Provencher PPC candidate joins Bernier at guns announcement

Local People’s Party of Canada (PPC) candidate Noel Gautron joined his party’s leader Maxime Bernier and other PPC candidates at the Gateway Gun Club in Winnipeg to tout their policy on easier access to more guns for legal owners.

It was Gautron who helped Bernier, who is from Quebec, get his gun possession and acquisition license (PAL) in Manitoba.

“I did that with Noel two years ago in Manitoba, and I know what you have to do to have the right to own a gun and buy a gun. It’s very strong restrictions: the RCMP does an investigation on you and you must have the OK from the RCMP.

“But we don’t need all these legislations, because the Trudeau government and now the Carney government, they are looking at gun owners like they are criminals and they are not. So our plan is to be very tough on crime but not on gun owners,” said Bernier after his press conference.

Bernier did insist guns and Canada go together, especially in rural areas.

“It’s part of our history, it’s part of our culture as a country,” said Bernier.

“Our restrictions would be better than the U.S., but at the same time respectful of gun owners,” added Bernier, who does not advocate for open carry.

One of the main planks is to repeal the 2020 federal Liberal cabinet decision to ban 1,500 types of firearms.

Bernier pointed out that much of the guns were banned because of how they look, not how they work. His party would use the classification system proposed by the Canadian Shooting Sports Association.

Gautron brought to the gun club an antique handgun from the 19th century with a purple leaf representing the PPC on the handle. He agrees with the assessment that the new firearms bans were more about form than function.

Gautron gave the example of the Mossberg Blaze .22 semi-automatic rifle.

“The furnishing kits will make it look like other firearms. This is one of the first ones that they banned, well practically speaking it’s a .22 rifle. It’s a varmint rifle for squirrels and what have you,” said Gautron.

“So that’s really what we’re talking about with the simplified classification system. It’s respecting people who actually understand the industry, and ultimately not depriving them of property for simple partisan interests.”

The department of Public Safety says about 2.2 million Canadians or 7.1 percent of the adult population are licensed to own firearms, with just over 10 million guns in circulation. Just over 1 million are handguns.

Bernier said he wants to make getting that gun license more efficient with and make it last a lifetime, barring any gun-related criminal activity that would revoke the license.

“We know firearms owners are respectful of the law,” added Bernier.

Guns were stolen from legal owners 2,068 times in 2020, according to Public Safety. That compares to 1,122 firearms seized at the border in 2021-22.

In 2020, there were 4,137 incidents of firearm-related violent crime, 54 percent using handguns.

Crime and notwithstanding

Those violent crimes would come with a minimum sentence under a PPC government. That is because Bernier said he would be using the Notwithstanding Clause in the constitution to override the Supreme Court of Canada ruling that negated minimum sentencing laws for violent crimes under the Conservative Stephen Harper government.

Bernier was at different times the Industry and Foreign Affairs minister under Harper before leaving the Conservative Party and forming the PPC in 2018.

“If you use the clause, you’re saying to the judges that will be the Parliament that will decide and new legislation will be enforced for five years. But before you use that clause – the sovereignty of the Parliament, I like to call that clause – before using that you need to have a debate and you’ll have debates in parliament,” said Bernier.

With Crown attorneys and judges giving consideration in sentencing and approving bail to the overcrowding in Canadian prisons and jails, Bernier sees a solution.

“It’s like we don’t put the resources in the right place. If our jails are full, we need to build more jails,” said Bernier.

He added that bail reform would give less leeway to judges by giving more basic criteria to follow.

The former Foreign Minister said the first role of a federal government is safety.

“We gave $20 billion to Ukraine, and we don’t have any money for the security of Canadians to build more jails if we need to do that?” asked Bernier rhetorically.

Agriculture and tariffs

Tariffs on Canadian farmers from China was an easy fix according to Bernier.

“The federal government decided to impose tariffs on electric cars coming from China. China decided to impose tariffs on our agriculture exports.

“We won’t do that. We won’t impose tariffs on electric cars coming from China, so they won’t impose any tariffs on us,” said Bernier.

The federal decision to impose the car tariffs on China was political as far as Bernier sees it.

“They are protecting automakers in Ontario. And who’s paying for that? Farmers here in western Canada,” he said.

The U.S. tariffs are just a negotiating tactic by their president, according to Bernier. He said the Conservatives and Liberals are the same when it comes to the trade war.

Bernier proposes ending all tariffs imposed by Canada, and ending what he describes as a “cartel” of supply management on things like dairy and eggs.

“Trump is different because what he wants is renegotiate the free trade agreement right now instead of waiting,” said Bernier.

He does not believe Trump’s actions are tied to fentanyl or his proposal to replace income taxes with tariffs. Pauses on tariffs on other countries around the world were Bernier’s example of Trump’s negotiating tactic.

“He wants a new deal, that’s it.”