During the last election, the People’s Party of Canada managed to double its voter numbers but never earned a seat in Parliament. With Canadians going to cast their ballots in a few weeks, projections show a party losing momentum.
Peter Smith
Canadian Anti-Hate Network
Source: Maximebernier.com
Since the 2023 by-election, Canada’s largest mainstream far-right party, the People’s Party of Canada (PPC), has been in decline.
Led by former MP Maxime Bernier, in the seven years since the party’s foundation, the PPC managed to reach an all-time high in nationwide votes in 2021, in which the PPC captured close to five per cent of the popular vote (844,076 votes in total), placing them ahead of the Green Party nationally. Unlike the Greens, who earned seats in British Columbia and Ontario, the PPC lost in every riding it ran a candidate.
The sudden upswing for the PPC was a troubling sign for Canadian politics in 2021. Radical right political parties were making modest gains in regions of Europe, the US Capitol had been overrun by a mob attempting to stop the ratification of the election, and Canadian protests against the lockdowns and health mandates included numerous organizers and figures from among the far-right.
The PPC managed to eke out less than two per cent of the popular vote in 2019, but only two years later rode a wave of collective resentment to jump to its 2021 high. Parts of Alberta even went as high as 10 per cent for the fledgling party. The long and arduous restrictions of pandemic lockdowns and the continuing cost of living crisis may have made the PPC’s opposition to health mandates appealing to a significant number of Canadians.
During the health restrictions, Bernier gained media attention as he faced fines and arrests for attending public gatherings and demonstrations. After the end of the lockdowns, the PPC’s messaging moved to other divisive issues. Bernier attended protests railing against “gender ideology,” calling for a pause on immigration, and abolishing all international aid.
The end of lockdowns stripped the PPC of this central issue.
After Erin O’Toole’s Conservatives failed to form government in the last federal election, running what some saw as a moderate or progressive campaign, the CPC has adopted messaging condemning anything perceived to be “woke.” This would include comments from Poilievre attacking “gender ideology.” The use of similar language by Poilievre and other CPC figures, and the PPC, may have siphoned supporters from the PPC who are activated by those issues.
According to 338 Canada projections, the PPC is projected to earn between 1.7 to 1.8 per cent of the national vote, meaning they are on track to once again fail to secure a single seat in Parliament.
Maxime Bernier and the PPC launched their official 2025 campaign from Saint-Georges, Quebec on March 25. The current party platform includes a massive scaling down of the refugee and immigration numbers allowed into the country. This includes a moratorium on all immigration until the housing crisis is resolved.
The official platform also promises to target “woke” ideology and withdraw Canada from numerous United Nations commitments.
The party released its platform on “gender ideology” on May 24, 2024, hours before attending a school board meeting in Brandon, Manitoba, that was considering the merits of removing books discussing sexual health and 2SLGBTQ+ identities from its libraries (the board ultimately voted against the motion).
“In recent years, cultural Marxists and radical activists in the media, government, and schools have made every effort to normalize toxic transgender ideology,” the policy reads. “They teach children that stereotypes determine their gender, and if they do not fit into the traditional male or female gender roles, they encourage them to think they were born in the wrong body.”
The policy states it would: repeal C-16, the bill that included gender self-identification as grounds for protection against discrimination; repeal C-4, a bill banning the practice of “conversion therapy” for LGBTQ+ people; and “strictly enforce” the Criminal Code to remove inappropriate pornographic content from schools and libraries.
Bernier formed the party in 2018 after he was sidelined by the CPC due to a series of public missteps, challenges to CPC leadership, and social media posts decrying the “cult of diversity” and “extreme multiculturalism” — a pattern that remains part of his current brand. After losing the Conservative leadership race by a narrow margin, he declared the party "intellectually and morally corrupt" and struck out on his own under the PPC banner.
The PPC’s 2021 spike drew over 800,000 voters to their cause, showing there is a not insignificant appetite for far-right populist positions in Canada—a reality that has made an impression on mainstream Canadian politics.
Leaders were not able to take questions from journalists after last night’s debate because of incidents involving Rebel Media and Ezra Levant.
Six of the 17 reporters who asked questions came from Rebel News, True North, or Juno News.
Around 200 people protested against candidate Andrew Lawton for what an organizer called his “history with Islamophobia, racism, homophobia, and misogyny.”