Maxime Bernier just last week quit Canada's Conservative Party to form his own. Bernier, also a failed Conservative leadership contender, has recently come under fire for criticizing the Canadian multiculturalism policy of PM Justin Trudeau, saying, in particular, that such a policy could bring "distrust, social conflict, and potentially violence."
Max Bernier's words, in fact, caused so much noise that, in the end, he was criticized even by the leader of his former party, Andrew Scheer. After that, Bernier decided to create a new right-wing party.
"Multiculturalism in its extreme forms can lead to ghettoization and that is why it is necessary to ensure that immigrants are well-integrated into society — this is necessary, first, for them and, second, for Canadian society," Bernier explained.
For Maxime Bernier this is very important; in his opinion, cultural diversity is priceless, but to attach great importance to it can lead to disunity.
"What I blame the liberal government of Trudeau for is that his policy of cultural diversity has been taken to the extreme. We support cultural diversity, but we should focus more on unity. We must be sure that we can help people who come here, so that they can integrate into Canadian society."
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Bernier has also called for quota changes for different categories of immigrants:
"It is necessary to encourage economic immigration and slightly reduce the number of immigrants coming in on the family reunification program. Plus, continue to accept a certain number of refugees. In Canada there is a shortage of labor, so we need this kind of immigration."Journalist Patrick Lagacé of La Presse newspaper, has criticized Maxime Bernier for defending the woman who asked the Prime Minister a question that shocked many. She wanted to know whether Justin Trudeau was going to return the millions of dollars in taxpayer money that was spent on illegal immigrants. Over the past few months several thousand migrants have illegally crossed the border between the US and Canada.
Later it turned out that the woman who asked the question appeared to be part of a nationalist group. However, Maxime Bernier insists: freedom of speech is above all and cannot belong to just one group. He also accused the leftists of creating an atmosphere of censorship promoted by Justin Trudeau:
"This is the typical behavior of the left [to insult instead of discussing]. Often it is enough to simply raise the issue on a particular situation and you are called a racist. It happened to me recently when I started making my statements on Twitter. […] I find that the reaction of Mr. Trudeau is no good, because the woman asked a legitimate question. If she is a member of a nationalist group, that's her business. But the Prime Minister is obliged to answer such questions in a more civilized manner."
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But Maxime Bernier is very optimistic about the future of his own party, and gives an example of the French President Emmanuel Macron's path to power:
"The President of France, Mr. Macron, left the Socialist Party less than a year before presidential elections, managed to create a new party and become president. Therefore, I believe that anything is possible. I think I can become a conservative alternative to Justin Trudeau during the next election campaign."
The views and opinions expressed by the speaker do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.