People’s Party of Canada Leader Maxime Bernier said he considers it a “compliment,” rather than a slight, that the Conservative Party is holding a major rally in his riding this weekend.

The Conservatives have a rally planned in Beauce, Que., this Saturday, where Conservative Party Leader Andrew Scheer will announce the party’s candidate for the riding in the 2019 federal election. Bernier has won his seat in Beauce as a member of the Conservative Party in every federal election since 2006.

Bernier left the party in August, later founding his own right-wing federal party, the People’s Party, after a number of highly publicized outbursts and clashes with Scheer.

“It is a compliment,” Bernier told iPolitics, referring to the rally. “They don’t want us to be successful, because they know we have a lot of support on the ground with Canadians.”

Bernier said his party has 30,000 members and has raised $390,000.

“I’m not surprised that the Conservatives decided to have a dairy producer against me,” Bernier said, referring to former farmer Richard Lahoux. “They believe in the (dairy) cartel and I don’t, but I think they’re a little bit afraid of us, in a sense.”

Bernier says the Conservatives are nominating Lahoux, who’s also a former mayor of the town of Saint-Elzéar, which is in the riding. Catherine Major, a Conservative Party spokesperson, told iPolitics that Lehoux had been nominated as a candidate, but would not say whether he has been confirmed.

Bernier and his former Conservative colleagues clashed early on after he published a chapter of his unreleased book condemning Canada’s supply-management dairy system. He also claimed that Scheer’s leadership victory was helped by “fake” conservatives from the dairy lobby. Bernier finished the party’s leadership candidacy in second place.

“Maybe half of the (supporters at the rally) will come from another riding, and the other half will be dairy producers,” Bernier said.

“I think Max would understand that when you leave a party and start your own, there’s not going to be any holding back in that riding,” Conservative MP Erin O’Toole said.

Major said many of the party’s Quebec MPs will be attending Saturday’s rally.

Bernier said he will also be in Beauce this weekend, holding a passport clinic for constituents.

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