Maxime Bernier warns Canada’s $4B aid to Ukraine risks nuclear escalation, calling it a U.S.-Russia proxy war with no NATO commitment, unlike past debates under Chrétien or Harper. He argues China—funding McGill, building police stations in Toronto/Vancouver, and eyeing Canadian resources—is a bigger threat than Russia, yet Trudeau’s government ignores this. Media-driven foreign policy hysteria overshadows real concerns like inflation, with Bernier’s People’s Party vowing to challenge debate exclusion in upcoming elections. Levant agrees, citing strategic confusion despite family ties to Ukraine, urging support for their peace-focused, anti-woke stance at peoplespartyofcanada.ca. [Automatically generated summary]
A feature interview with Maxime Bernier of the People's Party.
I want to talk to him about foreign policy.
It's not something that a lot of Canadians think about these days.
We've been so focused on the economy and, of course, the civil liberties bonfire of the pandemic and the lockdowns.
But what about this hurtling war in Ukraine that threatens to engulf many other countries?
What about China?
What about Trudeau and his role in both?
Well, talk to Maxime Bernier about it, and I expect we'll get a more contrarian take than we do from, oh, say, the Conservative Party of Canada.
You can be the judge of that, though.
That's ahead.
But first, let me invite you to become a subscriber to Rebel News Plus.
That's the video version of this podcast.
Just go to rebelnewsplus.com and click subscribe, eight bucks a month.
You get the video version, and you help keep us alive, because as you know, we do not take any government money, which makes us almost unique in Canada.
All right, here's today's show.
Tonight, meet the one Canadian political party leader who's breaking the mold on foreign policy.
It's a feature-length interview with Maxime Bernier.
It's March 1st, and you're watching the Ezra Levant show.
Shame on you, you censorious thug.
Majority For War?00:11:42
I tell you, a year ago, ask anyone on the street where Ukraine is.
Ask them to point to it on a map, and I put it to you that 99% of them would not know.
I put it to you if you did that same thing today.
99% of them would not know.
I'm not disparaging Ukraine.
In fact, my own family came from Ukraine in 1903 from the central city of Dnipro, which has actually changed hands historically over the years.
It was once called Dniepropetrovsk, which is the Russian name.
A lot of cities in that country were Russian, Ukrainian, even Polish over time.
The borders move around.
That's nothing actually new.
I myself am against the invasion of any country by another country.
I believe in sovereign states and borders, and any war is a failure of diplomacy and economy.
There's a saying where goods cross borders, soldiers won't.
That is the utopia that we're working towards, a free market where everyone is at peace with each other and prosperity is the goal, not domination.
Alas, Russia has other ambitions.
But the question on my mind is not, should Russia invade Ukraine?
They have, and they're a big military power run by a former KGB agent.
The question is, what do we in Canada, and more importantly, the United Kingdom and the United States do?
And do we risk a war that could turn nuclear?
In recent weeks, we see that China has increasingly allied itself with Russia.
That portends the gravest realignment of strategic politics.
Well, in 50 years since Richard Nixon broke communist China away from the Soviet Union and tried to reorient it towards the West.
Imagine those two giant foes uniting against the West.
How's it going to end?
Well, you won't find the answer in any mainstream media or any mainstream political party.
Frankly, in the United States, most Republicans seem to be gung-ho just as gung-ho on the war in Ukraine as the Democrats.
They're traveling to Kiev for their photo ops with President Zelensky, and most Republicans are voting to send billions of dollars and high-tech equipment to the war.
There's not a lot of talk of peace or diplomacy.
Well, today we're going to spend some time with one of the few politicians in Canada who's willing to be contrarian on this subject.
I refer, of course, to Maxime Bernier, the leader of the People's Party of Canada.
He joins us now from Montreal via Skype.
Maxime Bernier, great to see you again.
Thanks for taking the time with us.
Thank you, Ezra, for giving me that opportunity.
Well, it's a pleasure.
And I don't want to be panicky.
I don't want to be thin-skinned.
I don't want to be alarmist.
