It’s been a long time since the leader of one of the legitimate federal parties in Canada has been in Estevan.
When was the last time the leader of the federal Liberals, the New Democratic Party or the Green Party has been in Estevan? We had Andrew Scheer in town a couple of years ago, but that was before he became the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada.
Our last visit from a federal party leader might have been when former prime minister Stephen Harper came here in 2008 to announce support for the carbon capture and storage facility at Boundary Dam.
It’s not a big surprise that we don’t get many leader visits; we’re out of the way for the federal leaders, since we’re two hours from Regina, and this riding is a Conservative stronghold, so it’s not like there’s a strong base for parties other than the Tories.
(The Liberals have a hard enough time finding a candidate in Souris-Moose Mountain, and in two of the last three federal elections, have resorted to a parachute candidate).
So when it was announced that Maxime Bernier, the leader of the relatively new People’s Party of Canada (PPC), would be coming for a visit, we took notice.
About 100 people turned out to hear Bernier speak July 30. It’s too bad that the number wasn’t higher, since it is rare to have such a high-profile political leader in Estevan. (The timing of the event, at the end of July, might have made it tough to attract people).
This is a riding that has a lot of people who would be receptive to Bernier’s libertarian agenda. The PPCs are trying to set themselves up as an alternative to the Conservatives for the right-wing voters. The Tories have been asserting themselves as a centre-right party, one that can appeal to “small-c” conservatives.
Bernier is talking about issues such as lower immigration numbers, sweeping spending cuts to balance the budget in two years, and ending corporate bailouts. The largest applause Bernier received during his speech in Estevan came when he talked about reworking the equalization formula, which would have negative consequences on his home province of Quebec.
Frequently during the night, Bernier tried to distance the PPCs from the Tories.
He also demonstrated the political bluster that you would expect from a man who is a strong champion of free speech and a harsh critic of political correctness.
Which brings us to this fall’s federal election. Bernier has been making promises and releasing platform ideas. It’s impressive that the PPC will have a full slate of candidates less than 15 months after the party was created. We’ll see how many candidates are legitimate, and how many have the parachute tag.
His experience and name recognition also gives the party an advantage over others at a similar stage.
But for the PPC to form government like Bernier wants, it would be the greatest upset in Canadian political history. To go from one member of Parliament (Bernier) to having enough to form government would be unprecedented, and frankly, scary, with so many first-time MPs in Parliament.
Their presence in this election still creates one of the most intriguing storylines in the campaign.
Bernier says the worst-case scenario would be for the party to occupy the balance of power in a minority government after the election.
It’s actually the best-case scenario, as Canadians – who are normally cautious when it comes to new things in politics – try to decide what they think of this new party.
