People’s Party of Canada candidate Rick Daines says his party provides a place for those who are fed up with the political system.
“I think people are tired of the same old thing they’ve been getting from the main parties, if we can call them that,” he said. “I think they’re looking for difference, and I think they’re looking for change.”
In an interview, Daines highlighted just how different the PPC is from other parties on the ballot, rejecting the political and scientific consensus on issues like climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic.
He called environmental issues “very important,” but rejected the notion that climate change represents an emergency requiring drastic action.
“The main thing for the climate that the People’s Party believes in is, stop the alarmism, stop making everything an emergency that we have to throw money at,” he said. “It’s more, everybody needs to show respect for the environment, and we need to be responsible for our actions.”
That puts Daines in line with the PPC platform, which disputes the scientific consensus that human activity is dangerously warming the planet. The party pledges to pull Canada out of the Paris climate accord and cut spending to combat climate change.
Daines, a Geraldton resident and small business owner, is appealing to those frustrated with the government response to the COVID-19 pandemic – a driving force for the PPC campaign.
“People don’t like being locked down in their houses like animals – I don’t know any other way to explain it,” he said. “People are locked down, they’re financially hurt, there’s division created everywhere I look.”
Daines first came to Geraldton to work as an OPP officer. About six years later, he left policing to help run his family business, Daneff’s Food Market.
He said he’d been attracted to the PPC for their commitment to four major principles – respect, responsibility, fairness, and freedom.
Daines champions the PPC’s cynicism on government action. Asked what the party would do to make housing more affordable, he said the key issue was for government to stop adding to the national debt, claiming that would lower inflation and therefore the cost of living.
