Now, at the end of May 2023, the provincial election in Alberta has concluded. The United Conservative Party (UCP) defeated the New Democratic Party (NDP) and continued to govern (UCP received 52.6% of the votes, while the NDP received 44.0%).
This Alberta provincial election was originally just a regular provincial election, but due to the unique nature of the previous elections in Alberta, it was noteworthy. In the past few decades, the Progressive Conservative Party (PC) had long been in power in Alberta. However, in 2009, as voters became increasingly disappointed with the PC government, support for the Wildrose Party, which was formed by the merger of two other parties in 2008, surged. The opposition between the Wildrose Party and the Progressive Conservatives led to a severe split within the conservative camp, and in the 2015 provincial election, the Progressive Conservatives lost their decades-long grip on power. In this election, in terms of the popular vote, the NDP received 41%, the Wildrose Party received 24%, and the Progressive Conservatives received 28%. The NDP lived up to its reputation and caused significant turmoil in Alberta in just one term. Clearly, the conservative forces in Alberta realized that there was no way forward with further division. Therefore, in 2017, the two conservative parties in the Alberta political arena, the Progressive Conservatives and the Wildrose Party, merged to form the United Conservative Party (UCP). The UCP won the majority of seats in the 2019 Alberta provincial election and formed the government of Alberta. As the saying goes, "Unity is strength."
The current federal Conservative Party of Canada also emerged from the merger of the Progressive Conservative Party and the Canadian Alliance in 2003. The merged Conservative Party ended the majority government of the Liberal Party in the 2004 federal election and took office by defeating the Liberal Party in 2006. The Conservative Party, led by Stephen Harper, governed Canada from 2006 to 2015, and many people have fond memories of that period.
After losing the 2015 election, Harper stepped down as party leader. The Conservative Party held its leadership election in 2017. Maxime Bernier ran for party leader and narrowly lost to Andrew Scheer after 13 rounds of voting. Bernier had been leading in all 12 previous rounds, but in the final round, when all other candidates were eliminated and only Scheer remained, he lost by a small margin. This was undoubtedly a difficult result for Bernier to accept. The following year, in 2018, Bernier announced his departure from the Conservative Party. In his departure statement, he expressed his realization that the Conservative Party was "too corrupt intellectually and morally to be reformed" and criticized the party for losing its principles under Scheer's leadership. It was during this time that the People's Party of Canada was formed. Bernier's departure statement was lofty, but political statements cannot be simply understood literally. At the time, Harper tweeted, "It's clear Max never accepted the result of the leadership vote and wants to split the Conservative Party."
In the 2019 election, the People's Party led by Bernier participated in the federal election for the first time. While Scheer's Conservative Party lost the election, the People's Party also lost the only seat it had brought from the Conservative Party. However, it was reported that the People's Party helped the Liberal Party, led by Justin Trudeau, defeat the Conservative Party in six ridings. In subsequent federal elections, the People's Party itself did not win any seats and did not achieve significant growth, but it helped the Liberal Party defeat the Conservative Party in some ridings.
Bernier's reason for attacking the Conservative Party is that he believes the party cannot be reformed and a new party is needed. While his words sound appealing and there are indeed problems within the Conservative Party, abandoning the main battleground against the Liberal Party and seeking a smaller arena for self-indulgence may feel good but is actually surrendering and running away. In the United States, the Republican Party also has a corrupt establishment, and the Republican and Democratic parties are sometimes referred to as the "uniparty." In the political struggle, Donald Trump was trapped by both the Democratic Party and the establishment within the Republican Party. However, instead of forming a new party, he chose to reform the Republican Party. With his immense influence, if he had formed a new party, numerous Trump supporters could have helped him defeat the corrupt establishment within the Republican Party in many states. But he didn't do that. Trump's foray into politics was not for himself but to save the country he loves. If he had formed a new party, although he could have had a great time himself, it would have seriously divided the conservative movement, ultimately handing victory to the increasingly extreme Democratic Party in the elections and allowing them to destroy the country he loves. And that's precisely what Bernier is doing, dividing the conservative movement. Fortunately, the division he has caused within the conservative movement is not yet catastrophic and cannot guarantee the Liberal Party a majority government with his efforts alone. However, if the People's Party develops and gains 15% of the vote, this division would be catastrophic for the conservative movement, making the Liberals ecstatic.
