I am not a supporter of Bernier’s “People’s Party of Canada”.
I am not terribly enthusiastic about Andrew Scheer either but having recently endured the horrors of what a conservative vote split can produce in Alberta, I am resigned to supporting what I see as the lesser of the evils at this time.

Bernier has a tough row to hoe.

I have worked within fringe parties for years. It is tough to get them off the ground and into the mainstream.

With a limited number of members, an often hostile media and little funding, it can be difficult to get broad exposure and to get messaging out.

This week with a handful of billboards Bernier’s PPC managed to get national exposure in a way that they never could have purchased outright. Every media outlet in the nation is covering the erecting and removal of a few billboards in the country. Max’s smiling face is in every newspaper today and in every TV news outlet.

What has also happened is that the PPC have made progress in cornering support on an issue that the mainstream parties are too cowardly to approach. It is fast becoming a reality that the social media mob will descend on any politician who dares question immigration levels and accuse them of white supremacy.

It is not unreasonable to question our immigration policies. Perhaps we need more immigrants, perhaps we need fewer, perhaps we need more stringent controls on immigration or perhaps we need less. What we can’t do though is let these conversations become taboo.

The billboards ambiguously called for an end to “mass immigration”. I guess the only thing that can be fully presumed is that they want less. What is debatable is how much less. All the same, it wasn’t that outrageous a statement until the hysteric left took up the cause.

Rational Canadians don’t see such a simple statement as necessarily being so odious. We have seen immigration issues with uncontrolled illegal crossings in Quebec and Ontario causing local issues for years. If you don’t think Bernier’s messaging isn’t gaining support in those border regions you are highly mistaken. He won’t win the election but he can certainly gain enough steam this way to impact it.

The billboards weren’t put up directly by Bernier’s party but by a third party group in support of them. I presume they will get at the least a partial refund as Pattison backed off on their contract.

If this whole chain of events was by design it means that they have some pretty bright strategists within their ranks. Good work!

If this was a fluke, well it paid off in spades for the PPC all the same.

People had best stop underestimating the impact that Bernier and his party may have. He is speaking to a growing group of people who feel that nobody is speaking for them. Again, it won’t win the election but it can sure as hell ensure that Scheer doesn’t win it if this tend continues.