Thoughts from Alberta's 2023 provincial election -- to PPC supporters

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 particularity 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 confrontation between the Wildrose Party and the Progressive Conservatives led to a severe split-up within the conservatives, 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 damage to Alberta in just one term. Clearly, the conservatives in Alberta realized that there was no way out 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".

Today's Conservative Party of Canada was also formed in 2003 from the merger of two major opposition parties at the time - the Progressive Conservative Party and the Canadian Alliance. The merged Conservative Party made the Liberals lose its majority government in the 2004 federal election and came to power in 2006 by defeating the Liberals. The Conservative Party, led by Stephen Harper, governed Canada from 2006 to 2015, and many people have fond memories of that period.

Harper resigned as party leader after the Conservative Party lost the 2015 general election. The Conservative Party held a leadership election in 2017. Maxime Bernier ran for the party leader and lost to Andrew Sheer by a very narrow margin after 13 rounds of tallying; moreover, in the first 12 rounds of tallying, Bernier led all other candidates, only to lose by a small margin when all other candidates were out in the final round and only Sheer was left to face him. This result was indeed very hard to accept for Bernier. The following year, in 2018, Bernier announced his resignation from the Conservative Party. In his statement of resignation from the party, he stated that he realized that the Conservative Party was "too corrupt intellectually and morally to be reformed", and that the Conservative Party had lost its principles under Sheer's leadership. This is how the People’s Party of Canada (PPC) was formed. Bernier's departure statement was high-sounding, but the words of politicians cannot be simply understood literally; At the time, Harper tweeted: " It is clear that Max never accepted the result of the leadership vote and seeks only to divide Conservatives. "

In the 2019 general election, the People’s Party led by Bernier participated in the federal election for the first time. The Conservative Party led by Sheer lost the general election, and the People’s Party also lost the only seat that Bernier brought over from the Conservative Party; however, it was said that statistics was done to find that the People’s Party helped the Liberal Party led by Trudeau to defeat the Conservatives in 6 ridings. In the next few federal elections, the People’s Party itself failed to win any seat, but it helped the Liberal Party beat the Conservative Party in some ridings.

Bernier's reason for attacking the Conservative Party in this way is that the Conservative Party cannot be reformed and a new party is needed. While his words sound appealing and there are indeed problems within the Conservative Party, the Conversative Party is the main battleground as Trudeau, and abandoning this main battleground and seeking a smaller arena for self-enjoyment may feel good but is actually surrendering and flight. 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 framed 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, innumerable 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 entrance 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 conservatives, ultimately handing victory in the general election to the increasingly extreme Democratic Party and allowing them to destroy the country he loves. And that's precisely what Bernier is doing, dividing the conservatives. Fortunately, the division he has caused within the conservatives is not yet catastrophic and he cannot single-handedly guarantee Trudeau a majority government yet. However, if the People’s Party grows and gains 15% of the vote, this division would be catastrophic for the conservatives, making Trudeau ecstatic.

If Bernier had not chosen to leave the Conservative Party but instead stayed with 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 tweeted that Bernier had never accepted the results of the leadership election and only wanted to divide the conservatives. 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 conservatives, potentially already destroying the democratic freedoms of this country. In this process, even if the People's Party wins a few seats, it will not help, because Trudeau can forcefully advance the agenda with its majority government status; after Trudeau has completely destroyed Canadian democracy and freedom, it is meaningless even if the People's Party dominates the conservatives, because liberty will have been lost and democracy will have ceased to exist (North Korea also has elections).

Sheer, who made Bernier lose the party leadership, stepped down after losing the general election. After Sheer stepped down, the Conservative Party leader Erin O'Toole was very terrible, and made important contributions to the survival and development of the People's Party. If the next leader is as terrible 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 conservatives. 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, who is even worse than O'Toole, ranks second. If Poilievre is smeared to loss, there is a possibility that Charest will be elected, which would bring tremendous benefits to Trudeau and the People’s Party, while Poilievre's ability to unite the conservatives poses a threat to both Trudeau and the People's Party. At this time, an interesting scene appeared: 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 activists, while some People's Party supporters are trying to help people to link Poilievre with the World Economic Forum and the Deep State. However, Poilievre was ultimately elected with overwhelming support. Poilievre was elected in the first round of tallying, and the support he received was really overwhelming, while in the 2017 leadership race that Bernier participated in, it took 13 rounds of tallying 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 massive attack on Poilievre.