If Bernier had not chosen to leave the Conservative Party but instead persisted within the party until Andrew Scheer stepped down, became the party leader in the 2020 leadership election, and defeated Trudeau to become the Prime Minister in the 2021 general election, he could have had the opportunity to implement the policy platform he is now advocating (if his current platform is indeed his true political stance). However, it would be difficult for him to win the national election in Canada, a left-leaning country, with the pure conservative platform he is currently promoting.
As mentioned earlier, when Bernier left the Conservative Party in 2018 and formed the People's Party, Stephen Harper once tweeted that Bernier had never accepted the results of the leadership election and only wanted to divide the conservative movement. If Bernier believed that the Conservative Party was beyond redemption, then why did he want to become the leader of that party? Did he want to associate himself with this party that he believed was beyond redemption? Even if Bernier truly believed that the Conservative Party was beyond redemption and a new party was necessary, history may not have given him enough time because Trudeau is progressively destroying this country step by step. Even if the People's Party eventually emerged victorious after a long struggle with the Conservative Party, Trudeau would have been re-elected many times during the infighting within the conservative movement, potentially already destroying the democratic freedoms of this country. At that point, it would be meaningless for the People's Party to replace the Conservative Party, as freedom would have been lost and democracy would have ceased to exist (North Korea also has elections).
The defeat of Bernier in the leadership race by Scheer, who then stepped down after losing the general election, contributed significantly to the survival and development of the People's Party. If the next leader is as inadequate as Erin O'Toole, the People's Party could potentially grow further, just like the Wildrose Party in Alberta, causing a catastrophic split within the conservative movement. Therefore, the 2022 Conservative Party leadership election is crucial. In this leadership race, polling shows that Pierre Poilievre ranks first in terms of support, while Jean Charest (JC), who is even worse than O'Toole, ranks second. If Poilievre is blacklisted, there is a possibility that JC will be elected, which would bring tremendous benefits to Trudeau and the Liberal Party, while Poilievre's ability to unite the conservative movement poses a threat to both Trudeau and the People's Party. Interestingly, both Trudeau and the People's Party do not want to see Poilievre elected. On Trudeau's side, the left-wing media has launched a propaganda campaign attacking Poilievre for associating with far-right elements, while some People's Party supporters are trying to link Poilievre with the World Economic Forum and the Great Reset. However, Poilievre was ultimately elected with overwhelming support. Poilievre was elected in the first round, and the support he received was overwhelming, while in the 2017 leadership race that Bernier participated in, it took 13 rounds of voting to determine the winner.
Poilievre, who became the Conservative Party leader in 2022, has a platform centered around fiscal conservatism, defending freedom, and common sense, which has gained significant support among conservatives. This should have been a good opportunity for conservative unity, but the founder of the People's Party, Bernier, chose not to unite and instead launched a significant attack on Poilievre.
The People's Party's attack on Poilievre centers around portraying Poilievre as "basically the same" as the Liberal Party.
So, are the Liberal Party and Poilievre really "basically the same"? Let's look at some of their differences:
The Liberal Party is profligate, causing a large deficit and pushing Canada towards bankruptcy; Poilievre is fiscally conservative, advocating for deficit control, inflation control, and a smaller government.
The Liberal Party mandates experimental vaccine injections for Canadians; Poilievre opposes vaccine mandates.
The Liberal Party suppresses protests by truck drivers; Poilievre supports peaceful and lawful protests by truck drivers.
The Liberal Party promotes digital ID and central bank digital currency (CBDC), which are means of enslaving people by globalists; Poilievre opposes government-promoted digital ID and CBDC.
The Liberal Party uses taxpayer money to buy a large number of traditional media outlets as propaganda tools, such as CBC; Poilievre advocates for defunding CBC.
The Liberal Party introduces a series of bills (Bill C-11, Bill C-18, Bill C-36, The Online Harms Act) to take away the freedom of speech of Canadians (with C-11 already becoming law), and losing freedom of speech means losing all other freedoms; Poilievre defends the freedom of speech of Canadians and promises to repeal C-11.
