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ST-GEORGES — It’s a bit past noon on a weekday in the Beauce, and Maxime Bernier is in his element: He’s delivering a speech to the board of trade in his home riding.

Far from the media spotlight of Ottawa, Bernier — one of two Conservative leadership candidates from Quebec — has free rein to speak his mind and outline the kind of Canada he hopes to lead.

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His talk is vintage “conservative-speak” — the kind you don’t hear often in Quebec, where the party holds only 12 out of 78 seats: Less government. More personal freedom. Lower corporate taxes. Respect for the Constitution.

He takes aim at the CBC and Radio-Canada, for example. They’re great institutions, Bernier says, but enough with cooking shows and sports — private broadcasters can handle that.

The home riding crowd laps it up in between bites of their pulled pork and potato lunch.

This region south of Quebec City is free enterprise country, so close to Maine that some residents drive across the border to Jackman to buy groceries and gas because they are cheaper.