And I certainly don't want to be a peacenick or someone who is, I don't know, ideologically weak.
But I don't think it's a sign of weakness to be concerned about a growing convergence of men and materiel and rhetoric, warlike rhetoric, when there's nuclear weapons on the other side.
I just think this is unlike any other conflict in the world, the Saudi-Yemen conflict, for example, because at the end of the day, Russia has nukes.
I have to tell you, I'm a little bit scared of the brinksmanship here.
That's my view.
But enough from me.
I'd like to hear your views, and I'd like to hear them at length for our viewers.
Yes, you have a point there, Ezra.
And as you know, in the legacy media, it's all about Ukraine.
And if you're not pro-Ukraine, you're pro-Putin and you're not a good Canadian.
You know, there's only one narrative.
And that's great that you are bringing the other side of the story.
That is very important.
And actually, I was looking at a poll, I believe, a couple of days ago, and that was saying that about 21% of Canadians are looking for an agreement, a peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia.
So 21%, it's almost a quarter of the population when you have only one narrative in the mainstream media.
So imagine if these mainstream media were able to be more neutral in that war, I believe that that percentage would have been a little bit higher.
That being said, it is not in our history, in our culture here in Canada to be pro-war.
And I'm looking at what is happening, like you said, in parliament in Ottawa.
All these establishment political parties, including the NDP, we must think that the NDP of Ed Bradban and Jack Clayton were for, they were for peace at that time, but not right now with their new leader.
They're with Trudeau, like the conservative.
But, you know, when you have a country like Russia who's having the nuclear power, it's very, very dangerous.
And now we are seeing the U.S. that are saying they will give more ammunitions, more equipment.
And we are doing the same thing.
And here in Canada, as you may know, we gave about $4 billion to Ukraine.
We are broke and we are giving money away and equipment.
Our Canadian forces didn't have the right equipment right now.
And we are giving our equipment to Ukraine.
It's not our war.
And, you know, I'm looking in the past like Jean-Cretien, when the U.S. wanted us to be part of the war in Iraq.
And Chrétien said, no, there's no UN Security Council decision on that.
I won't participate in that war.
Same thing like in the 1950s during the Suez crisis, the canal of Suez crisis in the 1950s.
Our country was a peace maker and we were not part of that conflict.
So there's a lot of precedent, historical precedent.
And now we didn't have any debates in parliament in Ottawa about the position of our country.
And we are making Russia, an enemy of our country when Russia is our neighbor.
And I must admit, Israel, that I'm more scared about China than Russia.
So we, the PPC, we have a position that is for peace and prosperity.
And I said that in the beginning of that conflict, it is not our conflict.
And usually, you know, Ukraine is not a member of NATO.
We are a member of NATO.
And being a member of NATO, we have the obligation to help other countries, other members' countries, when a war happened.
But Ukraine is not part of NATO.
And we are there fighting against Russia.
It's a proxy war for me between the U.S. and Russia.
And, you know, 80% of the world is looking at that.
So there's no unanimity like the mainstream media try to tell us all over the globe that everybody is pro-Ukraine.
No, it's more complicated than that.
And I believe that it is not our war.
And I'm a little bit scared about what can happen in the near future because of the nuclear weapons that Russia has.
So we don't know what can happen.
And our role must be to try to have a ceasefire and try to promote peace and prosperity.
But I'm the only one in Canada as the leader of a national political party that is saying that.
You know, I remember when Canada wanted to be the fair dealer, the middleman, the peace broker.
You know, that was a stance that Canada took sometimes in Middle Eastern entanglements.
And peacekeeping was our forte.
You don't hear a lot of talk about either of those things now.
You know, it's interesting you mentioned that there was no debate, let alone a vote in parliament.
I remember when the United States deposed Muammar Gaddafi in Libya.
And Muammar Gaddafi did not have nuclear weapons.
He was actually easy pickings.
I think that that's been a terrible, there have been terrible consequences.
I think that started a massive migration crisis in Europe.
I think it helped start a lot of terrorists and open-air slave markets again.
