HALIFAX — Maxime Bernier is forming his own pan-Canadian political party.

Hours before the Conservative caucus was set to discuss in Halifax what to do with their controversial Quebec MP, Bernier held a press conference in Ottawa announcing that he is quitting the party and plans to start his own in time for next year's election.

"I have come to realize over the past year that this party is too intellectually and morally corrupt to be reformed," Bernier told reporters.

View photos Maxime Bernier announces he will leave the Conservative party during a news conference in Ottawa on Aug. 23, 2018. More

In a scathing attack of the Conservatives, Bernier said the party, for which he has been an MP since 2006, had changed under the leadership of Andrew Scheer.

"This party, intellectually, they just want to try to please everybody." Making decisions based on public opinion polling to try to please everybody just leads to pleasing nobody, he said. "So I prefer to do politics differently, and to speak about what I believe."

In Halifax, where some 3,000 party members are gathered, Bernier's former colleagues and some Tory delegates wished him good riddance.

Montreal delegate Kathleen Maher Wagner wore a sign around her neck with the words: "By By Bernier."

"Someone told me, I was missing an 'e'," she said laughing. "It represents how I feel. I'm very glad that he made the decision and that he's left. I think it will be better for the party that he takes his ideas and does what he wants with them. He never wanted to support the leader."

Former prime minister Stephen Harper tweeted that it is clear that Bernier had never accepted the results of the last leadership contest and only sought to divide Conservatives.

It is clear that Max never accepted the result of the leadership vote and seeks only to divide Conservatives. His decision today allows the Conservative Party of Canada to move forward united behind our Leader @AndrewScheer. — Stephen Harper (@stephenharper) August 23, 2018





Those words were echoed on the convention floor.

"I don't think the leadership convention had been settled, so now it's settled," Alan Williams, a Nova Scotia delegate from Dartmouth–Cole Harbour told HuffPost Canada. "It helps the party to move on, and, I think, it will actually unify the party."

Scheer defeated Bernier by less than two percentage points during last year's Conservative leadership contest.

Bernier chose ' coward's way out': Clement

Conservative MP Tony Clement, who backed Bernier during the race but has since distanced himself from Bernier's views on immigration, said he was disappointed in his former caucus teammate.

"I think he's taken almost the coward's way out rather than fight for what he believes in within our party, where he was welcome to do so," Clement said. "I feel sad for him.... I don't think anybody will join him. He has insulted our caucus. He has not talked to our caucus.He hasn't talked to me in weeks, so I had no idea he was planning this little plot. And, I think, we are actually bound together more tightly because of this."

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer also said he expected none of his MPs to follow Bernier out the door.

View photos Conservative leader Andrew Scheer is greeted by supporters at the Party's national convention in Halifax on Aug. 23, 2018. More

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