Bernier’s bolt is both good and bad for Conservatives

Maxime Bernier’s bombshell is both good news and bad for Andrew Scheer’s federal Conservatives.

When Bernier announced yesterday afternoon that he is quitting to start his own right-wing conservative party, he rid Scheer of a huge headache.

For weeks now — in fact ever since Scheer narrowly defeated Bernier for the party leadership — Bernier has been undercutting and embarrassing his own leader. His bigoted taunt about Justin Trudeau pursuing “extreme diversity” was far removed from Scheer’s inclusive platform.

Then, when Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel introduced the party’s immigration platform, Bernier tweeted: “So, after disavowing me last week for raising the issue and telling me to shut up, my colleagues have just realized that this is something Canadians find important and want to hear about? Great example of strong leadership!”

In response, Rempel said at a news conference that Bernier needs to decide who he wants to win the next election, Andrew Scheer or Justin Trudeau.

The gloves were fully off. Bernier defecated in his own nest once too often. Had he not removed himself by resigning, there is little doubt Scheer would have fired him sometime over the weekend, during the party’s policy conference taking place in Halifax. Internal dissent is one thing, but when a highprofile MP publicly ridicules his leader and party, he has to go.

But the good news dissipates quickly for Scheer. He’s lost an irritant, but gained a mortal enemy. Bernier has not just castigated Scheer and the Conservatives, he’s disowned them. He says they don’t represent real conservatives, that they’re timid and spineless. He has basically called Scheer a coward, and said: “I have come to realize over the past year that this party is too intellectually and morally corrupt to be reformed.”

Talk about a scorched-earth exit.

Scheer, to his credit, has been more restrained. He said Bernier has made the decision to leave the party and “help Justin Trudeau.” Accusing Bernier of being a traitor isn’t very polite, either. But that’s more than an accusation, it’s the truth.

Bernier’s desertion will eventually come at a high cost to the Conservatives. There is a reason that Scheer and the party brass didn’t act more harshly toward their problem Quebec MP — although he was previously demoted for earlier disloyal antics — and that is that the French Canadian libertarian populist has considerable support from the party’s grassroots. He very nearly defeated Scheer for the leadership.

Sources in the Bernier camp say his plan is to start a federal party very much like Alberta’s Wildrose Party, the unabashedly social conservative group that splintered from that province’s conservative party. Libertarian leanings, anti-immigration sentiment, hard-right social ideology — they’re all front and centre in that party. And if Bernier’s party expresses the same priorities, it’s logical to expect a sizeable number of Conservative members to jump ship.

That will splinter the conservative vote in next year’s federal election. So Scheer is right about one thing: Maxime Bernier has just given the Trudeau Liberals a reason to smile.

The gloves were fully off. Had Bernier not removed himself by resigning, there is little doubt Scheer would have fired him sometime over the weekend, during the party’s policy conference taking place in Halifax.