I think terrible things have come.
Canada had a small role in that.
I think we sent one ship and had some planes.
Stephen Harper was the prime minister of the day, if I recall.
He allowed a debate in parliament, which is more than I think Trudeau has done here.
And I think he allowed a vote.
I'm going from memory.
You might remember better than me.
And I remember Elizabeth May of the Green Party was against it.
And I have many disagreements with her.
But that is the Green point of view.
Peace.
Let's solve things.
Let's not just smash things.
And I guess the reason I refer to that is because I think Stephen Harper was under enormous pressure to go along with the U.S., even though Libya really isn't our quarrel.
But he went along in the most minimal way, like deploying a ship, and there were no troops on the ground.
There was no risk to Canadians.
There was no risk of nuclear missiles being lobbed at us.
There was a debate.
I think Canada went along in a grudging way, but it was enough for the United States to say, okay, our ally, Canada, was there with us.
We didn't lose face.
But what's happening under Trudeau is very different.
No vote, no debate, serious commitment of money and military equipment.
And most importantly, there is a risk that Russia will respond not just to Ukraine, but outside that theater of war.
What happened, not just to Trudeau, but what happened to the left?
Where is the Elizabeth May of 2023 voting against this war, or at least speaking against the war?
Where's all the peacekists?
You're right about that.
And I believe that they are pro-war, the Green and the NDP and liberals and conservative, because of the propaganda machine.
I believe that the legacy media were very good to be 100% pro-Ukraine and it was very popular.
And so if you're a member of parliament in the opposition, you want to be with the majority.
And still today, a majority of Canadians are okay with that war.
So they're not able to have the other point of view in front of them.
So that's why you have a huge majority for that war and for the participation of our country in that war.
And these politicians don't have any conviction and they're following the majority of the population.
But if you're a leader, you must lead and you must have strong ideas and try to present them to these ideas to Canadians.
Pro-Diplomatic Solution00:07:17
And that is what we are doing.
It's not popular.
That position about being pro-peace and prosperity and for a diplomatic solution, that solution is not popular.
But I believe that if you look at the history and if you look at that conflict with what happened the last couple of months, that must be the position.
And I was pleased to see in France, there's a couple of former diplomats that said, you know, it's a long war and it's a little bit too long and it's very dangerous.
We must find a way to get out of that war.
And, you know, these territories, like you said, Donbass and Crimea, they were under different jurisdictions the last 200 years.
So we must have a discussion with other countries about that.
And maybe these territories will stay with Russia.
And we need to have as soon as possible that ceasefire.
But what we are doing, we, the West, we are pushing, like you said in the beginning, we are pushing Russia in the arms of China.
And our sanctions, financial sanctions were not efficient.
The rubble went to the roof.
The economy is going well in Russia.
And now they're dealing and selling their oil and gas to other countries in the Middle East and in China.
So if you look at the situation, the global situation, the political situation in the West and East and with China, it's a big mess because of the participation of the U.S. and us in that war.
You know, I just feel like everything is ratcheting it up.
It's a brinksmanship.
It's like a poker game when each side is raising the stakes again and again and again.
I don't think the analogy is perfect with World War I, but you had so many alliances and so many things that were triggered by the assassination of the Archduke.
And then that made one domino fall and then another and then another.
And everyone was sort of pulled into a war that no one had foreseen.
I think what you have here in Ukraine is such escalating rhetoric, whether it's from Zelensky or the Prime Minister of the UK who's talking about long-range weapons or Joe Biden visiting.
It's just everything is getting more and more intense.
And I just don't see an off-ramp there.
I mean, it feels like a brinkmanship.
I don't know why Canada is getting swept up in it.
Maybe it's diaspora of politics.
Is it because there's so many Ukrainian Canadians?
Is it just an appeal for that vote domestically?
Or is it pressure from the Biden administration?
Like, why is Melanie Jolie giving a statement like this, basically saying this is the most important thing in the world?
Here's a quick clip of her.
Canadians know that in order to get to lasting peace, we need to make sure that we continue to arm Ukraine.
