CALEB NICKERSON
CAMPBELL’S BAY
Feb. 9, 2019
On Saturday, members of the People’s Party of Canada’s Pontiac riding association were in the area to drum up support for the newly created political organization.
The PPC is a right-wing populist party, advocating for “free-market” policies, limiting immigration and opposing “political correctness.” It was formed by renegade Conservative Party cabinet minister and leadership candidate Maxime Bernier of Beauce, Que., in September 2018, after he left his former party that August.
His departure followed a highly-publicized spat with Conservative leader Andrew Scheer over the issue of supply management for Canadian dairy and eggs, which Bernier vehemently opposes. After losing a tight leadership race in the final round of voting, Bernier accused the Quebec Dairy lobby of signing up “fake Conservatives” to elect Scheer, who is in favour of supply management.
Pontiac riding association President Mark Buzan has worked with right-leaning parties in the Outaouais for 20 years, such as the Reform Party (predecessors to the CPC) and the provincial Action démocratique du Québec (predecessors to the CAQ). He said that the association was formed in November 2018, and is in the process of reviewing candidates, with the aim of having one in place by the Victoria Day weekend.
“We still have plenty of time but we are cognisant that our rivals are already out there campaigning and that’s where we’re starting right now,” he said.
Buzan echoed Bernier’s concerns over the leadership race as one of his reasons for leaving the Conservative party.
“I was incredibly dismayed to see the direction that the Conservative Party was going in,” he said. “I won’t get into the whole details of it but one only has to take a look further into how the leadership process … it’s dubious frankly, it’s dubious whether Mr. Scheer is actually the legitimate leader of that party or not.”
“I think there’s a lot of ex-conservative members like myself that are frustrated with the CPC chasing the Liberal Party towards the left,” added Vice-President Nick Alevetsovitis. “I think we felt left out … I was definitely a Maxime Bernier supporter from the beginning.”
Todd Hoffman, founding member of the riding association and owner of Brauwerk Hoffman, said that he joined the party due to a climate of “political correctness.”
“We’re being curtailed so much about how we communicate with each other,” he said. “You articulate your side … with reason and balance, try to show some balance, but things have swung so far the other way that people are afraid to speak their mind.”
Buzan was quick to emphasize that though the party advocates for reducing immigration, it is not “anti-immigrant” or “xenophobic,” as critics have alleged.
“What drew me, largely, to the PPC and Maxime is courage that I think we sometimes have to have to speak our mind and not be afraid of being labelled of something, of xenophobia or anything like this. Simply, we’re not,” he said, noting that his wife is an immigrant. The PPC would reduce the number of permanent residents admitted per year to 250,000, from where it stands currently at just over 300,000 per year.
Buzan said that he looks forward to meeting more interested citizens from the Pontiac over the coming months.
