Advertisement

Maxime Bernier, party supporters, get into heated exchange with N.B. education minister

Dominic Cardy was part of a heated exchanged in Saint John with People's Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier on Friday. He is pictured here with former MLA Jake Stewart. James West / CANADIAN PRESS

Education Minister Dominic Cardy was involved in a heated exchange with People’s Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier and his supporters on Friday in Saint John, N.B..

In the exchange, Cardy can be seen speaking in French to Bernier and then walks away. He is then yelled at and sworn at for his policies around masking and vaccination for children in the province.

“They are not the states children,” shouted Saint John-Rothesay PPC candidate Nicholas Pereira. “That is absolutely against everything …You are a piece of s***.”

“He doesn’t even have children,” yelled another, who is off-camera.

Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.

Get daily National news

Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.
By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

“You are absolutely disgracing parental rights. You are a human rights violator,” Pereira said.

Cardy said he had a meeting in Saint John and was leaving with a friend to meet up with his girlfriend and his colleague before leaving for the weekend when the exchange happened.

Story continues below advertisement

“I figured I’ve been given the luck over my life to stand up to bullies and political extremists in a bunch of different countries, I’m not going to stop here at home,” Cardy said in an interview.

Cardy said he is OK following the exchange, with found him clapping back, with “what I’m looking forward to is watching your political collective be utterly annihilated in the election coming up in the next few weeks.”

When asked why not just walk away?

His answer was simple.

“Confronting them, I think, is an important part of being an elected official in 2021, in a democratic country,” he said. “If we’re going to be serious about defending what we’ve got then you’ve got to stand up and speak for it. They’re too used to be able to intimidate people by filming them and swearing at them all the things that are a part of their pretty limited repertoire of political persuasion tools.”

“They don’t work on me.”

Sponsored content

AdChoices