Article content continued

Instead, standing in for the people was just Max, alone on a stage. Besides the vaguely Euro-sounding name — and not in a good way — and a logo that appeared not so much designed as typed, there was little to indicate this was anything more than the personal vanity project it seemed when Bernier first announced it, last month.

Who will be the leader of this People’s Party? Why, Bernier, as it happens. Who elected him? Well, he wasn’t: he just is. (Perhaps the Lady of the Lake held aloft Excalibur?) And what are its policies? They are those of its leader, at least for now — the platform is “still being finalized,” a note on the party website advises — the same as he campaigned on in the recent Conservative leadership race.

Well, fine. You have to start somewhere. Bernier very nearly won that campaign: there’s obviously a market for what he’s selling, at least within the conservative movement. Presumably his leadership team will make up the nucleus of the new party’s organization. In time it can begin to tap donors, attract members, recruit candidates. Who knows? Perhaps, rather than participate in choosing a leader or developing a platform, what people are really looking for is a turnkey operation, where both have already been decided.

Photo by Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press

Political identities are fluid nowadays. Who’d heard of Emmanuel Macron’s party, En Marche, when it was founded, a year before he was elected president of France? Who knew the venerable Republican Party could be taken over by Donald Trump and his threadbare organization? Besides, Bernier doesn’t have to win to make a difference: all he has to do is force the other parties, the Conservatives in particular, to adjust their policies.