In a Postmedia exclusive, Larysa Harapyn sat down with the People’s Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier and Etobicoke North candidate Renata Ford to discuss the PPC’s platform and election strategy ahead of the Oct. 21. Here are some highlights:

Larysa Harapyn (to Ford): I have to ask, you have no political experience …

Renata Ford: Wel,l my husband (Rob) was the mayor of Toronto. I was working alongside him, so I got to know the system quite well, and I got to know the people of my riding quite well, Etobicoke North. And I see that they’re suffering and I wanted to reach out and help them out. They’ve been neglected by the federal and provincial governments and someone needs to do something about it. Make their voices heard.

Harapyn: Your family has always been considered part of the Conservative party, but why Max?

Ford: I believe in his policies, I believe he’s the right leader for this country, for Canadians. I did my research on the parties and I noticed the Liberals and the Conservatives are not much different. I looked into the Peoples’ Party of Canada, and Rob was always a big supporter of Maxime Bernier, and we like his leadership.

Harapyn (to Bernier): You’ve been vocal about abolishing supply management. Does that hurt you in your riding?

Maxime Bernier: The dairy producers in my riding won’t support me, that’s a fact. They want to keep their privilege. It’s not fair to force Canadians to pay twice the price for dairy, poultry and meat. We must change that and we are the only party to speak about it.

I’m saying to people in Beauce, in my riding, that I’m ready, I’m the same guy, I want to work for you. For every Beauce home and not for that cartel. I may pay a price for that, but that’s doing politics based on conviction.

It will be a little bit tougher election than I had in the past, I admit that. But I think I can win.

It will be a little bit tougher election than I had in the past, I admit that. But I think I can win

 

Harapyn: You recently said you’d like to remove the Indian Act.

Bernier: That is our policy for First Nations. It is a principle policy. Based on principle, respect, and property rights on reserves. Our goal is, yes, to remove the Indian Act, but the challenge is, (replace it) by what after that? That’s why we’ll have consultations when we’re in government but our goal is to remove that.

We want First Nations and these people to be like Canadians on a lot of points of view. Right now, that’s not normal that they cannot have running water on reserve. We need to fix that, but it must not be imposed by Ottawa, a top-down bureaucratic decision. Our policy is based for a better future for these First Nations, at the same time respecting the treaties we signed with them.

Harapyn: Are the Conservatives and Andrew Scheer your biggest foe in this fight?

Bernier: They are not able to balance the budget in two years. If they were real Conservatives, you must be able to balance the budget in two years. And Scheer is saying, ‘It’s too difficult, I need five years.’ It’s not responsible. The deficits of today are the taxes of tomorrow.

Cutting foreign aid and not giving (the) $2.3 billion dollars (that) Trudeau is giving to African countries to fight climate change, bring back that money here…. You can save a lot of money when you have responsible and bold policies that are in line with our principles, and we are telling the truth to Canadians. So it’s doable to balance the budget in two years.

Harapyn: Do you believe in the polls? The polls have you at about two to three per cent (popular support)?

Bernier: The real one would be the 21st of October. I don’t believe we are at two or three per cent. I’m doing some rallies all across the country and we have 300 to 400 people coming to our rally. Something is happening in this country. The populist movement, it is happening in Canada, we’re not apart from Europe and other countries. We are doing politics differently — smart, populist, political movement. We are speaking to the intelligence of Canadians, not to their emotion.

We have the right ideas, we have the freedom ideas, so we have to speak about it with passion, conviction, and the more support we’ll have. And you’ll be surprised the 21st of October.

Harapyn: Do you care about the comparisons to Donald Trump south of the border?

Bernier: I don’t care, I’m myself, people know me. I’m a Canadian politician, I’m doing politics in Canada.

Harapyn: Well, Donald Trump has spoken about building a wall. Maxime has spoken about building a fence in Manitoba and Quebec …

Bernier: … where they are crossing the border, and it will be a fence. And actually, we have fence across our border in some places, so that’s not new. We’re very generous, Canadians. I want our RCMP official, saying instead of crossing our border illegally, I want them to be there, just in front of the fence, saying to these people, ‘You want to come to Canada, you will come. Over there, there is an official port of entry, you can come.’ But they don’t want to cross there, because they’re not real refugees and they will have to go back to the U.S.

Canadians are generous. They want to help the real refugees that are waiting in a camp where their life is in danger. That’s being a Canadian. Not 45,000 illegal migrants that are crossing here.

It’s too bad we’re the only one speaking about that. There’s nothing radical about it. Making sure that people are respecting our borders, what’s that?