Maxime Bernier kicks off Thompson-Okanagan visit in Kamloops

KAMLOOPS – Maxime Bernier touched down in Kamloops this morning to kick off a tour of the Thompson-Okanagan. The leader of the People's Party of Canada will be announcing candidates during the tour, which also includes visits to Vernon, Kelowna and Penticton.

Bernier was greeted by some associates and supporters at the Kamloops airport.

"We are able to build this party because we have a lot of members, more than 40,000 now and with our members, we built our riding association, all across the country and with our riding association they were able to find candidates who believe in our values," Bernier says.

He says that before the end of the month, the party will have 225 candidates chosen of the 338 needed to represent all the country's ridings.

'"There is one condition we must respect to be part of the national debates during the campaign, and I want to debate with Justin Trudeau and Andrew Scheer and all the other leaders," Bernier says. "The condition is to have 90 per cent of our ridings with candidates so 304 candidates to be able to participate in the debate."

Bernier is hopeful that current Liberal, NDP, and Conservative voters will favour his values and ideas over other major parties. He believes that the Conservative Party of Canada is lacking true conservative values and that his views will be better suited for the conservative supporters.

"I think we'll do well here, I think we can surprise. Yes, it is a conservative region of the country, but I can say we are the only real conservative party of Canada. If you believe in the real conservative ideas, libertarian government and a smaller government and more freedom, we are the alternative," he says.

As for NDP supporters, he says he had people join his party in Newfoundland who were previously NDP supporters because they favoured his platform of corporate welfare and supply management in agricultural industries.

He believes that his party has a good shot at winning the federal election, although he admitted to the lack of recognition being a concern.

"People are speaking with me, 'oh Max I will support you, but what is the name of your party again?' So that's a challenge."

Find past stories on the 2019 federal election campaign here.

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor.