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ST-GEORGES — Conservative leadership candidate Maxime Bernier is not caving in.

Despite the unusual and unprecedented mobilization of Quebec’s agricultural producers to block his election as head of the party, Bernier said he won’t back down on his plan to abolish the country’s supply management system.

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“Absolutely not,” Bernier said. “I expected this. It’s an interest group defending their own interests. I didn’t expect them to do otherwise.

“Compared to other agricultural producers who have no supply management (system), they have a privilege. Ninety per cent of other agricultural producers (in Canada) work in the free market.

“But my role as a politician is to defend the interests of all Canadian consumers, and this is the best position for all Canadian consumers.”

Bernier, one of 14 candidates vying for the party leadership since Stephen Harper left, made the comments during a sweeping interview with the Montreal Gazette Thursday in his home riding of Beauce, south of Quebec City.