People’s Party of Canada (PPC) Leader Maxime Bernier says the party won’t do “anything special” to attract candidates that reflect Canada’s diversity as part of its online search for its candidates in the next election.

“I hope that our candidates will represent our country, but … we won’t do anything to attract people with different backgrounds. I think these people are coming right now,” Bernier told reporters in Ottawa.

Bernier said he “hopes” that the PPC has a “huge diversity” of candidates, but that it won’t impose any diversity requirements on those who run.

In comparison, part of the Liberal Party’s nomination process is to ensure that a “thorough search” has been conducted for women candidates or others who reflect the demographics of the riding they hope to be nominated in. The NDP have also instituted diversity-based rules recently, requiring that leadership candidates in 2017 collect 50 per cent of required signatures from women in the party, and 100 of the required 500 signatures from traditionally marginalized groups.

Bernier and Johanne Mennie, the party’s communications director, held a press conference on Monday to announce that the PPC had opened its online selection process. It will be open until April 23, with candidate selection meetings to follow between May 7 and May 13.

“The PPC is on target and will be ready for the general elections,” Mennie said.

Bernier said that the party will conduct thorough background checks of potential candidates, similarly to what they did for the executives of the party’s electoral district associations (EDA). The party’s leader said it conducted background checks of EDA presidents, as well as checks of their social media accounts.

Bernier said it’s important that candidates share the values of the party, in order to be nominated.

“That’s most important to us; these people must share our values,” Bernier said.

“People who don’t share our values, they can create their own party, they are not welcome in our party,” Bernier said.

The PPC leader also said he hasn’t called any of his former colleagues in the Conservative Party in the House of Commons or the Senate, to try and convince them to join the PPC as candidates. He maintained that his party will field a full 338 candidates in fall’s general election.

The People’s Party ran its first three candidates in the Feb. 25 byelections in Outremont, York–Simcoe and Burnaby South. Jennifer M. Clarke, who was beat out of the Conservative Party nomination in Nanaimo—Ladysmith, is the People’s Party candidate in the byelection in the riding that was recently announced to be held on May 6.

The Hill Times reported Monday that single-term former Conservative MP Corneliu Chisu would be running as a candidate for the People’s Party in the next election.

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