And when doing so, there's still a lot to do.
And for sure, we will be doing more.
That's what I can tell you right now.
What's that all about?
Why is she doing that?
Is it for votes or is it pressure from Biden?
Or does she actually believe it?
Yeah, you know, what she's saying, she's saying the same thing that Biden said, and other countries, you know, like Ukraine will win.
But it will be very difficult.
They will have a lot of human life that, you know, Ukraine, I don't know how many lives men and women and children that died because of that war.
You know, the more you are giving ammunition, the more you are giving equipment, the more you are giving missiles to Ukraine, the more debt you'll have.
And I believe that actually the fact that they escalate that conflict and the fact that we don't have a leader, you know, a leader of any countries that is very strong about speaking about peace and prosperity, that's a little bit scary.
Usually, when you have conflicts like that, you have one or two or three countries that will be out there and promote a diplomatic solution, a ceasefire.
But we don't see that right now.
And everybody is saying, you know, oh, that we are ready for that war.
We will give more equipment.
More equipment means more debt on both sides.
So there's no win-win in that situation.
And I believe that our country is in that war, proxy war against Russia, because of the big Canadian community from Ukraine origin, more than 1.2 million people.
And, you know, they want to have their support.
They want to buy vote.
Actually, I was in Manitoba a couple of days ago, and there's a lot of Canadians from Ukraine origin.
And I was speaking about our position.
And I can tell you, Ezra, it was not popular.
But I said to them, this must be the situation.
This must be the position of our country.
It is too dangerous right now.
And we can be in a bigger conflict in a couple of weeks or months.
So let's have, you know, let's put people around the table and try to have a diplomatic solution.
But I don't hear that outside our country and in Europe.
So that's why that nuclear war can happen a day.
You know, and I don't, I hope it won't, but it's a big risk.
And I believe that a lot of people don't understand that.
You know, when I was in Davos at the World Economic Forum a few weeks ago, I went to the Ukraine pavilion and the real emphasis there was on human casualties and civilian casualties.
And they were trying to make the legal case that it was war crimes.
And I don't know if that, I don't know if that's the case.
I mean, obviously, civilians die in every war.
That's a great tragedy.
But it did soften my heart.
But it left me with the idea: you have all these Western politicians who were ready to fight to the last Ukrainian.
You know, I mean, it really has become a battleground for the Warsaw Pact versus NATO.
It's almost like the fight they never had during the Cold War is being rerun now, and Ukraine is the unhappy location for it.
So it increased my sympathy.
Going to this Ukraine pavilion at Davos absolutely made me more sensitive to the human toll of it.
But that didn't make me more pro-war.
That made me more pro-diplomatic solution.
I just find it bizarre.
But you said something I'd like to follow up on.
You said that you think that China is a greater threat than Russia.
And I think there's a lot of truth to that.
China's Global Threat00:10:05
But I'd like to understand why you think so and what kind of dangers you think China poses, not just to Canada, but to the world.
And what do you see with their increasing closeness with Russia in part over this Ukraine battle?
Give me a few minutes on your thoughts on China.
Yes, absolutely.
We've read in the news a couple of days ago about a report coming from CISIS saying that China had a huge influence in our electoral process at the last election.
And they were favoring some candidates and they spend money to help some candidates to be elected.
But that's not only that.
The Chinese Communist Party is spending money and he is giving money to some universities here in our country.
They have a huge influence in Miguel University and other universities across the country with their funding.
And that must be illegal.
And also, we know that the Chinese Communist Party has a police, Chinese police station in our big cities in Toronto and Vancouver.
That's illegal in line.
If you look at the international law, that is illegal.
And the Trudeau government is not doing anything about that.
So I'm scary about that communist ideology that is everywhere in our university, the socialism.
So that influence of China, and as you know, China also tried to buy our natural resources.
But at least we have a Canadian Investment Act.
I was industry minister, so I know pretty well that act.
And when there's a huge investment for our natural resources or in another industry, the federal government has the power to stop that.
And if it's not in line with our Canadian interest.
