Former Conservative MP Maxime Bernier holds a press conference in Ottawa on Thursday, August 23, 2018.
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Canadians are paying the highest rates in the developed world (G-7 Nations) thanks to Bernier and the Conservatives who deregulated the wireless industry, which allowed the big wireless corporations, Bell, Telus, and Rogers to eliminate the competition, and thereby claim a oligopoly market position with 91% of the wireless revenue and charge excessive rates.
National Citizens Alliance 2019 rejects the sell out to these corporations at the expense of the Canadian people. The wireless industry should never have been deregulated by Bernier. What kickbacks did he receive from Bell, Telus, and Rogers?
National Citizens Alliance
The National Citizens Alliance (NCA; French: Alliance National des Citoyens) is a far-right federal political party in Canada. The National Citizens Alliance is headquartered in Calgary, Alberta and led by perennial candidate Stephen Garvey, who is a proponent of far-right conspiracy theories [specifically]. The National Citizens Alliance has been described by critics as alt-right, white nationalist and Islamophobic.
In August 2015, the National Citizens Alliance was registered under the party name, Democratic Advancement Party of Canada (DAPC). The party, under the DAPC name, fielded four candidates in the 2015 federal election. In January 2017, the party name was changed to National Advancement Party of Canada (NAPC). Garvey was a candidate in Calgary Skyview, receiving 1.5% of the vote, Fahed Khalid was a candidate in Bow River where he won 0.17% of the vote, Max Veress received 0.33% of the vote in Calgary Forest Lawn, and Faizan Butt received 0.34% of the vote in Calgary Nose Hill. No candidate was elected.
The NAPC fielded two candidates in by-elections for the Calgary ridings in April 2017: Garvey was the candidate in Calgary Heritage (79 votes, 0.3%), and Kulbir Singh Chawla was the candidate in Calgary Midnapore (81 votes, 0.3%).
On December 13, 2017 the NAPC voluntarily deregistered itself from Elections Canada effective December 31, 2017. However, the National Advancement Party of Canada was revived as the National Citizens Alliance (NCA) and its registration with Elections Canada was confirmed in January 2019.
The National Citizens Alliance ran four candidates in the 2019 federal election, all in Atlantic Canadian ridings, and received 510 votes overall.
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It's no secret that Canadians pay the highest cell phone bills in the developed world according to a report commissioned by the CRTC in 2016:
"The study, which was carried out by Nordicity Group for the telecom regulator, found that Canadians looking for 150 minutes of monthly mobile service paid more than consumers in every other G7 country and Australia.
That entry-level wireless package costs an average of $41.08 a month in Canada. By way of comparison, the cheapest price for that level of service cost just $17.15 in Germany.
... At each of four ... levels of higher-service options, topping out at unlimited talk and text and 10 GB of data, Canadians were paying the second-highest price among the eight countries the study looked at. The U.K. was the cheapest."
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What kickbacks did Bernier receive for putting corporate interests ahead of the Canadian people? But we suspect that most Canadians have either forgotten, or simply didn't know who was responsible.
It seems that in 2007, Maxime Bernier, as Minister of Industry in the Harper regime, decided to reform our telecommunications laws by overruling the plans of the CRTC to regulate the industry. He mandated that the commission "rely on market forces to the maximum extent feasible and to regulate telecommunications services only when necessary."
Critics at the time remarked that "the emphasis on market forces has been so great that the Minister from the Beauce might be better characterized as the Minister from Bell."
The CRTC study that found that Bell, Rogers and Telus (the Big 3) had a 91 per cent collective oligopoly of all wireless service revenues in 2016. In a complete denial of facts, this study was criticized by the Montreal Economic Institute (MEI), a "pro-free-market think-tank" which argued against any government regulation of the wireless industry claiming that the market was competitive when it clearly was not. According to an MEI spokesperson, Canada's telecom industry "has a regulation problem, not a pricing problem" despite the fact that it wasn't being regulated at all.
With a budget of nearly $2.3 million annually, the Montreal Economic Institute (MEI) is a "non-profit research organization (or think tank) based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It aims at promoting economic liberalism through economic education of the general public and what it regards as efficient public policies in Quebec and Canada through studies and conferences," according to its Wikipedia page.
It also happens that Maxime Bernier was an Executive Vice-President at MEI in 2005 before he became Canada's Minister of Industry. MEI fully endorses Bernier's often repeated attacks on the concept of supply management, claiming that it will ultimately benefit consumers.
Just like deregulating the wireless market did, Max?
The Montreal Economic Institute is a partner of the Atlas Network, a Globalist consortium of "think-tanks". It has 13 such partners in Canada, many of which are astro-turfing as "grassroots":
Ludwig von Mises Institute of Canada: a Toronto-based spin-off of the Alabama organization of the same name [Mises Institute], dedicated to the anarcho-capitalist teachings of Ludwig von Mises and other members of the so-called "Austrian School" of economics; has charitable status
Manning Centre [now the Canada Strong and Free Network: former Reform Party leader Preston Manning's Calgary training centre for right-wing operatives; does not have charitable status, although the related Manning Foundation for Democratic Education does
Montreal Economic Institute: bilingual market-fundamentalist think tank in Montreal; did not show up in the Canada Revenue Agency directory of charities but the organization states on its website it has charitable status
World Taxpayers Associations: an international alliance of self-described "taxpayer protection groups" listing London, England, as its headquarters but apparently run from the CTF's Regina offices and led by the CTF CEO; there is no indication of charitable status
Troy Lanigan (pictured in 2014; screenshot captured 2020-08-06).
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Troy Lanigan [currently (2020) President of the Canada Strong and Free Network] has been President and CEO of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) since January 2009. Founded in 1990, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation is a citizens' advocacy group dedicated to lower taxes, less waste and accountable government. An economics graduate from the University of Victoria, Troy has been with the CTF in various capacities since 1992 -- including five years as spokesperson in his home province of British Columbia. Previous to the CTF, Troy served as Director of Education for the Virginia-based Leadership Institute.
As President of the World Taxpayers Associations, Lanigan has stepped back from writing and media commentary but still speaks at conferences at home and abroad. Since 2009 Troy has served on the Board of the World Taxpayers Associations, being appointed Vice-Chair in 2014 and as Chairman in 2016.
Another People's Party of Canada lieutenant, Martin Masse, also worked at MEI and Bernier's other lieutenant, Maxime Hupe, worked for the Fraser Institute. Both Atlas and Fraser have received large donations from the Koch brothers.
For those who are just getting their feet wet in the realm of political ideology, Bernier's self-proclaimed "Libertarian" leanings are actually the exact opposite of Nationalism/Populism. While he claims to reject crony corporatism, he has a history of doing exactly the opposite: supporting Globalist corporate goals over the public interest at every turn.
The People's Party of Canada is no party of the people unless you're one of the people pulling the strings.
Bibliography
[2019-03-11] Meet Communist Maxime Bernier, via Internet Archive. [Dead link: https://shawnpaulmelville.com/2019/03/11/meet-communist-maxime-bernier/]
