Maxime Bernier’s Asinine Comedy

Although Maxime continues to present us with a cool, calm, collected, charming, and charismatic persona, from this outsider's perspective, it feels like watching a good baseball player go on a hitless streak. You know that he can knock it out of the park, but the bat just isn't alive and doesn't look to be waking up any time soon.

That's not to say that Maxime hasn't had his fair share of curveballs. The longtime Beauce MP has a long and impressive resume and is capable of delivering. But lately, it feels like watching a mouse in a maze that has no exit. Adamant to impress, but constantly hitting walls.

Right out of the gate, the name "People's Party of Canada" sounds like commie gobbledygook. Perhaps it's a stereotype, but parties that have the word "People's" in it don't tend to be right-wing libertarian populists, do they? I'm not sure, but this list of 40+ communist political parties from around the world that contain the word "People's" proves my point.

To mirror Dante's Divine Comedy (a book which details nine separate circles of hell,) Maxime's first circle of hell was (legal) Limbo. Unfortunately for Maxime, he wasn't the first one to come up the name for his party. An Abbotsford entrepreneur filed a lawsuit in the Federal Court of Canada in an attempt to prevent the People’s Party of Canada from using that name in a federal by-election or using it in the federal election.

Fear not! Maxime was eventually granted use of the name by Elections Canada. Crisis averted! But if that were the end of Maxime's troubles, I wouldn't even be writing this article.

Maxime presents himself as a man of principle, that much is known. So entering the second circle of hell, Lust was certainly going to be a challenge. That's why when the official Canada Twitter account decided to condragulate Brooke Lynn Hytes for being the first Canadian drag queen on VH1's award-winning TV show RuPaul's Drag Race, Maxime said enough is enough!

"Foul!" cried Maxime, as furious fingers surely clacked at his keyboard. The hypocrisy astounded Mad Max, and he decided to give the Canada Twitter account a piece of his mind.

Yes, this was definitely a bone Maxime had to pick. How dare men dress in woman-face and be entertaining to gays and women?! How absurd, and how dare the oh-so-prestigious and well respected Canada Twitter account acknowledge such an art form! Oh, the humanity!

The eighth circle of hell, Fraud, punishes liars and hypocrites. So when Maxime Bernier decided that he wasn't going to comment on the New Zealand Mosque Massacre, we took him at his word. Bernier made an announcement that he would not be trying to "score political points" following tragedies, and wouldn't comment on any that don't occur inside the borders of Canada.

But Maxime's rules apply for no one, not even Maxime! One month later, the world-famous Notre Dame's cathedral burned down. And as the world collectively mourned, so did Maxime. On Twitter, of all places! As it turned out, the no-tragedy policy only really applied when Maxime felt like it.

Maxime does seem to have a knack to fight needless battles. His next crusade was against the Trudeau government's proposed free tampons for government employees. Alright, while we do acknowledge that the idea of giving away free tampons is at the very least debatable, why does Maxime Bernier feel as though this is a hill he should die on? Is it worth it, Maxime?

It's not all his fault. The People's Party is in the news yet again, and of course, it's not positive press. The PPC is now being accused of being homophobic after former PPC candidate Jordan Kent claimed that he was 86ed from the party for being gay. Though the validity of these claims have come into question, it is yet another circle of hell that Maxime apparently has no clue how to climb out of.

And what does Maxime Bernier have to show for it all? A party that is polling no higher than 5 percent in any poll and born as a consequence of Max earning a silver medal next to the "Sultan of Snore," Andrew Scheer. The result? A political career that appears to be burning out before it ever could fade away.

After constant error after error in the far-right field, Canadians are going to have to look elsewhere.