But I know that China is looking at our natural resources.
So they're everywhere.
And you have the Trudeau government that is doing, you know, no, for him, it's not so important.
The biggest enemy of our country for Trudeau is Russia.
That must not be the case.
That must be China.
And as you know, I don't want to have Russia as our enemy because they are neighbors.
And, you know, it's so dangerous for the security of our country, what Trudeau is doing in Ukraine and what Trudeau is not doing concerning China.
I think that for the last three years, the political attention span of Canadians has been directed to the pandemic, to lockdowns, to the infringements on our personal liberties because of these crazy years.
And if there's any time left over after thinking about that, it's probably things like the price of housing, the cost of living, inflation, the carbon tax.
I mean, there's only 24 hours a day and there's only so much time and attention people can pay to politics.
I bet if there was some way to measure, the amount of time people think about foreign policy has probably been, I think it's very low.
Now, I don't know how many ordinary people are focused on the Ukraine war because I feel like that's been propagated by our own media.
They talk about it relentlessly.
I don't know if ordinary people talk about it over a water cooler.
But I think that Canadians have generally not been as foreign policy oriented as, say, the United States, because they're so important.
They can change the world.
Just, you know, they have the military, they have the economy.
We typically don't make that much of a difference on our own.
And I think, you know, as the diplomat a century ago said, we're, you know, fireproof material far away from flammable, you know, we're a fireproof house far away from flammable materials, I believe, is the old quote of the Canadian diplomat saying, we don't have a lot to worry about here, thank God.
So let me ask you this.
Do Canadians care about these things or is it just the latest thing, like put a Black Lives Matter symbol on your Twitter account?
Okay, now put a gay pride flag on your Facebook account.
Okay, now what's the next thing?
Wear a mask.
Okay, like it's the next thing that people do to show that they're fashionable.
Is this, is foreign policy a serious concern for Canadians or is it just a fashion that will be replaced in a year by something else?
I believe that Canadians are following the trend and they are, you know, the influence of legacy media is huge.
But also I believe that Canadians understand that our relationship with the U.S. is very important.
And I think they understand that.
But also what they must understand is we have the right to say no to the U.S.
We are a friend with the U.S. and we are a sovereign country at the same time.
And actually, Jean-Cretien did say yes to the U.S. during the war in Iraq.
He said, no, I won't participate in that war.
There's no UN security mandate.
And I think that was a good decision.
But I believe that Canadians are looking at the U.S. and saying, okay, if it's good for the U.S., it must be good for us.
But not all the time.
And now the influence of the mainstream media is huge with that war in Ukraine.
So it's a challenge that we have in our country.
When you speak about foreign policies, it's a little bit more challenging for a politician to express that in more than a clip or five seconds in the news.
But that's something that we must do.
And I'm doing as a politician, try to explain the file all together and looking at it in a comprehensive manner.
Let me ask you one more question about public priorities, because I saw recently a poll by Abacus Research, which is liberal aligned.
So I think they're always going to give the benefit of the doubt to the liberals.
So when they say something surprising that's critical of the liberals, I pay attention because I don't think it's in their nature.
Their president, David Coletto, recently posted a graph showing, well, there's a number of things.
They had a graph showing the top issues of Canadians.
And of course, there was also a fascinating access to information document that I saw published on what the top issues are that Canadians write to the prime minister about, like by the hundreds of thousands.
And what's interesting about both of these two things, the polling numbers and the letters that people write to the prime minister, they're not woke.
They're not about obscure, woke issues like transgenderism or global warming actually is very, very low on the list.
It's things like, like I said before, the cost of living, prosperity, taxes, unemployment, the recession.
People are worried about their jobs.
People can't keep up with expenses.
And in a way, it's good that people are focused on important things.
But here's my question to you.
Foreign affairs wasn't on those lists other than people are, some people are concerned about Ukraine.
But the trucker commission, the convoy, the civil liberties blowout of the last three years, I think that a lot of people, if they haven't forgotten about it, they're just happy to move on from it.
And here's my point.
