The People’s Party of Canada was handed what could prove to be a fatal blow on Monday, with the fledgling party and its leader Maxime Bernier failing to win a single seat … “While a statue of our country’s founder is being removed in one city, a park was recently named after Pakistan’s founder in another,” “Having people live among us who reject basic Western values such as freedom, equality, tolerance and openness doesn’t make us strong,” Comments like that earned quick condemnation from Scheer, still wobbly in his leadership after a bruising election campaign.It was clear that Bernier wouldn’t survive long in the party. Quebec passed legislation banning many civil servants from wearing religious symbols this year and passed a ban on niqab-wearing women from accessing some social services. Bernier insisted his party was only getting started. While Bernier has gotten plenty of airtime for some of his outlandish statements, journalists and columnists generally haven’t given much oxygen to his thoroughly unworkable or preposterous policy proposals, such as slashing immigration levels. Maxime Bernier lost his seat in the Beauce on Monday. Maxime Bernier, leader of the People's Party of Canada, poses for a photo during a meeting with the Toronto Star’s editorial board on Sept. 24.
Far-right parties have fared poorly in nearly every election held in the past year. And yet Bernier performed so poorly that he lost his own riding — one that he held for 12 years, and that his father held for 13.Bernier’s failure isn’t just a Canadian story. He had left a confidential briefing book of NATO documents at his girlfriend’s house—a girlfriend, it emerged, who had a history with a criminal biker gang and had herself been surveilled by federal police as part of a drug investigation. And Canadians are usually forgiving of a leader’s verbal infelicities, so long as they can speak one of its two official languages fluently—former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien was famously incomprehensible in English, once telling reporters: “A proof is a proof, and when you have a good proof it’s because it’s proven.”Some of it is specifically Canadian. While he can be a forceful speaker in French, he is awkward in English—he speaks with a heavy accent and seems to be forever searching for his words.But social media has previously been a great equalizer for candidates who might not be polished speakers.
The issues on which Bernier focuses do have natural Canadian constituencies. A more tangible reason is Canada’s campaign finance laws. As of 11 p.m. just over 9,000 votes had been tallied in favour of Bernier. People’s Party of Canada Leader Maxime Bernier has lost his seat in Quebec’s Beauce riding.
Published Monday, October 21, 2019 11:18PM EDT People's Party founder Maxime Bernier loses seat More The People’s Party of Canada was handed what could prove to be a fatal blow on Monday, with the fledgling party and its leader Maxime Bernier failing to win a single seat in the 2019 election.
As Bernier himself loves to note, a majority of Canadians polled say they want aBernier has seen fawning support online, where he’s affectionately called “Mad Max,” with a number of far-right online activists either supporting Bernier openly or running for the People’s Party itself.Far-right groups, such as the Canadian chapter of the Finnish group Bernier speaks to the media during the Conservative Party of Canada Leadership Event in Toronto, Ontario, on May 27, 2017. Last Updated Tuesday, October 22, 2019 10:14AM EDT At 56, Bernier has already lived many lives in Canadian politics. "What [the People's Party of Canada] managed to accomplish in only one year is spectacular." Some of it is that he is simply not an efficient communicator. Ontario elected as its premier Bernier responds to NDP leader Jagmeet Singh during the Federal Leaders Debate in Gatineau, Quebec, on Oc.t 7. Bernier received 28.7% of the vote, losing to Conservative Richard Lehoux who earned 38.3% of the Beauce vote. Less than two years after being elected, Bernier was made Canada’s foreign minister.But Bernier’s career nearly ended just as quickly.
He would build a fence along parts of the U.S.-Canadian border, cut all funding that promotes other cultures, withdraw Canada from all efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, end international development aid, and revoke funding for any university or college deemed insufficiently supportive of freedom of speech—a veiled threat aimed at universities that have refused to host controversial right-wing figures.As the election approached, Bernier proved himself well-organized—he had a significant roster of candidates signed up to run under the People’s Party banner, and he scheduled rallies across the country to kick off his campaign. Contrast that with the United States, where, thanks to political action committees, campaign contributions can be virtually limitless, and Europe, where the limits are tighter but the sources of donations can be What’s more, Bernier hasn’t attracted much interest or support from the Kremlin, unlike Trump’s Republicans, Then there’s the role of a media that’s proved more responsible than some of its foreign counterparts. Bernier was the cosmopolitan Quebecer in a party of prairie and oil-industry populists. He carved out a niche for himself as a libertarian, coming out hard against conventionally popular positions, such as He slowly climbed back up the rungs of power. PPC’s Maxime Bernier loses his seat in Beauce The controversial MP and federal leader, who also served in Stephen Harper’s cabinet as the minister of Small Business and Tourism and Agriculture, served as Beauce’s Member of Parliament since 2006, having won convincingly as a conservative in four prior elections.
The results allowed analysts to predict Lehoux would take the riding. Third parties can spend, but they can’t do so in coordination with the campaigns and face donation and spending caps as well as reporting requirements. His competitor, Richard Lehoux, a star conservative candidate who used to be a mayor in the region, had almost 13,000. The Rhinoceros Party, a satirical party whose first leader was a rhino from a Quebec zoo, is Bernier’s dismal failure may be a sign that springtime is over for nationalists everywhere.
Given Bernier’s name recognition, his media ties, and the anxiety around his core campaign issues, he seemed destined to do well.The People’s Party has never broken 5 percent in the aggregate of federal polls taken since it was officially registered. UPDATE: Maxime Bernier loses seat in Beauce.