People's Party of Canada Leader Maxime Bernier believes his message will resonate in a conservative stronghold like the Red Deer riding.
"Because of that, I'm telling them (conservative voters) the only option is the People's Party," said Bernier at a brief campaign stop in Rotary Park where three area PPC candidates joined him as he delivered a speech on his party's positions on Medical Assistance In Dying (MAID) and abortion.
Bernier said Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre won't talk about abortion, or the need to overhaul the provincial equalization system to create a fair, less-generous formula, or mass immigration, which Bernier claims is destroying Canada.
"On these most important issues for the future of our country, Poilievre is like the Liberals," he said before half a dozen supporters gathered on a blustery Wednesday morning. Bernier was set to address more supporters at an evening event at Pioneer Lodge.
"The Liberals are driving us into a wall at high speed, and Poilievre, at the legal speed. So, there's no difference.
"If you're a conservative, there is no risk by voting for the People's Party because I strongly believe that you won't elect, here in Alberta, a Liberal. So, it's between real conservatives and fake conservatives.
"Poilievre is taking your vote for granted."
Bernier will have his work cut out for him in Red Deer, where Conservative Earl Dreeshen ran away with the 2021 election, picking up about 64 per cent of the vote. NDP candidate Marie Grabowski was a distant second with about 14 per cent of the total votes and PPC candidate Kelly Lorencz had just over 12 per cent.
Bernier is not afraid to take on former prime minister Stephen Harper, a hero to many Western conservatives. Other than dismantling the Canadian Wheat Board in 2012 his legacy is "zero" he said. "Harper was a good manager of a big, fat government."
Although Poilievre and Liberal Leader Mark Carney have come out against the carbon tax, Bernier said they intend to impose more regulations on businesses and subsidize the green energy industry.
To peel off votes from the Liberals, Poilievre is moving left, adding the Conservative leader is not talking about balancing the federal budget or reducing the size of government.
"He is not fiscally responsible. We want to have a smaller government that respects provincial autonomy. That will kill the separatist sentiment in Alberta," he said.
Canada's $50 billion deficit could be eliminated in one year by cutting in half the $26 billion in equalization payments "have" provinces such as Alberta send east as well as reducing the country's $10 billion in foreign aid, he said.
By eliminating the deficit, and returning a surplus budget, taxes can be lowered for all Canadians.
On the world stage, the PPC wants to pull Canada out of the Paris Agreement on climate change, and avoid engaging in a tariff war with U.S. President Donald Trump and instead negotiate a new trade agreement.
Bernier dismisses Trump's tariffs as a negotiating ploy and his 51st state musings as just a "joke," he said, calling Poilievre and Carney "fake patriots" who claim Canada won't prosper because of Trump.
Canada's counter tariffs will hurt Canadians, not Americans, and will amount to slapping more taxes on Canadians, he said.
In his prepared comments, Bernier sharply criticized MAID.
"Instead of valuing and promoting life, Canada's government allows and even promotes, policies that bring death," he said.
When adopted in 2016, MAID was available only for those at the end of their lives to avoid further months of suffering. It has since been offered, or could be offered in the future, to those with disabilities, mental health issues or people who are poor, alone and tired of life.
Disabled veterans have been offered assisted suicide rather than services to help them, he said.
"MAID has clearly become a death cult. Instead of offering health services to patients, governments prefer to save money by offering to kill them. This is morally disgusting. It is is criminal. Those who do this are killers. There is no other way to say it.
"A PPC government will not allow expansion of assisted suicide. We will make it a crime to suggest, encourage and promote it to anyone and we will narrow down the legislation to its original intention, which was to give patients in end-of-life situations an option to limit their suffering."
Bernier also criticized Canada as being one of the few countries world-wide with no legal restrictions on abortion, allowing abortions to be performed at any stage of pregnancy, including during the third trimester.
PPC members would be free to support any position on abortion and vote according to their conscience.
But the party would introduce legislation making abortion available only during the first three months of pregnancy. Restrictions would begin in the second term and late-term abortions would only be allowed in "exceptional circumstances, such as threats to the mother's life."
Red Deer PPC candidate Kyla Courte said the topic of abortion, which she said leads to 100,000 deaths a year, is "at best ignored and at worst used as an emotional trump card in political dealings."
It is more important than ever now to have "hard conversations with open hearts and good faith," she said.
"During COVID, I realized that the parties that had so loudly championed the 'my body, my choice' slogan were now loudly opposing those of us who were making different choices for our own bodies."
Courte said open, respectful and honest conversations about abortion are the only thing that will heal Canada as a nation.
Courte will face off against Conservative candidate Burton Bailey, NDP's Elias Assefa, Liberal Party's Ayaz Bangash, Green Party's Ashley MacDonald and Christian Heritage Party of Canada's Brandon Pringle.
Also at Rotary Park were PPC's Battle River-Crowfoot candidate Jonathan Bridges and Ponoka-Didsbury candidate Larry Gratton.