I'm sorry it's taken me so long to come to it.
No.
I'm worried that these important issues like civil liberties and prosperity and peace, I'm worried that they're fun for pundits to talk about and to debate about.
But at the end of the day, people are just going to vote for who they think is going to put the most money in their pocket or take the least out of their pocket.
And maybe that's the right thing.
I wish people cared more about civil liberties.
I wish more people cared about the trucker convoy and how Trudeau smashed it.
But maybe they don't.
Maybe that's gone.
What do you think?
Yes, actually, also because now it's not in the news anymore.
And we know that inflation is real and our standard of living is going down.
So when you have a huge difficulty to bring food on your table, that's your first concern.
But, you know, all that wokeism and the fact that we cannot take for granted our freedoms anymore in our country, I think it's in their mind, you know, in the back of their mind.
And when something will happen, we'll be back in the news.
I believe people were going to be, oh, no, no, that's important.
Look at the woke in school and, you know, in journalism.
You know, when it's going too far.
And I believe that when something happened, like, you know, you have a teacher in Ontario that teach with a costume, as you know, with a fake breast.
And it's so crazy.
It's so not normal.
I believe when you have something like that, people will say, okay, enough is enough.
But if nothing happened in the news, they will go back to their first priority.
That is their job, the standard of living.
And I can understand that.
Next Election Based on Principles00:09:23
So that's why for us, we try to speak about these issues, foreign policies, immigration, the war in Ukraine, wokeism.
And we want people to know that there's other important challenges that we have as a country.
You know, you say you're out there campaigning.
You were in Manitoba recently.
You say, do you think there's going to be an election in 2023?
In some ways, it makes sense.
There was one in 2019, then 2021.
It almost goes to follow that there would be one this year, especially given the minority government.
Do you think that's going to happen?
For me, personally, I hope.
I'm tired of that government.
And I hope that Canadians can go as soon as possible and to vote for the party that they want.
But I don't think so.
I believe that it is not in the advantage of the NDP to have an election.
I believe that they will support Trudeau in the next budget.
But we never know.
And as a political party, we need to be ready.
And that's why we will start in a couple of days a call for candidates and being ready to have a candidate in every riding.
Our goal is to have a full slate of candidates at the next election and having our candidates before the end of this year because we don't know when the election will be.
But also, I understand that we will have a couple of by-elections in Canada in the next six months in Manitoba, in Ontario.
I believe there will be about five by-elections.
That will be a nice opportunity for Canadians in these ridings to express their point of view about the situation in our country.
I wish we can have a general election soon, but I don't think so.
I think the NDP will look at their own interest, and it is not in their own interest to have an election right now.
I think you're probably right.
One last question about elections.
I remember in the last election, you were banned from the leaders' debates, even though you met their thresholds.
You know, they came up with some formula for who was allowed to be there and not.
They kept you out.
They did the same to us, by the way, to Rebel News.
They wouldn't let our journalists in.
We went to the federal court and we won in an emergency application, and the court ordered them to accredit us.
Now, that's a little bit different than ordering them to let a candidate on the stage.
I mean, it was absurd that they kept us out.
There were 200 journalists there.
What difference did it make for us to have a few?
It's a little bit more sensitive, I guess, how many people get to be on the table.
But I think that was part of this group think.
By keeping you off of that debate, they ensured no one heard a different point of view.
They did that in the Ontario election, too.
They didn't allow any smaller parties other than the Green Party, which was identical to the other ones.
They had the simulation of disagreement, but the actual dissenting parties weren't there.
Will you try to get access to the leaders' debates in the next election?
And if they deny you access, will you go to court?
Everything is open, and I believe that I will be there because they said at the last election, okay, for Bernier or the People's Party of Canada, that new political party will need to have 4%, and we had 5%.
So maybe they will change the rule again at the next election.
I don't know.
But they said 4%, and we had 5% of the vote all across the country.
So I will fight for being there for sure.
We have another point of view, and we are doing politics differently with strong ideas and strong principles.
So on a lot of important issues, we are the only party that is bringing another perspective to a challenge that we have in our country.
