People’s Party of Canada Leader Maxime Bernier is facing a leadership review following a poor performance in the 2025 federal election.
The PPC garnered less than 1 percent of the national vote with just 141,212 ballots cast. The Conservatives achieved victory in Bernier’s Quebec constituency of Beauce, where the PPC leader secured fourth place with 3,626 votes, representing 5.8 percent of the total support.
The executive committee of the PPC has initiated the 2025 leadership review to evaluate members’ confidence in Bernier’s leadership.
The leadership vote kicked off on May 20 and will remain open to eligible party members until midnight on June 20. Members must have been affiliated with the PPC on or before the federal election date of April 28 to be eligible to vote.
The ballot poses the question: “Do you support Maxime Bernier remaining as leader of the People’s Party of Canada?” Members can answer either “yes” or “no.”
It is not uncommon for political parties to conduct a leadership review following an election loss. The party’s 2021 leadership review saw Bernier achieve a 95.6 percent approval rating.
Political Career
Bernier began his political career with the Conservative Party but left caucus in 2018 to form the PPC. He served as an independent member of Parliament after he left the party until the 2019 election.
Bernier was MP for Beauce between 2006 and 2018 under the Tories, and served as a minister in the cabinet of the Stephen Harper government. He managed key portfolios, first in industry and later in foreign affairs between 2006 and 2008, but was then relegated to the back bench until 2011. He was then handed a junior ministerial post when he was appointed as Minister of State, a position he held until the 2015 election when the Tories lost to Justin Trudeau’s Liberals.
He ran for the Conservative leadership after Harper stepped down following the election loss, coming in second in a close race with Andrew Scheer.
He left the Tories in August 2018, saying the party was “too intellectually and morally corrupt to be reformed.”
He ran under the PPC banner in the 2019 election on a platform advocating for drastically reduced immigration levels and withdrawal from the Paris climate accord. The party garnered less than two percent of the popular vote and did not secure any seats.
His party fared better in the 2021 election when the PPC vocally opposed COVID-19 restrictions and vaccine passports. It more than doubled its share of ballots nationally to take nearly 5 percent of the popular vote although it again won no seats.
In his most recent campaign, Bernier emphasized the necessity for reform and advocated for free trade with the United States, while also prioritizing the reduction of equalization payments to provinces, especially in Western Canada. Other key platform issues included immigration reform, building oil and gas pipelines, freedom of speech, reforming supply management, and outlawing the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and gender transition surgery for minors.
Bernier called the party’s 4 percent drop in the popular vote “very disappointing” in his speech after the election, which he said “became a referendum on Trump.”
“Canadian politics is more polarized than ever around the two largest parties, leaving little space for the smaller parties, which all suffered major setbacks,” he said. “Many people may be wondering today, is there a future for the People’s Party? The answer is: Yes, of course there is.”
The results of the leadership review will be crucial in shaping the PPC’s future. A transition in leadership may indicate a tactical shift intended to reconnect with disenchanted voters and reshape the party’s position within Canadian politics.
If Bernier remains in his role as leader, he will be tasked with the challenge of rejuvenating the party’s image and broadening its support base.
