Thread by @AndrewLawton

At Edmonton’s Bowden Park for a rally @MaximeBernier and @peoplespca are holding. Supposed to be kicking off in about 15 minutes.

I’m terrible at crowd estimates but definitely hundreds of people here. A lot of young families. Not the standard rally demo for a Conservative event.

A group of supporters starts singing O Canada.

PPC leader Maxime Bernier arrives to cheers from the crowd of supporters.

Bernier says no matter where in the country he goes, people are fed up with status quo.

Bernier takes aim at “medical tyranny and the vaccine passport that will be imposed on us in every province.”

Bernier reminds crowd he chose not to take the vaccine because as a 58-year old man his chance of dying of COVID would be 0.5%.

Bernier says Trudeau has divided Canadians “by race, by gender, by sex, and now by vaccination status.” He vows to unite Canadians “under the freedom umbrella.”

Chants of “PPC, PPC, PPC” as Bernier promises a “purple wave” from east to west.

Things got very intense here. An idiot with a dog was getting in people’s way. A group of PPC supporters blocked his camera. He got aggressive until a big guy stared him down. Then Bernier personally intervened to deescalate, and, well, just watch.

Bernier says while it will take Erin O’Toole ten years to balance the budget, he can do it in four, in part by scrapping CBC, foreign aid, and corporate welfare.

“We are saying no to the UN, a dysfunctional organization, no to the Paris accord, no to a carbon tax,” Bernier said.

Bernier says his platform will be the same every campaign “until we win the battle of ideas.”

Bernier says the “mainstream media won’t be able to ignore us again” as of September 20.

Bernier promises to change the equalization formula, citing rise of western alienation. He’s the first federal leader I’ve heard being up western alienation. (Not definitely saying others haven’t — I just haven’t heard it.)

Bernier promises he would make it “illegal” to force vaccination, taking a cue from Ron DeSantis of Florida.

Asked for his position on a Triple E senate, Bernier promises “radical decentralization” of federal power. He says Triple E senate wouldn’t help Albertans because Atlantic provinces would then have 40% of seats. Have not provinces would have 60% including Quebec and Manitoba.

Bernier is asked if he’s concerned about electoral fraud. He says Elections Canada doesn’t use Dominion counting machines and allows scrutineers. Expresses some concern about mail-in voting but says we can trust the system.

Bernier is asked about proportional representation given it would likely favor the PPC. He says he’ll look into adopting electoral reform in the platform after the election.