A star candidate from the PPC’s first by-elections in 2019 is in Manitoba to help Maxime Bernier win a byelection battle in Portage-Lisgar..Laura-Lynn Tyler Thompson, who received 10.9% of the vote in a byelection in Burnaby South in January of 2019, is going all out in an effort to return the PPC leader to Parliament in 2023..“I told my husband, 'This is war, JP, I need to go back until June 19.' And he said, 'It is war, you can go. Like, just go,’” Thompson told the Western Standard..The former host of the 700 Club Canada is helping the PPC campaign in the southern Manitoba riding, which includes Portage La Prairie and the largely Mennonite communities of Morden and Winkler. She has her own online interview program with almost 30,000 followers on Rumble..“Everywhere I go, people are recognizing me. So it's adding this certain little bit of credibility to Maxine Bernier because they've seen so many of my shows, and they like me. And they're like, ‘OK, we want to believe this. We do, really,’” Thompson said..“Pierre Poilievre shows up at Winkler to fight Maxime because he's in the fight of his life for this riding down here. They are turning against the CPC because we're standing against abortion and this June month, and this stupid Pride bus is driving around the towns and everyone is so mad. And the CPC ... is not going to deal with any of the transgender issues or abortion.”.Bernier stated Canada should have an abortion law. However, CPC candidate Branden Leslie said, “I think every abortion is one too many. I will always vote with the will of my constituents on issues of social conscience.” His leader pledged, "A Poilievre government will not introduce or pass any laws restricting abortion.”.The riding was represented by Reform MP Jake Hoeppner from 1997 to 2000. Brian Pallister, who later became Manitoba premier, won the riding for the Alliance Party in 2000, then for the Conservatives in 2004 and 2006. Candice Bergen represented the riding from 2008 until her retirement on February 1..In 2021, Bergen won with 52.5% of the vote, followed by People’s Party candidate Solomon Wiebe at 21.6%. New Democrat Ken Friesen received 13.4%, Liberal Andrew Carrier got 11%, and Christian Heritage candidate Jerome Dondo got 1.6%..Thompson tells constituents the “split the vote nonsense” doesn’t match the riding’s stats, leaving a clear two-way race between Leslie and Bernier..“It's gonna be one or the other. And if they don't like him [Bernier] in two years, vote him out, vote in your random CPC guy again. But let's give the guy a shot,” Thompson said..Bernier released a seven-point plan on LGBTQ issues that includes a ban on minors from being given puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, protecting women’s spaces and sports from biological men, and overturning Bill C-4 which bans conversion therapy..Thompson shares that message with voters along with her own story of how the Conservatives refused her the chance to run as a candidate..“I tell them about how first of all, I was disqualified because of standing for the kids. Then I tell them about being at the CPC policy convention… And Lisa Raitt gets up and tells everyone not to vote for abortion to be on the policy because Andrew Scheer, our leader, does not want you to. And that is when I knew they are lost,” Thompson said..Bernier represented the Quebec riding of Beauce as a Conservative from 2006 until he left the party. He failed to win his seat back as a PPC candidate in the 2019 and 2021 elections, and only gained 3.6% of the vote in a York Centre by-election in 2020.
