Friday, March 24, 2017

Bernier tops Tories with $1M raised in 2016

Maxime Bernier, the 'Albertan from Quebec' | CTV News - Laura Payton:

March 2, 2017 - "Maxime Bernier, the Quebec MP with the Montreal banking background and expensive suits, ... is a staunch libertarian who outpaced all his competitors in fundraising last year. He raised more than a million dollars, outpacing Kellie Leitch, the next closest contestant, by close to $200,000.

"Among the reasons Bernier is doing well among Conservative members: he promises to deregulate the telecommunications and airline industries, cut taxes and -- most notably for an MP from the riding with the most dairy producers in Canada -- eliminate the supply-management system that lets the industry set the price for its products.

"He's also staunchly opposed to boutique tax credits, the targeted rebates offered to narrow slices of the Canadian population that complicate the tax code, and which many fiscal conservatives oppose....

"'The philosophy of the [last] government was to buy votes with special interest groups. And I'm doing the opposite. I don't want to buy votes with special interest groups like the farmers, like the big corporations and all that,' Bernier said, sitting in his Parliament Hill office. ''Maybe the dairy producers won't vote for me in the next election, but I will gain more votes with the population because of that position'.... .

"Bernier also opposes loans for companies like GM and Bombardier, calling them corporate welfare. He wants to renegotiate Canada's equalization system, in which some provinces send money to the federal government to be redistributed to less prosperous provinces. On health care, he wants the federal government to get out of the way of the provinces and territories.

"'Health care, it is 100 per cent provincial jurisdiction. And you must give the means for the provinces to be able to do what they have to do," he said. 'The best way for them to be independent and accountable in front of their population, it is transferring tax points. So you lower the personal income tax at the federal level and you let the provinces tax for their own responsibility.

"'If you respect the Constitution and transfer tax points, [Canadians] will know who to blame for the wait times... that will give the right incentive for the provinces,' Bernier added."

Read more: http://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/politics/maxime-bernier-the-albertan-from-quebec-1.3306995?hootPostID=b56e4b9490f50a64a4c9f74bac96a714
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