Editor's Note: This is the final of five profiles of the five candidates running in Simcoe North in the Sept. 20 federal election. To read the first profile on NDP candidate Janet-Lynne Durnford, click here. To read the profile on Conservative candidate Adam Chambers, click here. To read the profile on Green Party candidate Krystal Brooks, click here. To read the profile on Liberal candidate Cynthia Wesley-Esquimaux, click here.
The People’s Party of Canada (PPC) candidate for Simcoe North is hoping a message of smaller government, less spending and a focus on individual rights and freedoms will resonate with local voters.
In fact, he feels it already is, thanks to some of the public health measures governments are implementing or considering due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Stephen Makk said his party’s opposition to vaccine passports and mask mandates will bring the voter turnout for the PPC “way up.”
“Of all the issues, this one is driving it,” he said.
“The PPC is the only party that is against these mandates.”
The party doesn’t have a problem if people decide to wear masks, Makk said, but added it should be an individual choice and people shouldn’t be vilified if they decide not to wear one or to get vaccinated.
“Now your own personal medical choices are making you a heretic of some kind, and this is wrong,” he said.
A PPC government, he noted, would suspend federal funding to any province that insists on vaccine passports or mask mandates.
“With the pandemic, individual rights and freedoms are even more important than public health, and that’s not an irrational statement. It’s a political position,” he said. “Others may have a different one, but that’s our position because the basics are very important.”
That stance is pulling more support to the party, he said.
“They don’t want vaccine passports. They don’t want a show-your-papers society.”
When asked about his top priorities and issues on a local level, Makk viewed them through a federal lens, saying a government can equip people with the means to address issues on a local level.
“I would always advocate for more freedom for the people of Simcoe North. I’m not going to solve your problems, but I am going to give you the tools, give you the room, a fair playing field, and you solve it,” he said. “If I’m your MP, just tell me what can Ottawa do and I will go to Ottawa and I will talk to who I need to talk to to make it happen.”
A PPC government would advocate for “decentralization of just about everything and let communities solve their own problems because only communities can be compassionate to the unfortunate,” Makk said.
“When federal politicians say we’re going to fix health care, we’re going to fix education, the PPC says, ‘Not in our job descriptions. We’re overreaching.’”
Those are provincial responsibilities, he said.
Makk feels one of the reasons the PPC stands out is because it includes candidates and supporters from across the political spectrum.
“Blue conservative, red liberal — combine the two and you’ve got purple,” he said of the PPC colour.
With regard to running in a riding that has historically gone to the Conservatives more than any other party, Makk said, “It’s like sports team loyalty. It’s bullshit.”
He said he wants to keep Simcoe North conservative. Note the small C.
“The Conservative party isn’t conservative,” he said, adding that party is “being towed by the Liberals all over the place.”
People are becoming disenfranchised and he believes they’re ready for change.
“Opportunities are ripe. I think it’s more of an open race than it’s ever been, and that’s a good thing,” Makk said.
“I hope that they’re open-minded — because I am as well — to trying something new and better because that’s what the PPC offers here.”
He said he would “emulate” outgoing MP Bruce Stanton, as he respects Stanton’s knowledge of the political process, but Makk insists he would be “a lot tougher and a lot louder.”
He also said his party would address issues such as unclean water on reserves, health care, and education before focusing on helping other countries.
“We’re nationalists, but we’re not ethno-nationalists,” he said, describing the PPC as a “completely different animal” from the people’s parties of Europe
Multiculturalism and diversity are good for the country, ”but it’s not the government’s job,” he said.
The PPC is also against “uncontrolled immigration.”
“When people are actually at threat of death and persecution, like gays in Muslim countries or like the Yazidis that were being abused, we would go in using force if need be to save lives and we would help such refugees,” he said.
An election at this time is “dreadful timing for most people,” Makk said, but his party is ready to go.
“Any opportunity for the PPC to increase its chances, we embrace, and elections are an opportunity,” he said.
