This man will be a great Conservative leader one day.

My favourite Bernier story:

Maxime Bernier reclines his lean, six-foot plus frame in his constituency office and recounts with relish how he lost hundreds of new jobs for his riding.

After his election as the new Conservative MP for the Beauce, the “distinct society within a distinct society” nestled between Quebec City and the Maine border, he was visited by the owner of a local bicycle factory. Mr. Bernier had just been named Stephen Harper’s Industry Minister and the factory owner wanted his local MP to lobby for the imposition of quotas on cheap Chinese bicycles that were undercutting his product.

He said he had to make an investment decision — invest $1-million in low-end bicycles, creating 300 new jobs in Saint- Georges, or a similar amount in high-end bikes that would bring considerably fewer jobs.

“With that answer he killed himself. I said to him that it would be difficult for me to impose quotas that would add $72 to the cost of a bicycle for all Canadians for only 200 jobs in the Beauce,” he says.

When it emerged that the Industry Minister was not fighting for jobs in his riding, the Bloc Quebecois launched a broadside in the House of Commons, claiming that he was ignoring the needs of Quebecers. At Cabinet, other ministers offered to defend the file publicly, fearing the electoral consequences for the rookie MP.

But they underestimated him and the reaction in the Beauce, where public sympathy was solidly behind their MP. Mr. Bernier insisted that he take the question in the House and hit back at the Bloc for defending corporate interests against those of Quebec consumers. The incident earned Bernier the nickname “Blocbuster” in the Prime Minister’s Office.

– (John Ivison, National Post, A6, 20 Jan 2007. Not available online).