The leader of the People’s Party of Canada, Maxime Bernier, called for candidates for the last time in an email on Friday.
“However, we still have a lot to do to prepare the party for the prospect of early elections this fall. We aim to select around 130 more candidates by the first week of September to fill out our list of 338 candidates, ”wrote Bernier.
But it seems that Bernier has forgotten that his party has accepted 54 candidates since a similar call three weeks ago. The PPC’s list of open trips suggests that only 78 constituencies need candidates. That includes 3 out of 34 seats in Alberta, 10 out of 42 seats in BC, 4 out of 14 seats in Manitoba, 6 out of Saskatchewan’s 14 seats, and the Yukon and Northwest Territories.
Further east, the PPC has 11 out of 121 rides in Ontario, 31 out of 78 seats in Quebec, 3 out of 4 in PEI, and 4 out of 7 in Newfoundland. All of the constituencies in New Brunswick are the Nunavut Riders. The 260 PPC candidates that have been confirmed to run are fewer than the 315 the party ran in 2019.
Burnaby South, where Laura Lynn Tyler Thompson represented the PPC in a 2019 by-election, remains open. Tracey Sparrowhawk, who ran for the PPC against Andrew Scheer in 2019, will not return for the second round, nor will she become the former PPC candidate for Regina-Lewvan Trevor Wowk.
The PPC’s online application site says they want replies by Sunday, August 8th. The process is much less arduous and intrusive than the extensive Conservative and Maverick party background checks, but includes a criminal record review.
Bernier toured the provinces west of Quebec in the last few weeks before the elections. He arrived in Vancouver on July 16 and toured BC before arriving in Calgary on July 22 for a stop in Alberta. It swung through Ontario’s cottage country from July 30th to August 2nd.
On August 2, Bernier posted a 78-second video on Instagram to reveal his reasons for rejecting a COVID-19 vaccine. It was viewed more than 17,000 times, liked over 4,600 times and received around 500 comments, including one from Bernier himself: “Instagram tagged this video with their COVID-19 information center banner because they can’t handle the truth. The virus has a survival rate of over 99% for most people. “
A day later, Bernier met Western University ethics professor Julie Ponesse on his YouTube channel to discuss the dangers of the COVID-19 response.
“This kind of stratification of citizens, the scare tactics of our governments, these are the early stages of every other state in history that has degenerated from a democracy or a republic to some kind of autocratic state or a dictatorship … To be on your guard , we have to be aware so that we don’t slide in any further, ”said Ponesse.
The comments reflect Bernier’s July 31 tweet. “Weeding out unpopular minorities, blaming them for government failures, and restricting their rights are the first steps in establishing all tyrannical regimes. You think that can’t happen here? Naive people have thought that everywhere it happened. “
Similarly, on July 20, Bernier wrote: “The purpose of the #VaccinePassport is to get us used to the fact that all of our movements, travel and spending decisions are monitored and controlled by the government ‘for the good of society’. Those who promote it actually support Chinese-style totalitarianism. “
Lee Harding is a correspondent for Western Standard in Saskatchewan.
