Did former Conservative Member of Parliament and current CSSA Board Member Garry Breitkreuz agree to have a photograph taken with Braden Robertson, his former campaign sign manager and current PPC candidate?
Yes, he did.
Did he agree to endorse the PPC, as Maxime Bernier claims?
No, not by a long shot.
“I don’t want people to think that I am somehow advocating that they vote for another political party,” he said in an interview Sunday night.
“I would not do that. We need to stick together on this. You may have to suck it up a bit, but vote conservative because if we split the vote that just puts Liberals back in power. We can’t afford that,” he said.
“The message I want to get out is this. I screwed up taking the photo. It spun out of control and I’m really sorry for that. I apologize to gun owners for what I’ve done.”
“But I urge firearm owners across the country, particularly in Ontario, to not split the vote. There are a lot of close ridings in Ontario and splitting the vote may bring the Liberals back in.”
So What Happened?
Braden Robertson’s father phoned Garry Breitkreuz at 10 p.m. Thursday night and asked him to travel with Braden to Hudson Bay the next morning and give him some pointers.
Braden was focused on the upcoming debate in Yorkton–Melville and wanted to pick Garry’s brain on that topic.
Braden’s father wanted a photograph of Garry and his son. Garry agreed, not seeing this as a PPC endorsement but a photo with a young man who helped him on his last campaign – someone he was proud to see following in Garry’s footsteps into the political arena.
Braden’s father immediately sent the photo to Maxime Bernier, who added the text stating “Garry Breitkreuz Endorsement of Braden Robertson Sept 10, 2021.”[i]
Garry Breitkreuz had no idea the photo would be twisted into an ‘endorsement’ by the PPC and Maxime Bernier.
Unfortunately, Garry Breitkreuz’ kind and gentle nature was taken advantage of.
In today’s hyper-partisan political arena, perhaps he should have seen this coming, but he didn’t.
“I think it’s important to note, even if you aren’t a strong conservative supporter, that if we split the vote the liberals are going to be back in and we’ll have Justin Trudeau giving gun owners a really rough time.”
“Even if you don’t agree with all the Conservative Party stands for, you’ll have a lot more grievances if Trudeau gets back in.”
Sources:
[i] https://twitter.com/MaximeBernier/status/1436467541799542784
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