Todd Hoffman, the candidate for the People’s Party of Canada (PPC) in the Pontiac-Kitigan Zibi riding, hosted a small gathering of about 15 people at his Brauwerk Hoffman Brewery in Campbell’s Bay on Saturday to answer questions from supporters and speak about some of his priorities going into the upcoming federal election.
He cited the removal of interprovincial trade barriers, clamping down on national immigration policies, finding solutions to the housing crisis, and the abolition of federal carbon tax as among his top priorities at the national level.
In terms of Hoffman’s campaign priorities for the Pontiac-Kitigan Zibi riding, he said he would support agritourism for Pontiac farmers because he thinks farmers need to diversify to keep up with costs and believes there is housing in the Pontiac that is currently not filled that he believes should be better utilized.
Hoffman moved from Renfrew in 1981 to live in the Pontiac where he started in the construction business. He has since started his brewery and said that some of the challenges he faced as an entrepreneur led him towards the PPC.
“That’s one of the main reasons that I’m attracted to the PPC, because the PPC believes that there should be free trade within this country,” Hoffman said. “There is not free trade in this country and we saw that during the pandemic.”
He explained that it’s challenging for him to sell his brewery’s products in Ontario due to what he calls “interprovincial trade barriers.”
When asked about how he would handle the high cost of living, he cited supply management and getting rid of what he calls the “food cartel” in Canada, made up of “the dairy and the egg industries primarily.”
When asked about how he would handle climate change, Hoffman said that while he’s not a climate change denier, he believes it’s up to individuals to change their habits to slow climate change.
Supporters at the event were concerned about similar issues, including the carbon tax, housing and immigration.
“I’m retired, I don’t have a financial horse in the race, but my kids do, my grandkids do,” said Colin Vorstur, who immigrated to the Pontiac 30 years ago. “At this stage, they will look at the prospect of buying a house and say it’s impossible.”
Vorstur also said that the “carbon tax is a monumental mistake of Justin Trudeau.”
Dave Friesen said he will also be voting for the PPC. He said that he doesn’t recognize the country he was born into 55 years ago.
“Maxime [Bernier] is the only politician who has openly and honestly dealt with each of these things, called it out and put it on the table,” Friesen said. “That’s why he has my vote, because he has, for lack of a better word, the balls to say the things that need to be said without fear of being canceled.”
Bernier, PPC Leader and former Conservative MP, left that party in 2018, accusing the Conservatives of becoming too similar to the Liberals when it came to policies around trade and immigration, and formed his own federal party.
Bernier did not win his own seat in the 2021 federal election – no PPC candidate did – but the party did gain some popularity over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic when Bernier spoke out against federal public health policies introduced at the time.
The PPC’s previous candidate in the Pontiac riding was David Bruce Gottfred. Elections Canada data shows he received 2,813 votes in the 2021 election, accounting for 4.5 per cent of the riding’s final count.
