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The federal Conservative caucus is planning a Thursday afternoon meeting to get fellow MP Maxime Bernier fully onside after his latest round of comments that spurred national debate and made him appear to be going rogue.

Bernier, who came a close second to current leader Andrew Scheer in last year’s leadership race, has vocally disagreed with Scheer on supply management and recently made news for his comments on culture and immigration.

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“The strategy was to belittle him, not remove him,” a senior Conservative source told the Sun. “We didn’t want to give him a full year to organize. There was absolutely, unequivocally no plan to kick him out of caucus.”

But Bernier now appears to be pre-empting that meeting, having called a 1 p.m. press conference in Ottawa to make a statement. The rest of the caucus is currently in Halifax for the party’s annual convention. It’s unknown what Bernier intends to say.