PPC’s Bernier touts Couture as viable candidate in Elmwood-Transcona

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Maxime Bernier, leader of the People’s Party of Canada, showed support for the party’s candidate ahead of next month’s Elmwood-Transcona byelection on Saturday.

Bernier is hoping the Sept. 16 vote will signal growth for his party at a national level.

While speaking with more than 30 supporters at Transcona’s Maple Leaf Park, Bernier staked out his party’s candidate, Sarah Couture, as a option for right-leaning voters who aren’t satisfied with Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives.

“I understand that it will be very difficult to win that riding, but we need to be there to give that alternative to the voters,” said Bernier.

Couture said voters should choose her because she comes from a working class family and is not a career politician. She has worked in the trades as a information technology specialist and her husband is a journeyman electrician.

“We need to put Canadians first and protect everyone and make sure that everyone is safe,” Couture said, adding that only her party is staying true to conservative policies.

Elmwood-Transcona has been without representation in parliament since April, when three-term MP Daniel Blaikie stepped down to work as a special adviser on intergovernmental affairs for the Manitoba NDP.

Couture is on ballot with Transcona BIZ director Leila Dance for the NDP, union electrician Colin Reynolds for the Conservatives, former teacher Ian MacIntyre for the Liberals, Green Party candidate Nic Geddert and the new centrist Canadian Future party candidate, Zbig Strycharz.

The PPC currently has no presence in parliament, with Bernier searching for a seat himself.

In the 2021 federal election, the PPC candidate claimed six per cent of the vote in Elmwood-Transcona, trailing the NDP, Liberal, and Conservative candidates.

Bernier said there’s low risk in selecting Couture on the ballot because the byelection won’t have a large impact on government. If the party can claim small increase in the voting share without being elected, he said that still would be a success.

“We are the insurance policy to keep the conservatives acting like conservatives because right now Poilievre is a fake conservative,” said Bernier.

matthew.frank@freepress.mb.ca