Maxime Bernier’s People’s Party Gaining in Election Polls

Maxime Bernier, Leader of the People's Party of Canada, prepares to speak to the crowd as protesters demonstrate against measures taken by government and public health authorities to curb the spread of COVID-19, in Toronto on May 15, 2021. The Canadian Press/Chris Young

The People’s Party of Canada has been gaining in the polls, increasing its support compared to its share of popular support in the 2019 election and surpassing the Green Party.

On Sept. 6, polling aggregator 338Canada showed the PPC at 3.8 percent support nationally compared with the Greens at 3.4 percent. The two parties were tied at 4 percent on Sept. 2. In the 2019 election, the PPC had 1.6 percent of the popular vote and the Greens had 6.6 percent.

PPC Leader Maxime Bernier has been campaigning across Canada since the election was called, including in Alberta, where his party enjoys higher support. Early this week he was in Manitoba, with some of his rallies drawing hundreds of people, according to a series of photos he posted on Twitter.

During the 2019 election, the party lost its sole seat—that of Bernier, which he had won as a Conservative in 2015.

Bernier has centred his campaign on focusing on personal liberties such as opposing mandatory COVID-19 vaccination, cutting government spending, and reducing taxes.

“A PPC government will make it a priority to liberalize trade and labour mobility between provinces and territories,” reads a party statement on Sept. 7. “A People’s Party government will reassert the authority and leadership of the federal government on internal trade.”

Bernier has been excluded from the Sept. 8 and 9 French and English leaders’ debates for not meeting the criteria set out by the Leader’s Debates Commission. He said in a statement he was “disappointed, but not surprised” to learn that he would not be included.

“I do not blame the commission, whose criteria were clear and objective. Rather, I blame the political establishment cartel, which refuses to debate the crucial issues we raise and has done everything to marginalize us since the founding of the PPC,” he said.