A biography for Maxime Bernierhasn’t been written yet.
“Our immigration policy should not aim to forcibly change the cultural character and social fabric of Canada, as radical proponents of multiculturalism want.”
“The Conservative Party tries to avoid important but controversial issues of concern to Conservatives and Canadians in general. It is afraid to articulate any coherent philosophy to support its positions.”
“Some taxes are really dumb.”
“I agree that we need to have real temporary foreign workers, who are working in the fields, picking fruits.”
“The politicians, they try to please everybody and when you want to please everybody, you won't please everybody. That's not my way of doing politics.”
“Nationalism can be a destructive force when it promotes intolerance and division. But it can also be a force for good, when it seeks to defend local autonomy against the homogenizing forces of larger entities.”
“I am not a communist.”
“I'm the only one who is saying, 'Let's take fewer immigrants.' We want people to integrate, we don't want ghettos in Canada.”
“In reality, every time the government takes an additional dollar in taxes out of someone's pocket, it's a dollar that person will not be able to spend or invest. When government spending goes up, private spending goes down. There is no net effect. No wealth creation.”
“We want First Nations and these people to be like Canadians on a lot of points of view. Right now, that's not normal that they cannot have running water on reserve. We need to fix that, but it must not be imposed by Ottawa, a top-down bureaucratic decision.”
“You cannot build public policies on sentiment, on panic and fear.”
“We need new technology to fight climate change and that will come from the private sector.”
“A tax on capital is self-defeating, in that it slows down capital accumulation, investment and economic growth.”
“When government borrowing and spending go up, private borrowing and spending go down.”
“When we tolerate violations to the Constitution, the entire moral foundation of our political system is shaken to its core.”
“I am in politics to defend ideas, real conservative ideas. Because I passionately care about Canada's future. Because I know that the free-market conservative philosophy has the best solutions to ensure our society is more prosperous, secure, and peaceful.”
“I want to get rid of corporate welfare.”
“You know, I'm a free market politician and I think I'm the only one who worked for think-tanks like the Montreal Economic Institute.”
“Prosperity has nothing to do with the quantity of money that we have in our pockets, but rather with the quantity of goods that we can buy.”
“I think it is not important to have the free trade agreement with China.”