WEF Chairman Schwab openly boasts about infiltrating Canada through Trudeau and some members of his cabinet; Poilievre disagrees with WEF policies and prohibits his cabinet members from participating in WEF activities.
The Liberal Party lowers the threshold for bail, allowing repeat offenders to easily return to society and commit crimes again; Poilievre advocates for reforming the bail system for repeat offenders, keeping them in prison and preventing easy reintegration into society.
The Liberal Party imposes and increases carbon taxes, fueling high inflation; Poilievre opposes carbon taxes.
The Liberal Party promotes woke policies; Poilievre advocates for ending woke policies.
The People's Party, in order to propagate the idea that Poilievre and the Liberal Party are "basically the same," remains silent about the many significant differences between Poilievre and the Liberal Party and instead focuses on a few points of commonality. This is clearly misleading. "Basically the same" and "having commonalities" are two different things. Bernier and Trudeau also have commonalities, such as both supporting the legalization of marijuana back in the day. This kind of misleading propaganda follows the same pattern as many so-called mainstream media outlets: it appears to present you with "facts," but deliberately conceals other important facts to mislead the audience.
The People's Party not only uses misleading tactics in attacking Poilievre, but it seems to employ similar tactics when promoting its own platform. When Bernier was a Conservative Party Member of Parliament, some aspects of his positions were very close to those of liberals. The conservative website Campaign Life Coalition assessed Bernier during his campaign for the Conservative Party leadership in 2017, stating, "Throughout his parliamentary career, Bernier has voted like a liberal on social issues, except for euthanasia, which he has always opposed. However, during this leadership campaign, he has significantly shifted to the right." It is evident that he is very friendly towards the LGBT community. He has participated in "Pride" parades, happily waving to the crowd behind a huge banner on the "right side of history." At the Conservative Party policy convention held in Vancouver in 2016, he actively supported the LGBTTIQ movement opposing traditional values, and he spoke in support of a policy resolution to repeal the Conservative Party's longstanding support for the traditional definition of marriage between one man and one woman. This policy resolution, which he supported, was passed at that convention, abolishing the traditional definition of marriage that the Conservative Party had long supported. This greatly disappointed many people who uphold traditional values, but now Bernier is promoting himself to this group, claiming that the Conservative Party is too left-wing and that he is the true conservative. He also voted in favor of the "bathroom bill" (Bill C-16, which adds protection for gender identity or expression to the Criminal Code and human rights law). This bill was introduced by the Liberal Party and passed in the House of Commons with the support of left-wing parties and left-leaning members of the Conservative Party (all opposing votes came from the Conservative Party). After the bill passed in the House of Commons, the Conservative Party in the Senate tried to obstruct and delay its passage, but it was forced through by Trudeau. In the end, this bill became law in 2017, providing legal protection for the LBGT community, especially transgender individuals. Recently, 16-year-old high school student Josh Alexander expressed his opposition to the school's gender-neutral bathroom policy based on his beliefs and morals when he saw boys entering the girls' restroom. As a result, he was suspended from school and later arrested for returning to school. Bernier expressed his support for Josh. However, the school's policy is based on the very law that Bernier, as a Member of Parliament, voted in favor of and that became law (Bill C-16). Now, when Bernier promotes his platform, he remains silent about his support for the LGBT community (while any form of Conservative Party support for the LGBT community may be attacked by People's Party supporters, accusing it of being too left-wing and no different from the Liberal Party). He also remains silent about his liberal voting record on social issues when he served as a Conservative Party Member of Parliament. Instead, Bernier says what conservative-minded individuals want to hear. When Bernier says, "I am the only candidate who will speak up for true conservative values," he probably doesn't want people to remember that he actively supported the repeal of the Conservative Party's definition of traditional marriage between one man and one woman or that he voted in favor of the "bathroom bill," which allows biological males who identify as female to freely enter women's restrooms (as long as they claim to identify as women). When his supporters use terms like "left-left" to mock left-wing individuals who support gender-neutral bathrooms, I wonder if they realize that their own leader is also such a "left-left."
