A Message to Maxime Bernier

The following is the text of a message I just sent Maxime Bernier. M. Bernier founded and now leads the Peoples Party of Canada. Previously, he served in the cabinet of Prime Minister Stephen Harper as Minister of Industry, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Minister of State for Small Business and Tourism. He was narrowly defeated by Andrew Scheer in the contest for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada.

Following today's announcement of Andrew Scheer's resignation as leader of the Conservative Party, I emailed M. Bernier as follows:

Now Scheer's out, time to rejoin the Tories and make another run for the leadership. Best regards, .... PS Don't be hard on Greta, she's only reacting to what her teachers, the science establishment, the media and the Government of every Western Nation have endlessly told her, namely, that carbon dioxide is destroying the earth and that she, as a member of the youngest generation, will suffer the greatest consequences. So she may know nothing about climate science, but she is responding entirely reasonably to what almost all supposedly responsible people are telling her. ALSO the carbon tax is the most economically efficient way to control carbon emissions, but it's insane for Canada to adopt a carbon tax on a purely national basis as that puts us hugely at a disadvantage with trade partners without a carbon tax. We should opt for a carbon tax only in conjunction with our major trade partners, especially the US, and provided that there is a countervailing duty on goods from countries without a carbon tax. FINALLY Why not a real tax reform proposal including: (1) 100% tax exemption on income below the median earned income; (2) an increase in the GST to 20%, with rebates to those with below median incomes (this would make the GST a consumption tax that would encourage savings and investment); (3) a zero rate corporation tax on distributed earnings (which will then be taxed as personal income in the hands of recipients); (4) a flat tax of 20% on all income in excess of the median (i.e., including capital gains assessed annually on all financial assets whether disposed of or not); (5) if there is a need for additional revenue, a capital tax, not to exceed 1%, with a personal exemption of $2 million.

If you agree, why not write M. Bernier (info@maximebernier.com) too.

PostScript:
In response to those urging Maxime Bernier to run for the Conservative Party leadership, the People's Party of Canada issued a statement reading, in part:

Following the resignation of the Andrew Scheer yesterday, our leader Maxime Bernier was asked by some journalists if he intended to run again in a CPC leadership race. His answer was clear: There is zero chance of it happening. That party is morally and intellectually corrupt. Scheer was a weak leader who pushed it to the centre. Their next leader will do the same. This is why our party exists: To offer a principled conservative alternative to Canadians. We’re here to stay!

That is the only reasonable reaction, though it does not mean that M. Bernier would not, under the right circumstances, run for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada: it just means that the Conservative Party of Canada would have to send a top level delegates to entreat M. Bernier to run for the leadership. They'd also need to make a public apology for Scheer's people hiring a shyster PR outfit, i.e., Warren Kinsella, to mendaciously smear Bernier as a racist.

This, however, the Conservative Party of Canada will not do for the obvious reason that the Conservative Party of Canada is not a conservative party. It is just another liberal party that operates in accordance with two fundamental forces:

First, the fear of being found politically incorrect.

Second, the bipartisan lust for after office payoffs, which means subservience to the money power and in particular the freedom of the banks to print the money with which they have inflated one of the World's greatest property bubbles, in the process making Canadians among the world's most indebted people. 

Canadian Election — The Party Leaders: Four Progs and a Rational Conservative (aka Raaacist). Part 2. Conservative party Leader, Andrew Scheer

To some it may seem surprising to rank the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada among the progs, but the reality is that Conservatives are generally more broadminded and open to new ideas than liberals, who, obsessed by their own virtue, are much inclined to authoritarianism and the resort to hate speech — as in branding opponents RAAAAACISTs, Nazis and white supremacists.

Indeed, until 2003, Canada's Conservatives called themselves the Progressive Conservative Party, and going back to the day of John A. MacDonald, the man who created Canada, conservatives at one point called themselves Liberal Conservatives. In that era, it was John A.'s Conservative government that granted the vote to first nations people over the objection of Liberals, who once in power, revoked the legislation.  Indeed it was only due to the strength of Liberal opposition that MacDonald abandoned a plan to grant women the vote. 

So yes, a Scheer-led Conservative Party would almost certainly be more liberal than the Liberal Party of Justin Trudeau, a staunch admirer of Alt-Left, i.e., Communist, dictatorship from that of Fidel Castro's Cuba, to Mao's bloody revolutionary government of China.

But Liberals and Conservatives are barely ideological in their commitments at all. Rather, both are parties of main chancers seeking to "seize the centre ground," to quote that champion of opportunists, Britain's Tony Blair, the destroyer of Iraq. 

So in what way is Scheer, the only possible alternative, preferable to Trudeau as Prime Minister? 

Four reasons immediately come to mind:

First, though no orator, Scheer can, unlike Trudeau, make a speech without repeatedly gasping for breath while his brain catches up with his mouth.

Second, Scheer displays no paraphiliac inclination to dressing up in ways embarrassing to Canadians and irritating to the people so emulated. 

Third, although a carbon tax appears the best solution to rising atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration and the serious harm that that may cause, Scheer is right to oppose this costly measure as a national policy. 

The chief consequence of the Liberal Government's Carbon tax policy will be to put Canadian industry at a disadvantage versus industry of countries without a carbon tax, in particular, the industry of our greatest trading partner by far, the US. Canada should push for a global carbon tax regime that punishes non-compliant countries with countervailing tariffs, not hobble our energy and energy-intensive industries with a unilaterally imposed carbon tax. 

Fourth, Scheer's plan to promote Canadian R and D leading to technology that reduces carbon emissions, is very interesting. It may be possible, for example, to develop economically viable means of converting tar-sands bitumen, in situ, to hydrogen gas, while leaving the carbon in the ground. Hydrogen could then be used for carbon-free thermal power generation. Moreover, hydrogen, with three times the energy density of kerosene, has in liquified form, interesting potential as an aviation fuel that could massively increase aircraft payloads. 

And one could go on. But as we wrote before, Trudeau's leadership was a desperate gamble after the liberals had experienced three leadership duds in a row. He was promoted to the leadership solely on the basis of his name and good looks. Now we know where a name and good looks wedded to flakey, authoritarian bullshit takes one, and it's time now for change and Scheer's is the face of change.