Their tired argument that we “split the vote” makes no sense. The PPC
and the CPC have very different policies and principles. It’s not us
who are splitting the conservative vote; on the contrary, it’s the
Conservatives who keep moving to the left to split the Liberal vote!
This “split the vote” argument is even less valid in the current
situation. No matter the result of this by-election, the CPC will not
form the government. We will still be stuck with Justin Trudeau. This is
not an opportunity to get Trudeau out, but IT IS an opportunity to get a
new voice in.
The Liberals and NDP are not competitive here. There is no concern
about a radical leftist winning. This is a two-horse race between the
People’s Party and the Conservative Party.
This by-election is about giving a voice to the people of
Portage—Lisgar: it’s about YOUR values and who YOU want to represent you
in Ottawa.
Do you want a strong voice for your families or another fake
Conservative who will say one thing when he’s here in Manitoba but stay
silent when he returns to Ottawa? Do you want a Member of Parliament who
respects and will fight for family values or another so-called
Conservative who takes your vote for granted?
Send me to Ottawa, and I will speak out against the anti-family policies pushed by the Ottawa elite.
I’m sure some of you are wondering, “What is this Quebecer doing running in Southern Manitoba? How can he represent us?”
Over the past few years since I founded the PPC, I’ve been lucky
enough to make many stops across Portage—Lisgar, even more so in recent
weeks and months as I’ve prepared for this by-election.
When I visit Winkler, Morden, Portage, and many other communities in
this riding, I am reminded of Beauce, where I grew up, the riding I
represented in parliament for 13 years. But I am also reminded of so
many special corners of this country that I have had the privilege of
visiting in my years campaigning to give a voice to the voiceless.
When I talk to people here and across the country, I keep hearing
that they feel forgotten by an Ottawa-elite class focused on pet social
issues that are irrelevant to them.
I have a message for those who feel forgotten here in Portage—Lisgar.
You will not be forgotten anymore. I will be your voice in Ottawa. I
have been defending the same principles and policies consistently for
many years now. If you believe in these principles and want someone to
fight for them in Ottawa, I am that man. I won’t change. I won’t
compromise.
I will be in the House talking about the issues the fake
Conservatives are too afraid to even discuss. And yes, I will work and
vote with them whenever they find enough courage to act like real
conservatives.
I know that the PPC already has a lot of support in this riding. In
the last election we had our best result across the country here in
Portage—Lisgar.
This is where we hosted the biggest PPC rally in the Party’s history.
Near Winkler 3000 patriots came out to support our fight for freedom.
It was the biggest rally held by any political party during the last
election.
Just outside this riding, I was wrongly arrested two years ago for
refusing to comply with immoral, unconstitutional, and tyrannical covid
restrictions imposed on us.
These are just a couple of events that have drawn me to this area
over the past few years. I feel a special connection to this riding.
This is where the renewal of our country will begin.
Together, we will redefine what it means to be a conservative in
Canada. One more or less CPC MP will not make a difference. But one PPC
Member of Parliament will offer more opposition against the Radical Left
than the entire so-called Conservative Party!
We saw during the covid years just how morally bankrupt and
ineffective the 119 CPC MPs truly were. For two years, every last one of
them stayed silent, including their leader Pierre Poilievre. They did
nothing as the Liberals and NDP worked hand in hand to steal our
freedoms, destroy our economy and coerce millions to take unnecessary
covid shots.
We have a special opportunity here. The opportunity to jump-start a
much-needed political revolution in this country. To make history by
electing the first ever PPC MP and adding a badly-needed true
conservative voice to the House of Commons.
This situation reminds me a lot of the Reform Party. Back in 1987,
the Reform Party was founded to give a voice to frustrated conservative
Canadians here in Western Canada. The People’s Party policies are very
similar to those of the Reform Party back then.
The Reform Party first entered Parliament in 1989 when they won a
single seat in a by-election. In the subsequent general election in
1993, 51 more MPs were sent to Ottawa. The following election saw them
become the official opposition. All the populist-conservative Reform
Party needed was a foothold into Parliament, a single seat, and then the
floodgates opened.
Despite never forming government, the years with the Reform Party in
Parliament saw some of the most conservative governance in my lifetime.
The Liberal minority governments with Reform in opposition were arguably
more conservative than the subsequent Harper government!
The PPC will pick up the torch from the Reform Party, and it starts
right here in Portage—Lisgar. We have learned from the mistakes of the
Reform Party. We will never compromise our values. We won’t merge with a
corrupt party. We will fight until we win and restore sanity in this
country.
In 2023, a true conservative voice is more necessary than ever. The
Radical Left has been unopposed for too long, and the impact that it has
had on our culture is obvious. We need a strong voice for families in
Ottawa. The Liberals and NDP attack you and your families. At the same
time, the so-called Conservatives forget about you until your vote is
convenient during an election.
This by-election is the start of a major turning point in Canadian
politics. Let’s begin this common sense, populist, conservative
revolution right here today. For the people of Portage—Lisgar. And for
all of Canada!