Sarnia people can expect a crowded ballot when they go to the polls this year, as the newly established People’s Party of Canada will “definitely” be represented alongside the Conservatives, Liberals, New Democrats, and Greens.

That’s according to Jean-Marc Boilard, the president of the People’s Party riding party in Sarnia. He and three others put together the local association backbone in late 2018, months after maverick Quebec MP Maxime Bernier left the Conservative Party, calling the federal party “intellectually (and) morally corrupt” on the way out the door.

Among Bernier’s goals: stockpile cash for the upcoming election, and field a legitimate candidate in every riding.

Despite mild controversy early on, the People’s Party hasn’t had trouble raising money. The harder task has been to establish electoral district associations and to select and prepare candidates in each.

Boilard put his name forward for district association president last November, when he and a small collection of early People’s Party supporters met for the first time in Sarnia. Now with nearly 100 registered local members, the district association is looking for more people to consider running in the upcoming election.

“We’re looking for candidates,” Boilard said. “I have one person (with) some experience campaigning . . . I have a few other people who are interested in running, too. What we’re going to do is set up a debate, and let our local members vote for who they want the candidate to be.”

The hope is to have all prospective candidates declare by the end of March and to have a debate and nomination meeting in April, Boilard said.

“Max Bernier, his policies . . . he’s been saying the same things for a long time. I watched him in the leadership race and I liked what he had to say back then,” Boilard said. “I said I’ll volunteer to get the ball rolling, and once (the association) gets set up maybe people with more experience will come in and take over.”

Those policies, echoed by Boilard in an interview with the Observer earlier this week, include a free market and smaller government.

Sarnia is less predictable than other ridings in the region, flipping between the Conservative Party and the Liberal Party six times in the last 12 federal elections. In 2015, the difference between first-time Conservative candidate (and eventual winner) Marilyn Gladu (38.8 per cent) and third-place Liberal nominee Dave McPhail (27.3 per cent) was only a little more than 10 per cent — not razor-thin, but enough to cast some uncertainty on the outcome of the upcoming election.

Of the four first-time candidates who ran in 2015, likely only Gladu will run again in 2019. The other parties, including the to-be nominee of the People’s Party of Canada, will need a candidate by later this spring.

Elsewhere in the region similar associations are trying to find and vet candidates heading into the 2019 election, some more successfully than others. Sarnia is doing “extremely well” mobilizing and getting people interested in the upcoming election said Adam Gray, Ontario organizer with the party.

“Officially we don’t have any EDA bank accounts yet,” Gray said. “So we can’t print off brochures, that sort of thing . . . and there’s no point in going out and knocking on doors, outreach, until you can give people something to read.”

All of Canada’s 338 electoral districts have some semblance of an association, Gray added. Roughly two thirds have either been registered or are awaiting registration by Elections Canada. Outreach prior to the upcoming federal election is expected to start around the beginning of May.

Recent by-elections were a mixed bag for the People’s Party of Canada, which polled under two per cent in Outremont and York-Simcoe but exceeded 10 per cent in Burnaby South behind outspoken sex-ed activist Laura-Lynn Tyler Thompson.

“We think we can do a little better,” Gray said. “Laura-Lynn only had three weeks to campaign, and James (Seale, in Outremont) only had two.”

Sarnia residents interested in reaching out to the People’s Party of Canada in Sarnia, either to register or to run in the upcoming nomination race, are asked to email ppcsarnialambton@gmail.com.

lpin@postmedia.com