Bernier & Trudeau: Similar Views On China And Shared Political Interests

Justin Trudeau & Maxime Bernier both want to see Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives divided and weakened.

Maxime Bernier often portrays himself as being the polar opposite of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

However, an uncomfortable fact remains:

Both Bernier & Trudeau have shared political interests, and have even expressed similar views towards China – especially relevant now as our country tries to defend our democracy from China’s influence.

For example, in 2016, Bernier pushed for a Canada-China free trade deal, as did Trudeau at the time:

“Signing a free-trade deal with China would allow Canada to increase its exports by $7.7 billion a year, Conservative leadership candidate Maxime Bernier said Monday.”

“Canada would benefit from “closer attention” from China if their economies were linked, although he acknowledged China would remain a “sovereign” country.

Additionally – in odd remarks that were reported by multiple outlets at the time – Bernier said China lifted people out of poverty because they have “less government and more freedom,” and because they “gave freedom to people.”

It’s the same kind of odd thinking around China that we heard from Justin Trudeau with his ‘basic dictatorship’ remarks.

 

In fairness, China has become much more outwardly aggressive and much of the world has turned against the CCP since those remarks were made. Bernier has also since said free trade with China isn’t a priority:

What is happening with Bernier?

People are allowed to change their minds – as I have certainly done over the years – and Bernier and the PPC did some good work over the years in opposing government overreach during the pandemic.

However – as I elaborated on in detail in my latest political analysis newsletter – Bernier and the PPC seem to have ignored the changes in the Conservative Party.

The CPC is now led by someone who has consistently advocated for limited government, someone who opposes covid-19 vaccine mandates, someone who supports the right to peaceful protest, someone who opposes the carbon tax, and someone who believes in fiscal responsibility.

On issue after issue, Pierre Poilievre is the opposite of Justin Trudeau.

And on the rare issues on which they do agree – such as supporting Ukraine – there is widespread public support for those positions (it again has to be said that outside the Twitter echo chamber, those who oppose Ukraine are a stunningly small group in Canada and are deeply unpopular).

Bernier also wants Poilievre to express support for a German politician who is deeply divisive within Germany and who associating with would cause the CPC to suffer significantly at the polls.

Yet, Bernier has decided to pretend that Pierre Poilievre and Justin Trudeau are exactly the same.

And now, Bernier is launching more unhinged attacks, this time against Anaida Poilievre:

“I normally wouldn’t mention a relative of another politician but Anaida Poilievre is playing a very public role in her husband’s career, so this is a fair question.

In 2020 she made a post on her company’s blog and used a hashtag asking people to #StayTheFxxxHome. And noted that “It is so crucial that governments are no longer messing around with this”, a drastic course of action she seemed to agree with.

Did Pierre share his wife’s views? Is this why he said nothing for two years about governments “not messing around”? Asking for millions of Canadians.”

As noted by Canadabuster on Twitter, Bernier’s attack is yet again based on falsehoods:

“This is a new low from the PPC going after Poilievre’s wife. By the way Pierre was against punitive mandates as early as summer of 2020 if you had a seat in parliament maybe you’d be more informed.”

Bernier made another recent false attack against Poilievre, claiming Poilievre never spoke about frozen bank accounts when the facts clearly indicate otherwise:

https://twitter.com/SpencerFernando/status/1631334728254070789

So, if Bernier feels it’s fair game to claim Poilievre and Trudeau are the same, it’s only fair to point out that Bernier has expressed similar views towards China as Justin Trudeau did.

Bernier & Trudeau have aligned political interests

Who are the two people who would most love to see the PPC surge and the Conservatives fall?

Maxime Bernier and Justin Trudeau.

If Bernier gets what he wants, Trudeau gets what he wants.

Isn’t it interesting that Bernier’s attacks on Poilievre have escalated precisely when the Liberals are under siege on the issue of China?

Why would Bernier want to distract attention from that and attack the only party that could possibly defeat Justin Trudeau at a time when the Liberals are facing immense pressure for their ties to China?

The fact is that while Bernier and the PPC have done some important things in the past, Bernier now seems to be on a mission to weaken and divide the Pierre Poilievre-led Conservatives, and that can only result in Justin Trudeau staying in power.

That’s something we should all want to avoid.

Spencer Fernando

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