My Resignation From The PPC

The time has come for me to make my thoughts and worries public. Those of you who know me, know this was not the path I wanted to venture through but recent developments give me no choice. As of today, I am resigning from any executive position I previously held in the PPC aka People’s Party of Canada. This includes regional organizing and the presidency of my own EDA, which supposedly has already been stripped away from me. Many of you may find this all to be a shock as I have been a vocal cheerleader for this new party and Maxime Bernier, who is a leader I have looked up to for some time.

This decision has been part of a larger issue facing the party and the repercussions of these issues have led to a number of organizers from across the country either resigning or getting the boot when they vocalize concerns. In this statement, I will hopefully articulate the past 6 months in such a manner that is accurate to the lifespan and identity of this newborn party. By the end of this statement, I hope I can give a clear visualization of how this party became compromised and possibly answer the question of why?

I was a vocal supporter of Maxime during the leadership race in 2017 and I was devastated to see him come short by razor thin margins. So thin in fact that the validity of the votes is under question, but that is another story. For almost a year, I bit my tongue and supported Andrew Scheer. My gripe with Scheer and the CPC was that the Overton window moved so far left that Conservatism adjusted itself to that new ideological zeitgeist. Nonetheless, I was determined to help get Justin out in any way. Then on August 23, 2018, Maxime announced his departure from the CPC. This was after a number of tweets that got him in trouble with Scheer. These tweets to me, were war cries for Canadians and were valid.

So as Maxime left the CPC, as did I and many other concerned Canadians. We ventured out with Maxime on a ship that still had no name at the time. We merely knew it was the right thing to do. I entered the picture in early September, when a friend of mine (who’s name I will keep undisclosed) invited me to meet some of the organizers for this new party at Whitespot. He found my experience with the Free Speech Club to likely be of value and I felt a great deal of motivation to help. After meeting with various organizers, I decided to jump on board and became a founding member. I was 1 out of the 250 signatures required to register the party. Then on September 14, 2018, Maxime announced the People’s party of Canada to the country and our work began.

The BC Organizer appointed me as Regional Organizer for Vancouver and other parts of the lower mainland. I was new to working in politics and completely new to setting up EDA’s. It took Reform years to setup all of their electoral district associations and we have the behemoth of a challenge ahead of us. We had until December to setup all 338 EDA’s. This is something that historically has never been done. In our neck of the woods, we know that BC has 42 ridings. For those of you who don’t know what EDA’s are, they are essentially the local nexus of a party organization. They are often boards comprised of 4 or more executives and are responsible for membership and sometimes candidate selection. Our job was to find at least 4 people in each riding who would volunteer to be President, VP, Secretary and Treasurer. This is all required by Elections Canada as a means to register an EDA officially.

Logistically, this was a difficult task, but the power of the internet streamlined things and throughout October, November, and December, our team all over BC visited ridings and held meetings. My duties were to set up all 6 ridings in Vancouver. After completing this task, I also formed the EDA’s in the tri-cities. We had a very strong team in BC. The valley was managed by someone experienced in politics, as was the north. The island was managed by young blood like myself but nonetheless, under the leadership of the BC organizer, we formed these 42 EDA’s by December. It was not perfect by any means. The collection of pledges and data was tedious but understandable as we were working under such tight time constraints.

The peak of my pride in the party was likely at our rally in the city. On November 8, 2018, our team organized a large rally for the party leader. We expected around 500 people, but were surprised by the overflow of nearly 700 people. The energy I witnessed in that room was something very unique. This did feel like a grassroots movement. Were there problems by the end of the year? Yes of course. As I said, it wasn’t perfect. We had all the EDA’s setup with the exception of the Shuswap which was difficult to coordinate with due to verbal abuse from the organizer or just radio silence all together. Nonetheless, we were aware that a party formed so quickly would need to do a once over and curate value.

As the new year rolled around, the focus shifted away from EDA’s and over to the presumed two by-elections. One in Burnaby-South and one in Nanaimo-Ladysmith, which was just called recently. I won’t go on too much about the By-Elections because this statement would quickly turn into a book. I had some involvement in the campaigns but my worries arose when I noticed the EDA’s lagging behind. The BC organizer was moved to fundraising, which of course is a vital position but I feared the EDA’s still required some guidance. Some EDA’s had interpersonal issues, and others had some people moving away. At this point, the Director of the party appointed me as the new BC organizer. My objective was then to do the EDA’s a once over, and help them register.

