Maxime Bernier explores the future of Canadian Leadership

In this episode Constitutional Lawyer Leighton Grey and Maxime Bernier have a conversation about the inherent corruption that exists in our current political system, how he intends to make a difference in Canadian politics, and the role current policy plays in our economy.

Maxime Bernier is a Canadian politician who is the founder and leader of the People's Party of Canada. Bernier was formerly a member of the Conservative Party and left the caucus in 2018 to form the PPC. He was the member of Parliament for Beauce from 2006 to 2019 and served as a Cabinet minister in the Harper government. Prior to entering politics, Bernier worked in law, finance and banking. He was first elected to the House of Commons as a Conservative in the 2006 election in the same riding his father, Gilles Bernier, had represented from 1984 to 1997.

Bernier held a number of portfolios in Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Cabinet. Bernier ran for the Conservative Party leadership in the 2017 leadership election. After leading eventual winner Andrew Scheer through 12 rounds of voting, he came second with over 49 per cent in the 13th round. Fifteen months later, in August 2018, Bernier resigned from the Conservative Party to create his own party, the right-wing populist People's Party, citing disagreements with Scheer's leadership. Bernier was born in Saint-Georges, Quebec, the son of Doris (Rodrigue) and Gilles Bernier, a well known radio host, who represented the riding of Beauce from 1984 to 1997, first as a Progressive Conservative and then as an independent.

For 19 years, Bernier held positions in law, several financial and banking fields, such as working as a lawyer at McCarthy Tétrault, rising up to become branch manager at the National Bank, the office of the Securities Commission of Québec as Director of Corporate and International Relations, an adviser (handling fiscal reform) from 1996 to 1998 in the office of Bernard Landry, and Standard Life of Canada as the Vice-President of Corporate Affairs and Communication. On August 23, 2018, Bernier announced that he was leaving the Conservative Party with the intention of founding a new political party.

He held a press conference at which he declared that the Conservative Party was "too intellectually and morally corrupt to be reformed", and was afraid to address important issues or articulate a coherent philosophy. Bernier is strongly critical of public health measures undertaken, having traveled to anti-lockdown protests throughout the country in 2021. On April 17, he spoke to several hundred people in Barrie, Ontario, despite being discouraged from doing so by the mayor and the area's city councilor.

Bernier & Grey explore the future of Canadian Provincial leadership, how federal interference in provincial policy decisions is making things more complicated than necessary, and why today's leadership is trying to avoid discussing “western alienation”.

To find more from Maxime Bernier you can visit: www.MaximeBernier.com

This episode’s recommended reading:

The Constitution of Liberty - F. A. Hayek
https://amzn.to/3SwjGuO

Mises Institute
https://mises.org

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