Members of the Peoples Party of Canada Resign over concerns of racism | Unpublished
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Members of the Peoples Party of Canada Resign over concerns of racism

July 24, 2019

Below is a letter from members of Maxime Bernier's Peoples Party of Canada, claiming they cannot be a part of the PPC in good conscience. 

Dear Max,

We are a group of early supporters, mostly libertarians and small-C conservatives inspired by your leadership campaign. I was refreshing to finally see a politician with the courage to stand up for his principles. We were very excited to see your stances on corporate welfare, supply management, and crony capitalism. The move to begin reform on the income tax system to benefit the average Canadian was inspiring. We were interested in seeing your final plans on firearms legislation and equalization payments. 

We lost a few volunteers to the slow and shaky start, and we wasted time dealing with a number of organisational issues. Slow deployment of membership lists, absentee regional organisers, as well as sudden changes in design and technical direction being key examples. Off could be seen as normal problems faced by new parties, but they have cost local organisers regardless. 

The biggest problem we face locally though, are our own supporters. Racists, bigots, anti-Semites, and conspiracy theorists have large presence in the public conversation surrounding the People's Party of Canada. Many of these PPC supporters would deny freedoms to Canadians and close our physical and economic borders. Many more spread disinformation and distrust online via their personal and sometimes official party channels. None of these are things we would have expected you to stand beside during the leadership campaign. We are appalled to see it encouraged with a wink and a nod now. 

Most of our once enthusiastic members and volunteers have distanced themselves from the party now that tone has shifted away from strong ideals and prudent policy toward conspiracy and Twitter trolling for outrage clocks. In Elmwood-Transcona, we lost both our Financial Agent and our only prospective candidate to the justifiable fear of a tainted reputation. We are often told by like-minded people that they feel abandoned by this new direction, and disconcerted by many of the vocal PPL supporters that they see online. 

We were exited for a principled alternative in Canadian Politics but the party is moving in a direction we cannot follow in good conscience.