The People's Party's attack on Poilievre centers around portraying Poilievre as "basically the same" as Trudeau.

So, are Trudeau and Poilievre really "basically the same"? Let's look at some of their differences:

• Trudeau 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.
• Trudeau mandates experimental vaccine injections for Canadians; Poilievre opposes vaccine mandates.
• Trudeau suppressed protests by truck drivers; Poilievre supports peaceful and lawful protests by truck drivers.
• Trudeau 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.
• Trudeau uses taxpayer money to buy a large number of traditional media outlets as propaganda tool for the Liberal Party, such as CBC; Poilievre advocates for defunding CBC.
• Trudeau 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 boasted 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.
• Trudeau 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 return into society.
• Trudeau imposes and increases carbon taxes, fueling high inflation; Poilievre opposes carbon taxes.
• Trudeau promotes woke policies; Poilievre advocates for ending woke policies.

In order to promote that Poilievre and Trudeau are "basically the same", the People's Party keeps silent about the many important differences between them, and 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, for example, both he and Trudeau supported the legalization of marijuana. After all, 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.

Not only does the People's Party attack Poilievre using misleading tactics in its propaganda, it appears to use similar tactics when it promotes 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, "Bernier voted like a liberal on social issues throughout most of his career as an MP, with the exception of euthanasia which he consistenly opposed. However, he has shifted significantly more to the right during this leadership campaign." It is evident that he is very friendly towards the LGBT community. He participated in "Pride" parade, 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 was a vocal supporter of the LGBTTIQ campaign against traditional values, speaking in favour of a policy resolution to abolish the party's long-time support for the traditional definition of marriage between one man and one woman. This policy resolution, which he supported, was passed at that convention, the traditional definition of marriage that the Conservative Party had long supported was abolished, and this greatly disappointed many people who uphold traditional values; but now Bernier is promoting himself to this same group of people, 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. Finally, this bill became law in 2017, providing legal protection for LBGT, especially transgender people, to push their ways everywhere. Recently, 16-year-old high school student Josh Alexander expressed his opposition to the school's transgender 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'm the only candidate who will speak for real 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 to freely enter women's restrooms and shower rooms (as long as they claim to identify as women). When his supporters use terms like "lefties" to mock left-wing individuals who support transgender bathroom policy, I wonder if they realize that their own leader is also such a "leftie".

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 repealing of Bill C-16. This is the "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, "It is completely unacceptable that not a single elected MP is brave enough to stand up for women and children, and basic biological realities! I have been speaking out against this madness for many years already, and I will continue to speak out against it in Parliament once I am elected MP for Portage-Lisgar." However, it was Bernier's vote in favor of Bill C-16 that helped put women's privacy and safety at risk. Isn't he contradicting himself? He did issue a statement in the past 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 should be 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" parade, 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? The political platform he is currently promoting, which is very popular with conservatives, was basically put forward after he established the People’s Party; If these policies are his true political beliefs and not just a way to undermine the Conservative Party's support by doing what their supporters like, why didn't he propose those policies during his 12 years as a Conservative Party Member of Parliament?

Currently, Bernier is running as a candidate for the Portage-Lisgar riding in the Manitoba provincial by-election (scheduled for June). Now, he is confronting the LGBT community and proposes to reopen the abortion debate, 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 pro-life (Leslyn Lewis, a shadow cabinet member of Poilievre, is truly pro-life). When he was a Conservative Party Member of Parliament, he voted against Stephen Woodworth's Motion 312 which sought to study when a child in the womb becomes a human being. He also voted against Bill C-510 which sought to protect pregnant women from coercion to abort. 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? At that time, will it be necessary for another person to stand up and accuse the People's Party of being falsely conservative and hopeless, and then form a new party? Will the supporters of that new party be angry: What is the difference between the People's Party and 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 that Trudeau is destroying this country step by step.

So far it looks like Bernier doesn't intend to bring the Conservatives together to get Trudeau out of office, but conservative individuals can contribute to unity with their own actions. Many voters who previously supported the People's Party in the last election are satisfied with Poilievre and have recognized that removing Trudeau from power is the most important thing. Many people have also noticed there's something wrong with Bernier's attacks on Poilievre. They have already planned to support the Conservative Party led by Poilievre in the next general election, unite with the majority of conservatives and concentrate their efforts to drive Trudeau out of power.