Beyond The Commons

 Beyond The Commons

Aaron Wherry covers all the goings-on in and around Parliament Hill. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronwherry

Categories: Beyond The Commons, Capital Read

The right way to think about Maxime Bernier

by Aaron Wherry on Thursday, October 28, 2010 11:43am - 0 Comments

The Agenda convenes a panel to sort out the meaning of Maxime Bernier.

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  • John D

    A lot of people are warning me not to underestimate Maxime Bernier. People said the same thing about Stockwell Day as a leadership candidate. Fool me once…

    • Jan

      Is it the same people by any chance?

  • Mike T.

    The man has something for everyone.

    For righties and fans of arbitrary approahces to federal-provincial relationships, he speaks directly to their needs.

    A quiet chuckle for everyone else on the political spectrum.

    For the non-political, even his romantic exploits and professional follies are of interest.

    For Liberal Party supporters, somebody they can dream was running the party instead of the comparatively sane Stephen Harper.

    • Jan

      The new term is clarity, apparently. He has it, Rob Ford has it. They used to say Sarah Palin had it. I can think of another word for it, but I think it's considered rude.

  • chet

    Curious in the sense that his existence within the CPC party is strikingly at odds with the mantra that Harper is a "control freak', whereas in reality it is Iggy who more often than not demands compliance with his stances.

    (The National Post has a great editorial on the point today).

    Just another example of reality getting in the way the "correct" media story line.

  • WDM

    Dear small-c Conservatives,
    I know some of you might be frustrated with Stephen Harper. He kind of threw that small government/cut spending stuff out the window once he became PM. Sure, it's probably better than the Liberals in your estimation, but still not the scale down you wanted. You're probably thinking of the future, beyond Mr. Harper and M. Bernier may sound appealing,. However, I beeseech you, Stop, and think. If you're going to go with a small government, more right wing candidate please look towards someone like Jason Kenney. While I disagree with Mr. Kenney on almost everything, at least I'm comforted in the fact he won't sell the Parliament Buildings for a pouch of magic beans. M. Bernier? I'm not so sure.

    • http://www.TennisVagabond.com Big Dave S

      Do you know where I can get some of these beans?

    • http://www.TennisVagabond.com Big Dave S

      In seriousness, I think many of us are looking to (or dreaming of) the party post-Harper, and hoping it is not destroyed. To be honest, after all these years and problems, he has held his own in the polls, so I think there's reason to believe the party will be left in decent shape, and that a new leader can pad it with centrists that Harper has chased away. So, who? Flaherty and Baird are out, in my opinion. Some of those I considered intelligent, reasonable and honest have seen their stock fall a great deal in the last year (Cannon and Clement). I still like Stahl, and perhaps Prentice or Kenney. I like Ablonsky (?) but she is yesterday's news… Peter Kent, Leona Ag (??- health minister) perhaps. I don't know enough about Bernier to disqualify him, I certainly admire his guts and imagination. Who besides Kenney would you consider palatable?

      • Mike T.

        If they're lucky. There's an equal (better?) chance that if he leaves and the muzzle comes off, there will be enough crazies coming to the forefront to drive support back to reform levels.

        If the party was made of even keeled thoughtful members, they wouldn't need to be muzzled so tightly.

  • tobyornotoby

    Since when did it become "conservative" to advocate radical restructuring of federalism?

    • John D

      They don't see it as radical restucturing. You see they imagine the constitution contains everything they want (which is easy if you don't read it) therefore they just want to follow the constitution.

      • Emily

        Last week you were supporting Bernier when he was promoting sticking to every letter of the 1867 constitution. Now when he wants to chuck it out, you're supporting that too.

        You guys really need to get your act together on this.

        • John D

          is that comment supposed to be aimed at me? I never supported Bernier's crazy stick-to-the-constitution rant. I made fun of him for having no idea what the constitution says and talking about "founding fathers" or whatever he was throwing about. I'm also supporting anything in the above comment, I was explaining the Conservative/Bernier rationale for tobyornotoby.

  • BGLong

    Who writes the words for the speeches he delivers ?

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