Tom Lukiwski Speaks out About Maxime Bernier

Nick Murray

If you are well versed in this story and wish to skip directly to Lukiwski's comments please scroll down to the bottom three paragraphs, otherwise first is a brief rundown of what happened with Maxime Bernier leading up to Lukiwski's comments.

Maxime Bernier is a long standing Canadian policy maker. He is currently a sitting Member of Parliament in his Quebec riding of Beauce. He recently ran against Andrew Scheer for the leadership of the national Conservative Party, earning 49 percent of the vote and narrowly losing the opportunity to be the official opposition to Justin Trudeau.

Long known for his libertarian views, Bernier has been both popular -yet-polarizing since the mid 2000s. But it's undeniable that he has an extensive track record as a politician. He's won four elections, a majority every time. He spent time serving in Stephen Harper's cabinet as Minister of Industry and Minister of Foreign Affairs amongst many other notable positions.

More recently of note, Bernier came under scrutiny for his views on multiculturalism and diversity saying: "Trudeau's extreme multiculturalism and cult of diversity will divide us into little tribes that have less and less in common, apart from their dependence on government in Ottawa."
Bernier was expelled from caucus as a result.

Well, it seems Bernier wasn't happy about this and has since departed the Conservative Party, saying it was "too intellectually and morally corrupt to be reformed". Bernier claimed he planned on starting a party of his own that more reflects his personal principles.

Many influential Conservatives opposed Bernier's decision. Including former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who said "it is clear that Max never accepted the result of the leadership vote and seeks only to divide Conservatives."

Well, on August 24th, Tom Lukiwski, the sitting Member of Parliament for Moose Jaw-Lake Centre-Lanigan also spoke in regards to Bernier's decision to leave the party and start one of his own.

Lukiwski's message echoes that of Stephen Harper's:

"The clearest lesson of the history of Canadian conservatism is the importance of unity and teamwork" he said. "Maxime Bernier failed to learn that simple lesson. It's been clear to my caucus colleagues and I for some time that Maxime was unable to put personal ego aside and be a team player. Fortunately, as I've witnessed at the #CPC18, Mr. Bernier is alone in his poor judgment. The Conservative family remains united, strong and focused on ending Justin Trudeau's incompetent government."

On August 26th, Bernier shared a few graphs with survey results from Abacus Data which showed that 13 percent of Canadians would vote for his party and another one showing that half of those voters are current supporters of the Conservative Party. You can see those below.