Libertarians considering a merger with Bernier's People's Party

Tim Moenmay not like the name of Maxime Bernier's new party ("a bit too left-wing for me"). He may not think the former Conservative minister's policies are daringenough ("milquetoast libertarian" is how he described them). But the leader of theLibertarian Party of Canada is still considering a merger withBernier's new political venture.

"If party membership votes to merge [with The People's Party of Canada], I look forward to standing as a candidateand preaching the gospel of liberty in a principled manner like I've always done," Moentold party supporters in a recent video.

A spokesperson for Bernier'sPeople's Party said "merger" might not be quite the right word for what's being discusseditcould be something of a takeover of the Libertarianparty structure by Bernier.

Bernieris continuing the process of gathering signatures and completing the other steps required to obtain official party status, said his spokesperson Martin Masse.

A fundraisingshortcut?

However, Masse said Elections Canada rules require a partyto run a candidate in a by-election before that partycan start handing out tax receipts to donors. By taking over the Libertarian Party andrenaming it, he said, Bernier'sventure might be able to take a shortcut to that lucrative step.

But Massesaid the new party isn't counting on the Libertarians to give it a head start.

"If they can add something in terms of members and in terms of this process to get a tax credit good, but we're not waiting expecting that to be our lifeline," he said."It might be useful if they offer it."

Bernier is working on a party constitution to be released publicly in the coming days, said Masse. Moensaid that document will help him decide whether to recommend a merger to his party members.

Moensaid he also hopes the People'sParty would take on "the majority" of the 70-odd candidates the Libertarians have nominated for the next election, adding he'dexpect to see Libertarians "play an influential role" in the PPC's upper ranks.

Moen's even talking about a leadership race at some point, possibly after the next election. He said hemight challenge Bernierfor the leadership, although he concedes he'd probably lose.

Bernier's team isn't committing to any of that just yet.

"There will definitely not be a leadership race in the next few months," said Masse."We're preparing [for] the next election. We're not doing that just for fun and [then]see who will be the next leader." Masse said that the party constitution could includesome sort of review process for the leadership after the next election.

Moen's party had been trying to woo Bernier to take over for quite a while. It even adopted Bernier'splatform as its own after the Conservative leadership race.

Where Bernier and Libertarians part company

However,Moen acknowledged that there are many policy areas where Libertarian members would like to go farther than Bernier. Many Libertarians believe in legalizing all recreational drugs, for example an idea in which Bernier has shown no interest.

Historically, Moen said, Libertarians also have favoured fairly open borders and distrust letting government handle immigration issues. Bernierhas said he wants to decrease immigration levels and argues Canadians need to talk about how to maintain Canadian values against the alleged effects of immigration.

The merger could still be worthwhile, said Moen, if it takes Libertarianprinciples mainstream.

"The biggest thing is that we see some level of commitment to restraining government and the principles of liberty that we think Canada and Western Civilization is founded on," he said.

Whatever advantages a potential merger might bring to Bernier and his new party, they likely won't include money.Elections Canada data show the Libertarian Party only raised $30,443 in 2017.