So yes, answering your question, I'll do everything to be there.
And if we need to sue them, it's open.
I'm ready to do it.
Absolutely.
Well, I'll tell you one thing.
We're glad we sued because not only did we win, but it showed that you can sometimes challenge the establishment.
It was one of the most exciting moments in our little company's life.
And I think you should hold them to account.
That's just my view.
I hate this closed shop that they've got going on.
Well, listen, it's great to catch up with you.
And I really appreciate you talking with me about China and Ukraine.
I think that there is grounds to have a principled disagreement with the current war strategy that doesn't make you a Putin agent.
I am not a Putin agent.
I regard him as a, in fact, he's the former KGB officer who, you know, I have no time for him.
He's an authoritarian bully who invaded another country.
But that doesn't mean that when I say that we shouldn't go to war with him, a nuclear-powered country, it doesn't mean a nuclear-armed country.
It doesn't mean that I'm on his side.
I just feel like there's so little debate.
And I really appreciate you sharing your thoughts.
Give us one last word before we say goodbye.
Yeah, thank you for that opportunity, Ezra.
And, you know, I really appreciate what you're doing as an independent media.
It's important to be able to have you there.
And you are, like, I like your slogan, the other side of the story.
Absolutely, you're right.
So for us, we will continue to do what we are doing.
And I just want to assure everybody, if they want to know more about our party, they can go on our website, peoplespartyofcanada.ca, and just read our policies, our platform.
And actually, it will be the same one in one month or two years or when the election will come.
That's why we are doing politics based on principles.
So if you like what I'm saying, what we are fighting for, I hope you'll support us.
And if you don't like what I'm saying, please don't support us.
There's other establishment political parties that you can vote for.
So that's why I want people to vote for what they believe in line with their values.
And our goal is to try to represent these values with our political offer.
So thank you, Ezra, and have a nice day.
Thank you, my friend.
There you have it, Maxime Bernier, the leader, the People's Party of Canada.
Stay with us.
My final thoughts are next.
Well, I like Maxime Bernier.
I like him for a number of reasons.
First of all, he's open to talking to a variety of people out there, not just government-approved media party journalists.
He has plenty of time for independent media too.
I also like his libertarian streak.
I like the fact that he's contrarian, that he's willing to say things even if it offends certain unoffendable groups in society.
He's a Quebecer who's pro-Alberta oil pipeline, and he's a Quebecer who has challenged the dairy boards, for example.
Those are things that are not common for someone from that province.
You heard that he was willing to endure criticism by going to Manitoba, which has a large Ukrainian Canadian population, and saying he does not support the war in Ukraine.
I think that's a principled position he takes.
It's my position as well.
And it's not based on any hostility to Ukraine or support for Russia.
It's based on just this feeling that we are racing, hurtling towards a war whose terms of victory are unknown to me.
And the only ones I can discern, total victory over Russia, regime change over Russia, retake Crimea, extirpate every Russian soldier and smash Russia.
They feel like emotional calls to action rather than genuine geopolitical or diplomatic goals.
And those might have been achievable if you were going against some minor dictator like Muammar Gaddafi, as Stephen Harper did a decade or more ago.
But going against Vladimir Putin with a sizable economy and a sizable nuclear arsenal, just, I do not understand where we're going, let alone what the motivation is for going there.
And suddenly Canada, the great peacekeeping country, the country of peace and the country of Justin Trudeau, who once mocked generals for whipping out their CF-18s and seeing how big they are.
Remember that insult?
All of a sudden, that Justin Trudeau is very butch and going to Kiev to talk about war and sending one tank, which is all we can spare.
I don't get it, and I don't understand it.
And the fact that we haven't had a whole debate on the subject, let alone a vote, tells me that something's wrong.
That's not being anti-Ukrainian.
As I say, my own family came from Ukraine originally.
That's just not wanting to get into a war with a nuclear-armed opponent.
If that's contrarian, well, so be it.
Those are my thoughts, and you heard Maxime Bernier's thoughts.