HALDIMAND—Haldimand Norfolk candidate for the People’s Party of Canada (PPC) Henry Geissler is hoping that residents in the riding are as tired of the struggle between Liberals and Conservatives as he is.
“I’m here to run for the PPC in order that the people of HN can vote for Maxime Bernier’s leadership and the platform he is offering,” said Geissler.
Having previously run to be mayor of Hamilton in 2018, Geissler characterizes himself as open to listening to people’s ideas and a staunch believer in freedom of speech.
Geissler spoke with The Press about some of the top issues in the federal election.
Affordability
“Public finance is in a terrible state. We’ve had the Liberal government blowing money out the window like you wouldn’t believe,” said Geissler. “That has devalued our dollar and leads to inflation.”
He pledged the PPC would put federal finances back in order, balance the budget, and once that’s done lower taxes.
“That will put more money in your pocket,” he said. “You can’t legislate prices down, but you can reduce taxes.”
Immigration
Geissler tied immigration to Canada’s housing affordability crisis, calling high market prices a direct result of “the insane mass immigration levels that the Liberal government has decided to undertake.”
He praised PPC leader Maxime Bernier for calling for reduced immigration as far back as 2019. Geissler wants an immediate reduction in immigration, followed by “implementing numbers of immigrants we’re more used to, like 120-150,000 a year, not a million a year,” once Canada’s housing crisis lessens.
He added, “Part of the immigration solution is to deport those who are here illegally. If you don’t like that about what’s happening in America, you might not like the solution that we’re putting forward too.”
Environment
Geissler isn’t buying what the United Nations is selling when it comes to the issue of climate change, questioning whether Canada should have signed the Paris Climate Agreement that is aimed at reducing harmful actions tied to climate change around the globe.
“I would argue there is no proof that climate warming is man-made, and that to sign on to it and curtail our activities in business and development hurts us. We’re in a position right now where we don’t need to hurt ourselves because of a proposed climate crisis,” he said.
Agriculture and Sovereignty
Asked about issues facing our local agriculture industry, Geissler went straight into the issue of tariffs, arguing that Canada should not be trying to match tariffs imposed by the US with counter tariffs. He believes that doing so hurts Canadian businesses and industries like agriculture, with no gain in the end.
“The US is 10 times our size. There’s no way to win a war like that, that’s why you don’t get in a war like that,” he said, alleging that Canadians have been led into over-worrying about the issue due to “fear mongering.”
“We have to talk to the US administration. We have to open up the free trade agreement and renegotiate everything,” he said.
He characterized the US president’s threats to annex Canada as “carving out his sphere of influence…. That doesn’t necessarily mean we have to become part of the United States.”
He added, “We shouldn’t try to out-bombast him, that will make him double down, he’ll be the bigger bombast. It’s not a good way to go. Fighting them is wrongheaded. Both the Liberals and Conservatives have fallen into this trap.”
He called for the major parties to “pack up and leave and let us come in and fix the mess for them.”
Reconciliation
Geissler said that a part of the PPC’s platform is to reduce the federal government’s responsibility when it comes to issues relating to Indigenous reserves, like our neighbouring Six Nations and Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation.
“One thing that has to go is the Indian Act. That was already recognized in 1968 by none other than Jean Chrétien as a racist Act,” said Geissler. “That’s gotta’ go.”
He believes renegotiation is the key to solving the issue of Reconciliation and the many disparities that First Nations communities still struggle with, like clean water.
“To be responsible for drinking water in the reserve, it doesn’t work well. It’s supposed to be their territory, and yet the federal government is responsible for some things. Well, it’s not working. We have to renegotiate what it is between the federal government and the Indigenous people,” he stated, calling for more property rights for landowners on reserves “so that people can develop their own property, their own land.”
Healthcare
While Geissler said it’s “always good to work together,” and was not opposed to the federal government stepping in to provide assistance with some of the healthcare concerns around the country, like a lack of family doctors, nursing shortages, and recruitment efforts, he stated, “It’s most definitely a provincial responsibility.”
Foreign policy
Geissler criticized both the Liberals and Conservatives for “meddling in other countries” by financially supporting the war in Ukraine.
“We have wasted our money sending our money to Ukraine. It was promoting a war that shouldn’t have happened,” he said. “This is another issue that separates the PPC from the Conservatives and Liberals.”
