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To the people in this room, the story of Bernier and his new People’s Party of Canada is one of a principled politician sick of polling-driven policy decisions, looking to undo the influence of special interest groups on government. It is about supply management, corporate welfare and the Austrian School of economics. It is about smaller government and individual freedom and a willingness to debate controversial ideas.

Some here would agree, to an extent, with another perspective: that this is really a story about disruption and populism, not so much about Bernier or his ideas but about what he represents to a constituency feeling underrepresented in modern Canadian politics. It is about Donald Trump but also about François Legault and Emmanuel Macron. It is about the underdog.

Others outside this building on Mount Pleasant Road are more cynical. Some believe the story of Bernier and his new party is about, well, Maxime Bernier. It’s about how the leadership of the Conservative Party slipped through Bernier’s fingers a year-and-a-half ago, and it is about his ensuing rivalry with the victor, Andrew Scheer. It is about bitterness and an ego that threatens to fracture the conservative movement.

And to those most skeptical of Bernier, it is a story about how, whether out of conviction, opportunism or ignorance, his party is flirting with some of society’s darkest undercurrents.

Whatever proves the truth of the matter, even those eager to write Bernier off as a joke concede it would be a mistake to entirely dismiss his potential impact on Canadian politics, and on the country’s political discourse. His eagerness to colour outside the lines of politically correct rhetoric has made him stand apart from other federal politicians — even if that has sometimes meant standing alone.