# Maxime Bernier **Maxime Bernier** (born 1963) is the founder and leader of the [[People's Party of Canada]], the libertarian-populist party he launched in 2018 after narrowly losing the [[Conservative Party of Canada]] leadership to Andrew Scheer the year before. A Quebec MP and former cabinet minister under [[Stephen Harper]], Bernier broke from the Conservatives over what he called their abandonment of principle, building the PPC on a platform of sharply reduced immigration, free-market economics, opposition to supply management, and — during the pandemic — fierce resistance to COVID-19 mandates that aligned the party with the [[Freedom Convoy]] base. The PPC has won no seats, but Bernier's significance is structural: he marks the populist flank to the Conservatives' right, the pressure point that pulls the mainstream party's immigration and culture-war positioning rightward. He sits in the insurgency arc of the [[Canadian History Hub]]. > [!note] Stub > Phase 1 spine stub. Expand: the 2017 leadership loss, the 2018 PPC founding, the anti-mandate pivot and convoy alignment, vote-share without seats.