Diane Francis: Maxime Bernier and his anti-vax super-spreader party don’t deserve your vote

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The fourth wave is a “new” pandemic of unvaccinated people which is why no one should vote for Maxime Bernier and his People’s Party of Canada.

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In a recent zoom call, Bernier bragged he was not vaccinated because “I’m a healthy 58 year old.” While I believe people should have a choice to take a needle or not, they should be obliged to self-quarantine when sick and be tested regularly.

If they do not, they stand in the way of economic recovery because the unvaccinated are carriers of the virulent Delta variant that is spreading rapidly.

Personally, I don’t allow unvaccinated people in my home, and I don’t want them in my workplace or beside me in a club, restaurant, or airplane. For that reason alone, Bernier doesn’t deserve my political support.

He has a few good ideas, but frankly he’s cashing in on the nonsense Canadians watching Fox News would see from Republicans who have weaponized vaccine and mask mandates south of the border.

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But it’s interesting to note that the rabidly right-wing tabloid, the New York Post, recently dubbed vaccine holdouts like Bernier as the “new 99 percenters”.

“They are the new 99 percenters: The vast majority of Americans who are getting serious cases of COVID-19 or dying are unvaccinated,” wrote the New York Post. “While COVID-19 cases spike across the U.S. (including pediatric cases) the overwhelming majority of deaths and hospitalizations from the virus continue to overwhelmingly be among unvaccinated Americans, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).”

In August, more than 1.6 million Americans were hospitalized with COVID-19, but only about 0.65 per cent of them, or 10,471 patients, were fully vaccinated, according to the CDC. And 99 per cent who died from the disease were not fully vaccinated or vaccinated at all.

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In Canada and the rest of the world, the story is the same. The Delta variant was first discovered in India in late 2020, has spread around the world, and now accounts for the majority of cases and deaths even in highly vaccinated Israel.

Worse than boasting about his defiance against public-health measures, Bernier may be siphoning votes away from the Conservative Party of Canada — the only responsible alternative to Justin Trudeau’s socialist-statist freight train which hurtles toward derailing the country’s economy and international standing.

Tory insiders maintain that such vote-splitting isn’t an issue, but in a tight race in a riding or two the PPC may become the spoiler.

By far, the biggest challenge is to get Canadian small “c” conservatives to turn out in this election. Those over 45 are most likely Tory voters and the turnout must be as robust as possible this year because the stakes are so high.

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An 80 per cent turnout would do the trick for the Tories because, given the economic incompetence and COVID-19 bungling of the Liberal regime, Blue is the only alternative.

Bernier’s supporters are simply radicalized, like some NDPers, and out of step with most Canadians. Some also behave poorly. This week, a young PPC supporter was arrested for throwing gravel at Trudeau. Pathetic.

But far worse is the PPC’s encouragement of vaccine refusers, under the guise of personal liberty. This endangers others, presents a burden on our health-care system, and impedes the economic recovery.

For that reason alone, Maxime Bernier does not deserve anyone’s vote and his organization is not a political party, it’s a bloody spreader event.

Financial Post