Maxime Bernier, Canada’s first populist leader and PPC founder, defends his anti-immigration stance after the party’s 2021 election failure, citing Quebec’s 30,000+ illegal border crossings as a model for national debate. He dismisses smear tactics—like Kinsella’s alleged Conservative-funded racism claims—as politically motivated, despite a pending lawsuit. Bernier’s new weekly YouTube show, featuring economists and potential leftist dialogues, aims to bypass media exclusion (e.g., CBC) while promoting freedom and fairness. Levant compares Canada’s slow populist rise to Europe’s Salvini, Wilders, and Legault’s success, suggesting cultural resistance stifles such movements—though Bernier’s unfiltered approach could shift the tide. [Automatically generated summary]
It's January 6th, and this is the Ezra Levant Show.
Why should others go to jail when you're the biggest carbon consumer I know?
There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.
The only thing I have to say is government about why I'm publishing is because it's my bloody right to do so.
It's a snowy day, but I've gone to Montreal to meet up with Maxime Bernier.
He was the founding leader of the People's Party of Canada, a former Stephen Harper Conservative minister who split from the party after narrowly losing the last leadership race to Andrew Scheer.
He was the source of some controversy because, of course, he split the Conservative Party after the party spent so much effort trying to unite the right.
But in his own defense, I'm not sure if the party was that conservative under Andrew Scheer.
I'm going to ask him some questions today about his plans now that the PPC did not re-elect any MPs, including himself.
Is he still going to fight for the freedom ideas that became his signature?
Is he going to run in the leadership for the Conservative Party a second time?
What's he going to do?
He's a likable fellow, someone I wish had stayed within the Conservative Party.
If he had, I think he'd be the heir apparent right now.
But we'll sit down with him and talk to him about his plans today on a special episode of the Ezra Levant Show.
Update, I just landed back in Toronto after being delayed in Montreal for the snowstorm.
And I landed to learn that the video of my interview with Maxime Bernier was delayed.
As you may know, I recorded it in Bernier's new studio, and it was the first time they used it.
So there are all sorts of snafus with getting the video and the sound back.
So I'm sorry about that.
We were able to get some footage that we'll play tonight, but the rest will have to wait to tomorrow.
And I apologize.
Sometimes things like this happen in video.
I'm pleased to say our side worked very efficiently and effectively.
But at the studio that Bernier had in Montreal, it was their first time doing it, and there were some first-time glitches.
So anyways, I hope you enjoy this.
I'll play the rest tomorrow.
And I'm back in Toronto now, so we'll have a regular show.
Thanks for your patience.
Quebec As An Example00:10:04
I've traveled to Europe in recent years, and I've seen the rise of populist, nationalist, democratic parties that focus a little bit on free speech, controlling borders.
Immigration, yeah.
Yeah, I've seen it all across Europe.
Sometimes they actually win.
Sometimes they come in second.
But they're very viable.
Like even like Italy, right now there's a real populist movement with Salvini.
And there's a place in Canada for us.
Well, I mean, Brexit won.
Trump won.
I thought maybe you would be that force.
And I know from the success of Rebel News that there are a lot of people who want to talk about those issues I've just mentioned.
Why institutionally have we not been able to copy Brexit, Trump, Salvini, Geert Wilders in Holland, even Le Pen in France?
Some people object to her, but just the populist nationalists, let's get out of the UN or get out of the EU.
Why haven't we?
I mean, is it the media?
Is it the culture?
Why can't we do that here?
First of all, we didn't have a populist leader before, and I think I'm the first one.
But I think we will.
That's our future at the People's Party.
The more we are there, the more we speak about our ideas, the better it will be for us.
Maybe the immigration crisis in Europe was a little bit bigger than in Canada.
Right now, we still have illegal migrants that are crossing the border in Quebec.
It's still, you know, it's not sustainable.
But you don't speak about that in Ottawa right now.
The Conservatives Party doesn't speak about that right now.
What are they afraid of?
Like, what are they really afraid of?
The CBC already hates them.
They can't double hate them.
But they're afraid to be people who say, oh, maybe you're racist.
You know what happened to me at the last election?
Kinsella with the Conservative Party of Canada.
The Conservative paid Kinsella to discredit our party.
I heard you're suing, is that right?
I'm suing him.
Yeah, I'm suing him.
Absolutely.
It's my reputation.
It's our reputation.
But they're afraid of that.
They're afraid of the mainstream media, but you need to do the fight.
And people know that we are doing that fight for a better country.
Well, let me ask you about that because, I mean, in Germany, for example, the alternative for Deutschland, the AFD party, it's been around for 10 years or so, I'm not sure exactly.
And it's starting, people are getting used to them, they're comfortable with them, and they're a fact of life, and they're not going to go away.
And they've managed to resist the cancel culture.
Let me ask you this.
You don't have the seat in Parliament now.
You have professional, dirty tricksters like Warren Kinsella smearing you as a racist.
You were telling me earlier that you were speaking somewhere in Quebec and someone tried to have you banned, which never would have happened in the past.
Are you worried that you will be cancelled?
You will be deplatformed.
You're a pretty big fish to be deplatformed, but they de-platformed big people in the US and the UK.
