MAXIME BERNIER: His life, politics and the juicy tidbits about the PPC leader
He’s colourful, some say outrageous; will Canadians take him seriously?
Fourth in a series of ive articles looking at the life and politics of the leaders of the major federal political parties seeking your vote on Oct. 21. WHO
Maxime Bernier, leader People’s
Party of Canada.
• Born Jan. 18, 1963, in St-georges-de-beauce, Que.
• Son of Gilles Bernier, radio show host who held the riding of St-georges-de-beauce from 1984-97.
• The senior Bernier was elected as a Conservative, later sat as an independent and was appointed as Canada’s ambassador to Haiti from 1997-2001.
• Maxime has a bachelor of commerce degree from the Université du Québec à Montréal and a law degree from the University of Ottawa.
• Called to the Quebec bar in 1990.
• Father of two girls with first wife, Caroline Chauvin. They married in 1991 and divorced in 2005.
THE RESUME
• Pre-political career centred mainly around business and finance.
• Named executive vice-president of the Montreal Economic Institute in 2005.
• Elected Conservative member of Parliament for Beauce on Jan. 23, 2006, with the largest majority outside Alberta.
• Appointed to Stephen Harper’s cabinet Feb. 6, 2006, as minister of Industry.
• Served as minister of Foreign Affairs Aug. 14, 2007 to May 26, 2008.
• Re-elected to represent Beauce Oct. 14, 2008, again receiving the largest majority of all MPS in Quebec.
• Re-elected on May 2, 2011, and appointed minister for Small Business and Tourism.
• Re-elected November 2015.
• Left the Conservative Party of Canada on Aug. 23, 2018 to sit as an independent MP and announced the launch of a new party.
A PARTY IS BORN
Maxime Bernier is candid about his past.
In an interview with the Huffington Post in May, he admitted supporting sovereignists during the 1995 Quebec referendum on independence.
“I was separatist, I must have voted yes. Write I voted ‘yes,’ I have no problems with that,” he said.
In opposition, Bernier was named critic for innovation, science and economic development shortly after Andrew Scheer won the leadership of the Conservative party. But Bernier was removed from that role in June after posting a chapter from his book on his website arguing Scheer owed his leadership to “fake conservatives.”
Bernier left the Conservatives soon after that to form the People’s Party of Canada.
BEFORE POLITICS
Bernier spent three years as director of corporate and international relations for the Quebec Securities Commission. He says he was fired after a new president was hired. They clashed.
“I was always challenging her. The positions she was taking were not the positions I thought we should be taking,” he told the Huffington Post in a 2017 interview.
He says he was eventually called into her office and let go.
“That was a real firing,” he says.
His next position was vice-president of corporate affairs and communications at Standard Life insurance.
Bernier says he enjoyed working there, but when his boss retired, the new boss offered him a new VP job with the same salary and similar title. He felt it was a demotion.
“I was arrogant, and I told him, ‘If you offer me that, I would rather take a package.’”
Two weeks later, Bernier was offered a package.
CLOSING THE BOOK
While at Standard Life, Bernier joined the board of the Montreal Economic Institute, a rightwing think tank in Quebec.
As an associate researcher, he wrote opinion pieces arguing that people who choose to work more hours should not be penalized and forced to pay more taxes.
Bernier’s writing was influenced by Mario Dumont, the leader of the upstart right-wing Action Démocratique du Québec party, who was calling for a flat tax and more private choice in health care.
Bernier became so convinced of Dumont’s ideas that he decided to take the facts and research he had collected and published a book in the middle of Dumont’s election campaign. It was bad timing.
Three weeks after his $9 book rolled off the press, Dumont had changed his position on the flat tax.
The book was a flop, with fewer than 1,000 copies sold.
YOU MAY HAVE FORGOTTEN
Bernier is a runner.
And we’re not talking a jog in the park.
Maxime Bernier likes marathons.
In 2013, when he was 50, he ran an ultramarathon from one end of his Beauce riding to the other to raise money for a local food bank.
He completed the 106 kilometres in just over 13 hours, raising more than $153,000 for the Beauce Harvest Foundation.
Running marathons is not his only claim to fame.
Bernier also ran into some scandal during his tenure as a minister in Stephen Harper’s government.
He was forced to resign as minister of Foreign Affairs in 2008 when it was revealed he had left sensitive NATO documents at the home of a former girlfriend, Julie Couillard.
It was also revealed that Couillard had ties to biker gangs and the Hells Angels.
In an interview with the Huffington Post in 2017, Bernier offered this comment on that incident: “The official thing is I forgot my document, but the non-official (version) is, maybe, she took it.”
According to the Huffpost story, Bernier maintains he never took the papers out of his briefcase.
Couillard refused to participate in a Foreign Affairs investigation into the incident.
Earlier this year, Bernier married longtime partner Catherine Letarte, executive director of a non-profit community mental health organization in Montreal.
2019 POLICIES THE ENVIRONMENT
The People’s Party of Canada holds a right-wing view on climate change.
“There is, however, no scientific consensus on the theory that CO2 produced by human activity is causing dangerous global warming today or will in the future, and that the world is facing environmental catastrophes unless these emissions are drastically reduced. Many renowned scientists continue to challenge this theory,” the party states in its 2019 election platform.
“The policy debate about global warming is not grounded in science anymore. It has been hijacked by proponents of big government who are using crude propaganda techniques to impose their views.”
With Maxime Bernier as prime minister, Canada would pull out of the Paris Accord and “abandon unrealistic greenhouse gas emission targets” and abolish subsidies for green technology, among other things.
MULTICULTURALISM AND IMMIGRATION
If the People’s Party of Canada is elected to govern, Canada won’t be such a welcoming country for immigrants.
The party spells it out bluntly in its platform, saying it would lower the total number of immigrants from 350,000 annually to 100,000-150,000 each year.
With a PPC government, Canada would limit the number of immigrants under the family reunification program — and abolish the program for parents and grandparents.
Bernier and his party say decisions on which immigrants would be allowed in would be based on the immigrants’ skill sets.
A People’s Party government would also “ensure that every candidate for immigration undergoes a face-to-face interview and answers a series of specific questions to assess the extent to which they align with Canadian values and societal norms.”
BOTTOM-LINE ME
Maxime Bernier does not seem to do diplomacy.
He doesn’t tiptoe around issues or worry about whether his words and ideas will offend.
He’s blunt and makes no apologies for it.
He’s had a colourful life — some might say to the point of being outrageous – if you count the ex-girlfriend with ties to the Hells Angels and the 2008 incident with the missing briefcase full of NATO documents.
That alone might have been the end of most political careers.
Not so for Bernier, who seems to be able to shrug off the missteps and continue to be reelected in Beauce by very healthy margins.
The People’s Party platform for 2019 will not appeal to those who worry about climate change and who welcome immigrants to Canada.
Election night 2019 will determine whether Bernier and the People’s Party are just a novelty or a serious option for voters who subscribe to a far-right way of thinking.
Tomorrow: Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau.