![](https://thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Canada-flag-670x300.jpg)
Canadian anti-lockdown politician Max Bernier is doing something that’s now illegal in the Great White North: standing up for freedom. Bernier is currently on his pre-election Mad Max Tour, with a Canadian election possible as early as this fall.
“We are under attack by the Trudeau Liberal government, under attack also by the mainstream media, under attack by the radical leftists, under attack by the woke, and under attack – it’s sad to say – by the Conservative Party of Canada that is not conservative anymore,” Bernier said recently at a rally in the small city of Duncan, British Columbia.
When Bernier says “under attack,” it’s not just rhetoric. He recently appeared on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” following his arrest in June in Manitoba for trying to go speak to supporters at an outdoor rally. He was charged with exceeding public gathering limits and violating Manitoba’s requirement to self-isolate upon entering the province.
Throughout the West, Bureaucrats Limit Liberty
Bernier’s warnings apply to citizens throughout the West, from America to Italy: Power-hungry bureaucrats and lying insiders are trying to strangle our economy and liberties under the new COVID regime. Bernier’s situation is very similar to that of former President Trump. He faces a deranged leftist media spreading lies, an establishment conservative party that’s all talk and no action, and an overbearing leftist culture and administrative state that seeks to crush all opposition.
For another thing, “Mad Max” is a definite underdog, mocked and dismissed by most of the “respectable” pundits and analysts. Large swathes of Bernier’s base support President Trump, and – like Trump – he’s broken through the left-right divide via something akin to national populism fueled by anti-elite energy.
In an interview before his Duncan rally, Bernier said he admires Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and past leaders like Britain’s Margaret Thatcher for standing up to tyrannical leftist ideologies.
“Socialism is everywhere. In school, in journalism – we don’t have journalists anymore, we have leftist activists,” Bernier warned. “We need to wake up.”
When Bernier slams Canada’s establishment “Conservative” party, he also knows what he’s talking about. Like Americans who warned for years about RINOs (Republicans in Name Only), Bernier has been sounding the alarm over fake conservatives for years, saying they’re against freedom and don’t care enough about the national interest. Sound familiar?
Why Bernier Split from the Conservative Party
Bernier split off from Canada’s so-called “Conservative Party” over ideological differences in 2018 and formed the People’s Party of Canada. Basically he realized the party was just going to toe the leftist line while expressing token objections.
Bernier wanted actual action and a right-leaning alternative for Canadians, not just talk and stuffed suits on TV. Informed by libertarian populist beliefs and a Canada First platform, he is gaining increasing momentum across Canada for speaking up against the draconian lockdowns, vaccine passports, and the current authoritarian trend of Canada’s progressive government under United Nations-worshipping Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The People’s Party of Canada did not win any seats in Parliament in the 2019 election and support is nowhere near the level of the MAGA movement – not yet anyway – but things can change fast. Bernier believes the most important thing Canadians and Westerners must do is educate themselves.
“First, educate yourself. Second, fight and speak to your friends and family,” he said.
According to Bernier, Western liberals want to bring a Chinese Communist-style system to our nations and crack down on all the most basic liberties, including freedom of assembly and medical choice. Canada’s far-left corporate and government-run media have both falsely implied that Bernier is a political extremist and racist, and a defamation lawsuit is currently proceeding against Canadian pundit Warren Kinsella. Canada’s groupthink media has slammed Bernier for his desire to not sign the UN migration compact and to cap immigration at the very reasonable and high amount of 150,000 people per year.
Lockdowns Led to More Deaths of Under 65 than COVID Did
With overdoses, despair, and crushed small businesses during its long lockdowns, the trajectory that Canada is on should worry Americans because the United States is unfortunately on a similar path under the medical regime of Anthony Fauci and crew.
Sixteen months of Canada’s ultra-strict lockdowns have been an utter disaster. In fact, lockdowns appear to have killed more Canadians under 65 than COVID-19, according to provisional government statistics.
From the end of March 2020 to the beginning of April 2021, there were 5,535 “excess” deaths than expected without a pandemic. Over that period, 1,380 deaths have been attributed to COVID-19 in those younger than 65. That suggests “that the excess mortality is, in large part, related to other factors such as increases in the number deaths attributed to causes associated with substance use and misuse, including unintentional (accidental) poisonings and diseases and conditions related to alcohol consumption,” according to Statistics Canada.
“Thousands have died from the knock-on effects of lockdowns, with thousands more projected to die,” Canadian journalist Tristin Hopper noted. “Between April and December of 2020, 5,148 Canadians died of an overdose, a rise of 89 percent over the same period in 2019” and “in Quebec, the province’s health ministry has estimated that up to 4,000 people have gone undiagnosed with cancer as a result of a sharp dropoff in mammograms, pap smears and colorectal cancer screens,” according to Hopper.
Economically, “downtown cores have been gutted, and a significant share of small businesses aren’t coming back.” The closure of the Canadian border to Americans and requirement of incoming Canadians from abroad to quarantine at hotels for a week for up to $2,000 of their own money has also been widely panned.
Bernier wants to get the word out and let people know the facts. If what Bernier calls the “globalists” take over, he believes Canada and the West could end up in a nightmare scenario including forced vaccinations and stricter censorship.
“I’m fighting against globalism, against these policies. For me, I believe in Canada, I believe in Canadian sovereignty. I don’t want the UN or any international organization to impose their vision on us,” Bernier said.