There’s a certain amount of irony in it, Conservative leadership candidate Maxime Bernier admitted Monday, as he announced his plan to dismantle internal trade barriers: creating more government in order to get rid of it.

Bernier says he just doesn’t see another way to do it.

“I’m not usually in favour of establishing new government bureaucracies. But in this case, when the goal is to fight bureaucratic excesses, to apply the wisdom of our Constitution, and to unleash the free market for the benefit of Canadians, I think it is totally justified,” Bernier said at a press conference in Ottawa.

In an idea taken directly from a six-year old Macdonald-Laurier Institute paper called “Citizen of One, Citizen of the Whole”, Bernier proposed legislation creating an Economic Charter of Rights for Canadians and the creation of an Economic Freedom Commission.

The Commission, which would investigate breaches of the Charter by the provinces and help citizens and businesses bring legal action, would have “the appropriate staff and budget,” Bernier said.

He did not have a cost estimate.

Despite the premiers reaching an agreement in principle in July on a Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA), which would replace the 22-year old Agreement on Internal Trade, Bernier said he didn’t know which sectors would be exempted and what kind of dispute settlement mechanism will be used.

“There are already disputes about opening procurement contracts. I do not believe that anything concrete will come out of this. It’s illogical to expect that governments responsible for the problem will solve the problem,” he argued, adding that the New Brunswick government’s decision to appeal the Comeau decision was evidence of that.

In May, Brian Gallant’s Liberal government in New Brunswick appealed the dismissal of charges against a 62-year old man named Gérard Comeau for importing 14 cases of beer and three bottles of liquor into the province from Québec.

Bernier’s fellow Conservative MP, Dan Albas, has repeatedly called on the Liberal government to refer the Comeau decision to the Supreme Court and clarify Article 121 of the Constitution Act.

“How can this happen? This single event is proof that there is something utterly wrong with how our federation works. It negates the very notion of living in a united country,” Bernier said in French.

With the field of Conservative leadership candidates having grown larger last week, Bernier was asked to comment on the entry of the most socially conservative candidate to date, Brad Trost, and more specifically Trost’s opposition to same-sex marriage.

“He is not in line with the the views of the members of the party at the last convention. As you know, we voted to expand the definition of marriage,” Bernier answered. “It’ll be up to him to convince the members that his position is the right one for the party and for Canada.”

On Sunday, Bernier marched in Ottawa’s gay pride parade.

As for the status of his his leadership campaign, Bernier said he’s pleased with his fundraising and organization so far.

“I’m very happy with what we’re doing. We’re there for the ideas, as you know,” he said.

“We started the fundraising in July. It’s going very well. You’ll see the number at end of September…We have an organization all across the country. I will be in Calgary and out West this week. So I’m traveling and using the time this summer to meet a lot of Canadians and Conservative members of our party,” he said.