Maxime Bernier toured the Fraser Valley on Sunday (April 13), meeting candidates and the public in Langley and Chilliwack.
The leader of the People's Party of Canada (PPC) has been on a short tour of B.C., stopping in to meet with Chilliwack-Hope candidate Jeff Galbraith first and then Abbotsford-South Langley candidate Alderking Aeorial in the evening.
Black Press asked Galbraith what the main issues are in this election for the PPC.
"I honestly believe that one of the issues is immigration," Galbraith said at the Langley event. "We have too many people coming in here too quickly. We don't have the infrastructure to support their needs and desires... A lot of them are coming without jobs or to jobs. A lot of them are coming and it's the Canadian taxpayer that's on the bill to support these immigrants until they finally get established or whatever is going to happen."
He said it's the party's belief that it's "really unfair for the citizens of Canada."
Bernier was applauded at the Langley event, as he called for tougher immigration laws.
"We need to have a pause, a moratorium on immigration," Bernier said. "We have too many people coming here. They don't integrate into our society."
He predicted the party would increase its percentage of the vote this election, even electing its first member to parliament.
"Our time will come" he said.
Galbraith also identified taxation as an election issue.
"Taxation is robbing Canadian citizens of their livelihoods," he said. "We've come to an area in our lives where we're just existing to pay taxes and Canadians have had enough of taxation, so it's time for change."
PPC party is currently polling sixth among major parties in Canada, behind the Green Party and Bloc Quebecois.
The right-wing party was founded by Bernier in 2018 shortly after he quit the Conservative Party after serving as a senior minister in the Stephen Harper government.
In the 2021 federal election, the party received 4.9 per cent of the total national vote, but did not see any of its candidates elected as MPs.
-with files from Dan Ferguson, Black Press Media
