Canadian Politics Today

I think Bernier was angry at the party not giving him a position and not taking him seriously. When he talked about the possible disunity of too much diversity he was attacked by a number of prominent party people, in part because I think the leadership is sensitive to him trying to position himself as a rival to Scheer. That affronted his sense of dignity. Then within days the party was attacking Trudeau in a similar vein, over that woman in the field. I think he got indignant over that - evidence his later tweets. But what he doesn't seem to get is Trudeau gave them cover to attack him on the subject. And I think Michelle Rempel, the Tory immigration critic, came out with some reasonable talking points about reforming immigration, partly in response to him and partly to the recent poll showing half of Canadians thought immigration was too high. He should have worked with her instead of getting insulted, picking up his toys and marching off into the sunset.

A number of media observers have pointed out that if he had any real support within caucus they'd have been at the podium with him. But he was alone. I don't think he's going to get the kind of money and support necessary to start any kind of realistic alternative party in Canada. It's possible he might do something in Quebec, but his lack of language skills are going to hamper him elsewhere.