Amongst the weekend’s hectic tidal winds, the Peoples Party of Canada wafted into St. John’s this Saturday afternoon. One can only explain their zeitgeist as a sort of populist wave surfing. In part, the atmosphere was caused by a ripple from the bizarre 2016 election compounded with toxic elements that the Western hemisphere begrudgingly entertained with debate, creating a by-product of looming storm clouds, giving us what is only describable as ‘an uncertain political climate’. Appearing at the Capital Hotel, Mad Max (a nickname for the party leader which has its own potency for dissection) presented a ‘town hall’ style rally.
While the attendees were described as mostly young and male, Memorial campus reception of the Mad Max Tao seems to be negative. In some cases, MUSE found evidence of posters on campus which had been covered up or ripped up and disposed of, days prior to the rally.
Despite some cold treatment, the rally itself, however, had a warm reception from attendees as Max Bernier boasted various feats of the party thus far. Thirty-six thousand members (which Max noted is more than the Green’s nineteen thousand) in support of some of the party’s platform against “special interest groups”, crony capitalism, and “big corporations”. Policies such as these might make a reader double take in confusion for the ascribed conservative orientation. These excerpts, densely blanketed in Max’s Quebec accent, underlie a philosophy which also stated he “will do nothing” for Jewish, Muslim, and Christian religious communities out of tire for “identity politics”.
To further distinguish himself from progressive partisans and strategically soak the party in a strange syncretism, Max endorsed capitalism, ending corporate welfare, and fixing a 25% flat tax for 100k salaries. Max also proposed ending foreign aid and stated his opposition to the UN as an actor seeking world government in thirty years. Afterwards, he combatted obstructive cheers and applause during an exploration of immigration policy “we need to take control of our immigration system… we don’t want the problems Europe has with immigrants, we don’t want that problem in thirty years… diversity is not our strength… it’s not part of the government to celebrate it: that is extreme multiculturalism.”
Despite this approach to the celebration of some cultural identities, Max stated directly afterwards “if we’re not there to defend free market-western civilization values, no one will.” Subsequently, the question for voters becomes whether Max has priorities for certain values over others, and if so, is it tiered in a hierarchy? If it is, would this outlook possibly lead some to view the status quo as superior? If not, what would the People’s Party do to prevent this conclusion if the party does not agree with the celebration of diversity as strength? Furthermore, to what extent, and in what ways would the PPC ‘defend western values’?
With this interpretation of ‘individualism’, one might think personal values ought to be kept to oneself but that fails to explain why a defence of vaguely defined ‘western values’ need be legislated. Particularly this seems counterproductive when the core approach of the party is small-government. In incongruence with previous comments, and perhaps misspeaking, Max finished his opening remarks by stating “We will challenge free market values. They are the foundation of Western civilization.” This is another instance of Maxime’s lack of clarity given his love of a diverse Canada, but opposition to expanding the parameters of diversity.
Once more this syncretism is evident in Max’s boasting of a BC riding president being a former NDP member. While this extra-party intermingling isn’t the first occurrence (previously the Libertarian Party has been coveted), this may concern New Democrats considering this is the success of a pursuit mentioned months prior in September.
A call some might suggest has a fundamental language barrier, clearly has former opponents picking up the phone. What remains to be seen is whether Canadian voters will do the same come October, given that the PPC garnered 10.6% of Burnaby South’s ballot last month.
For an accurate account of the rally, a Twitter thread by Drew Brown of The Independent (which produced the heading image of this article) is available here: https://twitter.com/drewfoundland/status/1101859279433334784