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Maxime Bernier believes he has the right ideas at the right time.

He believes that those ideas, along with frustration he feels people fed up with the status quo in Canada’s political sphere are experiencing, is helping him forge a new path for the People’s Party of Canada.

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That path made a stop in Winnipeg on Wednesday, with Bernier, the MP from Beauce, Que., hosting a rally at the Holiday Inn on Ellice Avenue near the James A. Richardson International Airport.

In Manitoba, Bernier, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs under Stephen Harper, and his party volunteers have been able to build a riding association in 13 of the province’s electoral wards. The last one — Churchill — should be up and running by next month, Bernier said.

“The view is because we were able to build riding associations in a short time here in Manitoba, that tells me people are ready for a change,” Bernier said. “People are ready to hear a politician do politics differently We’re not afraid to say what we think is right for this country.

“We can be a big surprise in Manitoba 11 months from now.”

Since Bernier started the party in September — just weeks after leaving the federal Conservative party — he’s amassed 33,000 members and counting, over three times the 10,000 goal they set out to reach by Nov. 1.

Bernier, who narrowly lost the race to Andrew Scheer to become the Conservative leader, said he expected around 100-150 people at his rally on Wednesday.

The message?

“We are the alternative,” Bernie said. “We are the part with the bold reform that needs to be done in this country.”

Those policies include ending corporate welfare, stop the cartel on supply management by expanding free trade and scraping the carbon tax and cutting foreign aid.

Bernier says he isn’t one for trying to please everyone, explaining that when you do that, you end up displeasing them instead.

“If you like what we are saying, come with us,” Bernier said. “If you don’t like what we are saying, stay at home. It’s OK. We won’t change to try to please everybody.”

Perhaps Bernier’s most controversial policy, however, is reducing immigration numbers by 50,000 per year to 250,000.

Bernier has come under fire for tweets made about multiculturalism in the country, calling the Liberal platform a push toward “radical” and “extreme” multiculturalism.