Within the week of my appointment however, everything changed. HQ was radio silent and it became confusing to myself and to the entire team, who exactly do we contact. I then finally found out an entirely new team was brought in to resume the work of the previous executive. The next series of events all must have happened in a matter of a week, but essentially every organizer was purged from their position for one reason or another. The very people who built the party were all being kicked out. The reasoning was even more suspect. HQ claimed that one organizer did not setup any of the EDA’s when in fact that did. Another organizer was accused of breaching an NDA which was inaccurate.

Then the issue finally reached our neck of the woods. I was removed from my position with essentially no reason. I was replaced by an individual who is blacklisted in just about every BC party. The individual I speak of is the same individual who was the organizer for the Shuswap, and was verbally abusive to anyone who defied him. Their reputation in the province is so toxic that once veteran BC political people found out, they began folding their EDA’s. For weeks, I along with our now exiled team have sat and watched the province we built be utterly destroyed. Our organizer for the island was also quickly purged without notice. It became concerning to all of us that across the country, organizers were being kicked out.

My own investigating has revealed that the party in its current state has no national board, thus there is no accountability anywhere. It’s is an utter free for all, hijacked by egomaniacs who aren’t allowed in any other party. The party that existed just a few months ago is not the same party we see before us now. As you are reading this, you are likely questioning, “what did Maxime say about all of this?”

For well over a month, I ruminated on the ins and outs of this conundrum. I pleaded with those HQ and let them know about the state of the province and their errors but it didn’t seem to go anywhere. They likely see me as envious, or they simply don’t care because they are compromised. I questioned whether Max was even aware of all these radical changes? My moment to speak with him finally came when we hosted our fundraiser on February 22nd. I was not surprised to find out that he did not know about the provincial shakeup or knew just tidbits. He assured me that there would no longer be one person running the entire province, and instead there would be 3. This to me made sense as running a province is incredibly difficult. Part of me felt a sense of assurance that I would not be beholden to someone who is unfit and incredibly radical. Nonetheless, this individual remained with exclusive power over the province. I was never given any further position. I was no longer included in information, and I was alike the original team, iced out.

As time passed, I began to notice that anyone who questioned the party structure was promptly given the boot with reasoning that is false. My worst fears for BC came true when EDA’s began folding, followed by other EDA’s contacting me personally, pleading to deal with me and not the “tyrant”, I’ve been biting my tongue because of one person, Maxime Bernier. I love every single policy in this party, and I love the ethos that Maxime espouses as a leader, but I’m saddened to say that the party organization itself is completely compromised. The newly planted team has a radical agenda that I simply can’t work with. I cannot stand idly by and just watch all of our work be torn away, nor can I stand by and allow my name to be used as a tool. There’s an absurd rumor going around that I, along with the exiled BC team were part of some conspiracy to usurp Maxime as leader. This is utterly insane. Beyond this rumor, the provincial organizer has said that I’ve gone AWOL, and has unilaterally booted me from the Quadra EDA.

This is why I am forced to go public now. I hate being the one to pop the pimple on the Ponzi Party of Canada but I will not allow my name to be slandered by an unfit organizer consumed by bigotry or by an executive team that has their own agenda.

That is why it pains me to say I need to resign from any positions I technically have left and leave the party. People who know of this privately have asked if I will return to the CPC. My answer to that is I don’t know. Maxime was the leader I looked up to and his Libertarian policies attracted me. So this is very difficult for me since I appreciate the man, but dislike the organization. Beyond that, the people on the ground at the grassroots level are incredible. So it’s saddening to see it all come to an end.

I want to apologize to the people who I brought into this and the people who joined as members of EDA’s via my persuasion to do so. What you do now is your call. I just thought it’s sadly time to open the flood gates. As I take my leave, I encourage others come forward with their own stories.

Signed,

Angelo Isidorou

Former Provincial Organizer, BC

Former Regional Organizer, Vancouver

Former Vancouver — Quadra EDA President

Former Member