The Bernier Advantage is slowly getting results
A funny thing has happened over the past 12 months since Maxime Bernier announced his candidacy for the Conservative leadership. The Quebec MP hasn’t changed. Take his comments from a year ago and match them up with what he’s saying today and you’ll notice few differences.
“Our campaign is authentic,” Bernier told me Tuesday morning when he stopped by for an interview at the Toronto Sun’s downtown offices. “Being authentic and being a principled politician — the people are ready for that.”
The former cabinet minister is now one of the front runners in the bid to replace Stephen Harper. But he wasn’t always leading the pack. He started off in an uphill battle, polling in the single-digits.
This slow but steady build was always in the cards, though.
Last year, on the eve of his campaign launch, I predicted this would happen due to a little something I labelled the Bernier Advantage. It’s a three-pronged approach: The first is conviction. You’ve got to feel like a candidate genuinely believes in what they’re saying.
Too many politicians throw out policy ideas like darts at a board, seeing what will stick just to cater to whichever special interest group they’re wooing that day. Bernier’s positions, agree with them or not, clearly come from an earnestly held political philosophy.
The second is consistency. Don’t flip-flop and make it clear where you’re coming from. If you take a listen to Bernier’s broader philosophy of more freedom and less government, you’re not going to be surprised by any of his announcements. There’s a logical consistency to it.
Whether it’s axing crony capitalist deals like the one with Bombardier, abolishing capital gains taxes or winding down supply management, they’re all in line with the candidate’s big picture. So far he hasn’t thrown any curve balls.
And the third is having views that overlap with majority opinion. Bernier, as a libertarian, balances that sweet spot of being fiscally conservative and socially liberal. This is where the Canadian centre rests.
“Yes, I want to get their vote,” Bernier says of his approach. “But what I’m saying are things I believe in. I believe in conservative values, in the values of Western civilization. And we don’t have to compromise.”
He sees his message of freedom and liberty as particularly appealing for young people across the country.
As the candidates gather in Toronto on Wednesday for their final debate, all the reported and rumoured numbers — polls, fundraising, caucus support, membership sales — look good for Bernier.
He’s also managed to do all this without being polarizing and creating members who want to vote against him, unlike, say, Kellie Leitch. This is key to getting second ballot support from members backing other candidates.
Looks like the Bernier Advantage is getting results.