PPC Leader Maxime Bernier visits Winnipeg, promotes candidate in Elmwood-Transcona byelection

The leader of the People's Party of Canada was in Winnipeg on Saturday to promote their candidate in the upcoming federal byelection in Elmwood-Transcona.

About two dozen people gathered at Maple Leaf Park in the Transcona neighbourhood to show support for PPC candidate Sarah Couture.

There are five other candidates running in the Elmwood-Transcona byelection scheduled for Sept. 16: New Democrat Leila Dance, Green candidate Nicolas Geddert, Liberal Ian MacIntyre, Conservative Colin Reynolds and Zbig Strycharz of the Canadian Future Party.

Each candidate hopes to succeed former NDP member of Parliament Daniel Blaikie, who resigned his seat to move back to Winnipeg and work for Manitoba's provincial NDP government.

"That byelection is important for us because we are offering a different perspective, different ideas that the main establishment political parties won't speak about," PPC Leader Maxime Bernier told Radio-Canada on Saturday.

Couture, who has worked in IT, says she's been involved with the party on and off since its 2018 inception.

"With this byelection, we needed a candidate in this area, so I decided to give it a try," she said.

Were Couture to win the riding, it would be a significant victory for the PPC, which has no seats in the House of Commons.

The party got about six per cent of all votes in the Elmwood-Transcona riding in the 2021 federal election. The party's national result in that year's election saw it gather about five per cent of votes a doubling of support when compared with the 2019 election.

It's a hopeful sign for Bernier.

"This party is growing. We are [here] for the long term," he said.

"We are promoting ideas that are based on individual freedom, personal responsibility, respect and fairness, and all of our policies are in line with these fundamental principles."

The byelection is a chance for the party to promote their stance on immigration, Couturesaid, claiming Conservative and Liberal policies have "opened the floodgates, in a sense."

She says the PPC wants to ensure "that we're bringing in the right people for the right jobs and the people that will adapt into Canadian culture."

Across Canada, the population rose by 1,271,872 between Jan. 1, 2023, and Jan. 1, 2024. Statistics Canada said 97.6 per cent of that population growth was the result of immigration, with 471,771 immigrants settling in the country last year and the number of temporary residents most of whom are foreign workers rising by 804,901.

Bernier says his party offers a new alternative in Canada's political landscape, as the PPC wants a moratorium on immigration amid housing and health-care crises across the country.

"We are not anti-immigration. We want to have fewer immigrants," he said.

Bernier also says his party opposes what he calls the "radical gender ideology," characterizing gender transition for kids as "mutilation."

Discussions of sex and genderhave been a flashpoint lately between 2SLGBTQ+advocates and some more conservative politicians.

Bernier says the party doesn't plan to changeany of its policies in the future.

"We are not afraid to speak about things that are not that popular today, but we believe that the more we speak about our ideas, the more popular they will become."