Far-Right And White Nationalist Groups Urge Supporters To Support Maxime Bernier’s People’s Party Of Canada

OTTAWA – Far-right and white nationalist groups are pressuring their supporters to support Maxime Bernier’s insurgent People’s Party of Canada in next week’s federal elections.

On the fringes of the internet and in encrypted chat rooms, groups like Canada First and the Canadian Nationalist Front are encouraging their thousands of followers to support Bernier’s PPC.

While not all supporters of the Popular Party are motivated by white nationalism or far-right extremism, it is clear that white nationalists and far-right groups view the party as a viable vehicle for their grievance-fueled politics.

The party, which has seen a surge in public support in recent weeks, has found support among some far-right circles for its opposition to mandatory vaccinations, vaccine passports and Bernier’s promise to drastically curb the immigration.

But the party’s anti-establishment pose seems to be the common thread that unites the far-right groups behind Bernier.

“Justin Trudeau, Jagmeet Singh and Erin O’Toole can get the most votes, but they don’t represent anyone other than the system; and we f – – – – – – we hate them, ”reads a recent post on Canada First’s Telegram channel, which has nearly 5,000 subscribers.

“Vote PPC, remove all the power you can from these three accomplices.”

“Beware of people who sow division, it is the tactic of our enemies on the left to spread disinformation,” says another from the Canadian Nationalist Front. “Stick to important issues like immigration reform and the economy, ignore the dividers, PPC is the only future viable option for our future.”

Bernier has taken advantage of anger and anxiety over COVID-19 public health measures such as shutdowns, as well as hesitation and opposition to mandatory vaccinations and vaccine passports. Bernier himself claims to have rejected the COVID-19 vaccine.

He has also openly courted far-right groups. On Friday, Bernier was interviewed by Rebel Media after being excluded from official leaders’ debates. On Tuesday, his public schedule said he was being interviewed by Jordan Peterson, the University of Toronto professor turned online guru for disgruntled young people.

“The great debate in the spaces of the extreme right in the last elections was whether to vote strategically (conservative) or to vote for the PPC,” said Evan Balgord, an anti-racist activist with the Canadian Network Against Hate.

“This time, everything is PPC.”

On Tuesday, The Star notified the Popular Party about the white nationalist and far-right groups promoting your cause online.

“We have nothing to do with extremist groups and we have nothing to offer them. We have been more than clear since the founding of the party that there is no place for racists in our party, ”party spokesman Martin Masse responded in an emailed statement.

“Every time it has come to our attention that someone who supports extremist positions has a position in our party, he was expelled. This is how we make sure they don’t find a home in the PPC. “

According to current public polls, the Popular Party is unlikely to gain significant support in the next Parliament. The Signal, Vox Pop Labs’ The Star’s election forecast, put party support at 6.7% nationwide on Tuesday, but only projected it winning a single seat: in Beauce, the Quebec horse that Bernier previously represented as a Conservative MP.

But even without winning seats, the People’s Party could have a significant impact on the election outcome, according to Vox Pop’s Clifton van der Linden.

“If the trend of voting for the PPC candidates continues until Election Day, and it stays in the numbers that we are currently saying, then I think you will see that some seats will go to the Liberals, particularly where the Conservatives would have to. otherwise he won, ”van der Linden said in an interview.

Vox Pop Labs has put together a database of 8685 self-identified PPC supporters. According to that data, the majority of support for the PPC, 59 percent, comes from voters who previously supported the Conservative Party.

Support for the PPC leans toward men (58%) and voters ages 18-40. Regionally, PPC supporters are concentrated in Ontario (42%), followed by Alberta, Prairie provinces, and British Columbia. Most would fit a broad definition of middle class and would have high-paying manual jobs, van der Linden said.

Comparatively strong support for the PPC compared to the end of the 2019 elections has led some conservatives to worry that parties will split the center-right vote, as the Reform party and the Progressive Conservatives did in the 1990s. That would be of particular concern to conservatives in Ontario, the province that is likely to decide the election and where the party has been aggressively targeting working-class voters.

A senior conservative source downplayed those concerns Tuesday, suggesting that the party’s internal polls are not registering the same PPP spike that public pollsters report.

“They are not costing us any seats,” the source told the Star, who agreed to discuss the matter on the condition that they are not named.

“The PPC is tapping into a strong anti-establishment / smallpox sentiment in all their homes … (Voters) want to send a message, and the PPC is the only vehicle to do that.

“When it comes down to it, only one of the two leaders will be prime minister. The only thing that unites all the voters of the PPC is that they want change. “