Article content continued

“It’s a normal discussion that we must have,” said Bernier. “You need to start at one point. It will be easier next time.”

Bernier says he can see where his party ran into trouble. He places some blame on strategic voting. He believes people didn’t want to vote for People’s Party candidates and split the vote on the right. He thinks there was some of that even in his own riding of Beauce, where he lost to the Conservative candidate Richard Lehoux. Bernier had held that seat for 12 years; his dad had held it previously for more than a decade.

It will be easier next time

As for gaining just 1.6 per cent of the popular vote, Bernier argues that it took the Green party several elections to get to the same level of support.

“We did that in one year,” he said.

In his speech on Saturday, Bernier had argued that the main reason behind the west’s growing alienation was that the federal government had grown too large, and had meddled in provincial jurisdictions while favouring other provinces over Alberta. The answer, he said, was the kind of smaller government his party stood for.

(He later told the Post that he was disappointed with his former federal cabinet colleague and now Alberta premier Jason Kenney’s provincial budget, as it was not focused on shrinking government, either: “I know that it was only the first budget, but I hope the next one … will be more fiscal conservative,” he said.)

Speaking to the Post, Bernier commented specifically on the public war of words going on between Kenney and Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet, who has been vocally denouncing Alberta’s oil economy and insisting he will not provide any support for it, including for export pipelines. Bernier said he thinks Kenney should not bother arguing with Blanchet, whose party holds just 32 seats and not even a majority of Quebec’s seats. Blanchet “is not representing the population of Quebec,” said Bernier.