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Driving through a small Ontario town yesterday, I saw this on a church sign: "If there is no God over government, then government is god."

I think this illustrates the conundrum is at the centre of the PPC surge: a desire to believe in authority (ie. God, but not necessarily God), but very skeptical about how it should work out by participation in our democratic system (ie. government).

The result is trying to promote the desire to lift up the freedom of the individual but no plan to support or build up the freedom of the community. We can't have one without sacrificing aspects of the other.

So, yeah, I think the PPC can't really go anywhere if it can't figure out how to govern.

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Fortunately, there is a really really simple solution to this "problem to social stability" - just let people choose whether or not to get vaccinated/boosted. Stop trying to force them.

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Matt, I take exception to the claim we are against immigration, as you say. The platform is pretty clear that we are for sustainable immigration with a focus on economic immigrants.

But I think a lot of what the PPC stands for gets muddied when regurgitated by the media, maliciously or not. I'm a professional that leans right - certainly of the classical liberal mindset - and I supported Bernier in his Conservative leadership run. When he lost because of Scheer's very obvious buy-out by the dairy lobby, it was clear the conservatives were no longer an option for me.

Most media seems to view Max as just butt-hurt, but his history shows him to be very principled and un-wavering in his policy proposals from when he ran for the leadership, which are not much different from the original Reform Party platform. And he wasn't wrong when he labelled todays conservative party morally and intellectually corrupt.

The PPC's mantra of Freedom, Responsibility, Fairness, and Respect are not just what I want to hear from those looking to govern, these should be what any Western government's first principles ought to be.

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My guess? The PPC fades with the pandemic, back into the population as background noise of largely ineffectual political attitudes.

No longer part of any organized political agenda, it will survive where low grade discontent always has in bars and around water coolers as cynical and skeptical attitudes of people who otherwise don't act politically. The sharper disruption of the pandemic against the broader dislocations accelerated by globalization will likely morph into agendas which, if they have any political traction, will be safely absorbed by more mainstream parties.

My bold prediction! Folks who blockade hospital entrances will never form government in Canada where socialized medicine is as near as sacred gets to politics.

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I wish someone would notice there was a spike in support after the PPC released a statement regarding their position on gender ideology. Your original report on the PPC supporters said there were more men than women. But now you've noted the genders are on par. Isn't anyone curious why women are looking favourably on these guys?

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I'm 68 years in Canada and support the PPC for this election and the last. I've never supported any party in any election with cash until now. I support the PPC for many reasons one being im worried about the erosion of civil rights in Canada. I Feel Max is the only one speaking the truth. Too much bull sh*t from most of the others. Yes I know the PPC can't win this election but change is comming and needed.

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I think we have seen the issue pretty clearly. Lots of people just don't want to stop forcing people to get vaccinated/boosted. But who is really the threat to social stability? The ones who want to exercise their right to choose or those who want to force medical treatment on others?

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Michael Adams of Environics is waaaay ahead of you, guys, with:

https://www.environicsinstitute.org/michael-adams/books/could-it-happen-here/

...his book on whether "Trump could happen here". It leverages polling going back 30 years, and follows up on his "Fire and Ice" (2003) book about how Canadian and American values were diverging even before 9/11.

All the 'shocking' opinions they hold are what you'd expect of the feudalism-was-good-enough-for-grandpa subculture that proved to be large enough in the States to elect Trump, who also hauled non-voters out into the light. But we lack his American Evangelical Christians (whom Chris Hedges nailed as ticking off nearly every box for "fascist" in his "American Fascists" book of 2006) means there's no shot at 51% in any Canadian riding. Or 20%.

If the authors just aren't sure they're nearly all white, I would be happy to give 2:1 odds on 90% white, and 3:2 on 95%. Money for the taking, people, step right up.

This is not Alabama; this is where our most-conservative place, rural Alberta, turned on a Wild Rose guy in 2012 who made one remark about gays perishing in a lake of fire, and Wild Rose spiralled down after losing badly. Yes, we started the Proud Boys, but Rebel Media is a small joke web site here. In America, Roger Aisles took in $29M salary, while selling Trump conspiracy theories, and demanding sex from employees, right to the end.

Read Michael Adams. It won't happen here. You will find out how much of Ford Nation actually wanted a fascist, not a conservative, and that may divert Ford to more anti-immigrant, pro-white policies, which will deserve monitoring.

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This is interesting stuff, but misses the mark in at least a couple of ways. I'm a disappointed Conservative who has always supported the most libertarian option on the ballot...so the PPC is 'it' for me. I'm not against vaccines...I'm against government mandates and coercively _imposing_ vaccines. In fact, I'm double-vaxxed myself...my age and state of health IN MY JUDGEMENT made accepting the vaccination the best option for me. How it all works out remains to be seen...turns out the vaccine is hardly the panacea it's made out to be.

Also, the immigration thing. The PPC is _not_ 'anti-immigration'. Party policy is that it should be reduced, and more care taken with what immigrants are accepted. Note also that it's a flexible, rather than dogmatic, position. If after a few years one level can be seen not to work, it's easy to adjust. It is _not_ slamming the door.

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What is the sample size for PPC supporters? And what is the MOE?

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