I'm glad you're starting your YouTube channel and I'm glad you want to keep working, but are you worried you will be shut out, banned from the CBC, banned from newspapers other than far-right Maxime Bernier?
Are you worried that you're going to be demonized?
I hope it won't happen, but that's a risk.
And if that happened, that would be huge.
Because, you know, former minister, you know, member of parliament for 30 years, look at my past, you know, look at my videos that I did a couple of years ago.
It's always about the same ideas.
So they cannot say that Bernier is an extreme right-wing radical.
They cannot, if they look at what I said the last 30 years as an active politician.
And so I don't think it will happen.
But that's a risk.
And I hope in Canada it won't happen.
I was at the Les Coulés de Pouoir in French a couple of weeks ago.
What does that mean?
The Coulés de Pouir, it's the daily, not daily, weekly show in French CBC, Radu Canada, speaking about politics, like the House.
It's in French in Quebec.
And so, but for the country.
And I was there and I explained to them what I was doing.
And so I hope I will still have some to be at the Radu Canada or CBC.
But it's a big challenge for us.
One phone call from the Prime Minister's office and that'll stop.
It can happen.
Let me ask you one last question.
You've been very generous with your time.
I think about Quebec.
And I mean, I don't know, I don't speak French very well at all.
So what I hear is filtered through the Anglo-media, which I know I'm getting a distorted view.
But Legault and the CAC party started from scratch not too long ago, replaced both the red and the blue team, replaced both the Parti Québécois and the Liberals.
Absolutely.
Majority.
We already talked.
He's the most popular premier in the country based on polls.
And the most important in Quebec is very, very popular.
And I mean, I don't know how important the immigration comments and the secular, you know, no Burke is in the workplace.
I don't know how important they are.
I think people care about that.
And I think in Quebec they maybe care extra much because they've been talking about identity and they're worried.
Quebecers are worried that they'll lose their hundreds of years of history and they'll be washed away like a drop in the sea.
So I'm a Western boy originally from Calgary and I'm in Toronto now and I'm right-wing Reform Party Preston Manning.
But maybe the hope comes from Quebec.
I always thought of Quebec as a socialist place and economically it probably is.
But culturally, maybe by some definitions it's a conservative place.
And maybe Quebec can be an example for the rest of us.
And that good news can come from Quebec and a role model can come from Quebec, maybe not on economics, but on culture.
And not on pipelines.
Yeah, not on pipelines.
And those are big things.
But on immigration, I think you have a point there.
How can we get that to spread to Anglo-Canada?
Yeah, but I try to do that.
But on immigration, identity, Quebec use and still fight for their identity, francophone in North America.
And I think in English Canada, they know what's happening right now in Europe.
And they're looking at it and they say, you know, we must do like we did in the past, being able to select our immigrants.
And it's a privilege to be Canadians and not these people who are crossing illegally or borders right now.
So that debate on immigration, I think we can have, I hope at the next election, I will be able to have a debate on that subject.
I was not able to, you know, I was shut down and by Kinsella and the Conservative Party, you're a racist.
So I hope that, and that didn't happen in Quebec.
In the media and Quebec, people know Maxine Bernie and they're used to that debate.
Nobody said in Quebec that I was a racist.
And Kinsella was not credible in Quebec.
But in English Canada, you know, people will say, what's that language about immigration?
They were not used to that.
But the more you speak about that, the better it will be.
So there's a nice, I think there's a future for a populist party in this country.
That's why I'm fighting for that.
All right, very interesting.
We spoke yesterday.
You told me you were having a new show, a weekly show.
That's why I'm here.
And I said, well, if I go on your show, can you come on mine?
Tell us a little bit about your plans for the weekly show.
I'm glad you're coming on YouTube.
I hope you're not deplatformed on YouTube.
Tell me, without giving away, you know, I don't want to steal your thunder, but tell us what you can about your new program and the kind of things you want to do.
Yeah, first of all, I will comment the news for sure.
I will have an interview every week with a different person.
And I'm very pleased that you are the first one talking about free speech.
And we'll have a discussion about the deficit and monetary policy with a statistician and an economist at a couple of shows from now.
We'll have university professor having some discussion.
So the goal is to have debates and to engage a discussion.
And I'm open also to have some leftists that want to debate something with me at my show.
I'm open for that.
And And the goal for me personally is to use the social media and YouTube to promote our ideas because we think that we have the best ideas based on freedom, personal responsibility, respect, fairness.
So that's why it was important and it is important for me to start that YouTube channel.
Well, we'll sure be watching it.
And if it's on YouTube, we'll be able to embed your YouTube videos right on our website so people will find it and we'll be sure to keep an eye peel.
Yeah, that's the official People's Party of Canada YouTube channel.
Perfect.
We'll have a link to it on the show.
Great to see you.
I'm glad you're in high spirits.
I'm glad you've got big plans.
And I hope that some of your ideas will find purchase in the Canadian political culture because we sure need it.
And thank you for having me here.
Right on, nice to see you.
Well, that's it for today, my friends.
I'll be back in Toronto tomorrow if any of the planes will still depart from the snowy airport here.