Bernier not only remains silent about his support for the LGBT community, but recently he has even started to confront them. On May 23rd, Bernier announced the People's Party's platform on radical gender ideology, which prominently includes the abolition of Bill C-16. This is the same "bathroom bill" that Bernier voted in favor of in the past. He is now contradicting himself. When unveiling this platform, he first blamed the Liberal Party, saying that C-16 was their proposal and highlighting its supposed harms (without mentioning that he voted in favor and contributed to making it law). Later, he said, "What is completely unacceptable is that not a single elected representative had the courage to stand up for women, children, and basic biological reality! I have been publicly opposing this madness for years, and once I am elected as the Member of Parliament for Portage-Lisgar, I will continue to oppose it in the House of Commons." However, it was Bernier's vote in favor of Bill C-16 that put women's privacy and safety at risk. Isn't he contradicting himself? He did issue a statement expressing regret for voting in favor of C-16, but why did he vote in favor of it in the first place? When the bill was debated in Parliament, both sides presented their views. Members of Parliament are not interns; they are well aware of what they are voting for. Furthermore, his reason for regretting the vote was that "it threatens freedom of speech," without mentioning the threats to women's privacy and safety. However, this bill is commonly referred to as the "bathroom bill," and it poses threats to women's various private spaces (and it has many other societal implications). He participated in "Pride" parades, happily walking behind a huge banner on the "right side of history." Now, why is he suddenly turning against the "right side of history"? Bernier often criticizes other politicians for being unreliable and changing their positions once in power. So, which version of Bernier is the real one: the Conservative Party Member of Parliament before the formation of the People's Party or the Party Leader after its formation? Most of the popular policies he is promoting now, which are well-received by conservatives, were proposed after he formed the People's Party. If these policies are his true political beliefs and not just a way to undermine the Conservative Party's support, why didn't he propose them during his 12 years as a Conservative Party Member of Parliament?
Currently, Bernier is running as a candidate for the Portage-Lisgar constituency in the Manitoba provincial by-election (scheduled for June). Now, he is confronting the LGBT community and raising the debate on abortion, perhaps in an attempt to compete with the Conservative Party for votes in this Manitoba by-election. His advocacy for reopening the debate on abortion does not necessarily mean he is against abortion (Leslyn Lewis, a shadow cabinet member of the People's Party, is the true anti-abortion advocate). When he was a Conservative Party Member of Parliament, he voted against Motion 312 by Stephen Woodworth, which sought to study when a child in the womb becomes a human being. He also voted against Bill C-510, which aimed to protect pregnant women from coercion to have an abortion. Looking at his record from 2006 when he became a Conservative Party Member of Parliament, to his bid for the Conservative Party leadership in 2017, and the formation of the People's Party in 2018 to the present day, his positions have changed multiple times, showing clear inconsistencies. Now, in order to gain the support of conservative voters, he is willing to confront the LGBT community that he once actively supported. If he needs to appeal to the support of centrist voters in the future, how can we expect him to maintain his current positions? Will there be someone standing up to accuse the People's Party of being false conservatives and irredeemable, and then forming another new party? How will the supporters of that new party distinguish it from the Liberal Party?
Many people have already realized that both the People's Party and Trudeau can benefit from the failures of the Conservative Party: Trudeau can be re-elected, and the People's Party can seize the opportunity to grow. If the Conservative Party repeatedly fails, Trudeau can continue to be re-elected, and the People's Party may gain even greater benefits. It seems that the People's Party is not concerned about the serious damage caused by Trudeau to Canada or the fact that he is gradually accelerating the destruction of this country.
At present, it appears that Bernier does not intend to unite the conservative movement to remove Trudeau from power, but conservative individuals can contribute to unity with their own actions. Many voters who previously supported the People's Party in the last election were satisfied with the party and recognized that removing Trudeau from power is the most important goal. Many people have also noticed the issues with Bernier's attacks on the People's Party. They are already planning to support the Conservative Party under the leadership of the People's Party and unite with the broader conservative movement to concentrate their efforts on removing Trudeau from power in the next election.