Canadian farmers are worried about trade, business risk management and how much attention agriculture is getting from politicians, among other issues, as Canada enters the final countdown before the 2025 federal election.
When it comes to the 2025 federal election, what do farmers from different regions of Canada have in common?
Canadians lose sight of how big their country is — unless, for example, they get to rub shoulders with Europeans who are staggered by the time it takes to drive across a single province.
It’s big — and with that comes the challenges of bridging different geographies and climate zones, regional cultures, languages, resources and economic needs.
Glacier FarmMedia reporters and contributors from Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec asked farmers about their priorities, how represented by the federal government they’ve felt — and finally, if there’s anything they’d like farmers from other regions to understand about the issues they face.
WHY IT MATTERS: Canadian farmers head to the polls with the rest of the country April 28 for Canada’s 2025 federal election.
Trump and tariffs
Manitoba
Tariffs were the top concern for Scott Peters, a hog farmer near Steinbach in southeastern Manitoba.
“At any time it could change, so we have to be ready for anything,” he said.
Harley Siemens, an egg producer in south-central and southeastern Manitoba, said while egg farmers aren’t the ones in the cross-hairs, they are concerned that the supply-managed sectors stay in place.
We still care about the system’s integrity,” he said.
Canadian dairy, specifically, has been a point of contention in Canada-U.S. relations, though Prime Minister Mark Carney has said dairy is off the table in trade negotiations and the Conservatives have voiced their support as well.
Curtis McCrae raised the spectre of Chinese tariffs on Canadian goods like canola oil and meal, peas and pork, which are typically thought of as retaliation after Canada placed tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles.
He said that if the federal government is going to use farmers as a “sacrificial lamb,” it needs to financially support farmers. “I can’t see electric vehicles ever overtaking agriculture as an economic driver of this country.”
Alberta
Bryan Perkins owns a mixed hog and grain operation in the municipal district of Wainwright in east-central Alberta. Perkins said the on-again, off-again rollercoaster of U.S. tariffs is putting a strain on the industry and supports from the government may not be timely enough to help farmers who face hardships due to the trade war.
“There were indications by our current government that they want to do something through AgriStability, but the impact of that is well down the road,” Perkins said. “If there are benefits that might come from that, it’s months or years down the road. And we have issues now that are really affecting us at this point in time.”
Phil Constantin is a grain grower in Sturgeon County north of Edmonton. He said that although the U.S. tariff situation is harmful to the Canadian agriculture industry, he believes that President Trump is only standing up for his country.
“We do need to address this free trade agreement. These tariffs are doing nothing but hurting everybody,” Constantin said.
“And I know everybody is complaining about Trump, but I mean, the guy is looking out for his country. We need somebody like that for this country.”
Ontario
Although the tariffs might not always be top-of-mind for Ontario farmers as they contemplate the April 28 vote, it’s never far from the top of the list.
“We’ve got a bully right now. And he’s got (Canadian supply-managed agriculture) in his sights,” said dairy producer Braydon Older. who farms near Embro in southwestern Ontario. “(Donald Trump is) obsessed with it, and I don’t know how that can work out good for us.”
“It just seems that one day Trump can wake up in a good mood and lay off the tariffs and then the next day wake up on the wrong side of the bed and say ‘let’s tariff everyone’,” said crop farmer Matt Underwood from the Wingham area.
Underwood said the federal government should be softening the blow of tariff uncertainty by promoting Canadian farm products more globally.
“We need to make sure we’re open to working with more buyers,” he told Glacier FarmMedia. “That’s both for Ontario and for the West. We really need to be highlighting what Canadian farmers have to offer to the world.”
Quebec
Christian Hébert is an apple and raspberry producer near Deschambault, west of Québec City. He’s also a Bloc Québécois’ candidate for the riding of Portneuf-Jacques Cartier. His comments have been translated from French.
He said the pandemic, climate change and now economic war with the U.S. have compounded the burdens on farms.
“The economic burden is so astronomic that youth consider themselves as the lost, or forgotten, generation,” he said. “I don’t want to be alarmist, but we’ve been experiencing this for the past forty years, and by “this” I mean the decline of agriculture.”
This year he’s seeing even more farms going out of business — some choosing to leave despite still being profitable, due to stress and exhaustion.
Business environment
Manitoba
Business risk management (BRM) programs need to be improved, said Peters. “There are things that are happening, but it’s all within the same structure, and I think some of the structure is outdated and for sure not responsive enough.”
He noted that rural crime is an issue for hog producers. Peters said his barns have been broken into several times.
Peters also noted he’d like to see the federal government promote domestic processing and manufacturing.
McCrae said that government restrictions like the price on carbon and tier four emissions on machinery have made the economy weak.
“Hopefully the next government that gets in understands that we need to unleash our economic power,” McCrae said.
Siemens said he’d like to see federal red tape reduced. He also said poultry farmers need better insurance against avian influenza outbreaks, noting the CFIA’s per-head payment hasn’t been updated in many years.
Alberta
Constantin said programs like AgriInvest must be improved to help farmers keep their operations strong in today’s shifting global market.
“I don’t really want to be subsidized, but when this kind of stuff comes up, we need some kind of safeguard to help us out and maintain things,” he said. “They call it AgriInvest, but it doesn’t really work. I mean, you’ve got to qualify for it, and even if you do, you don’t see money until years down the road.”
Perkins spoke about issues he sees in the world of the agriculture business and how the global marketplace is changing the way Canadian farmers do business. “The uncertainties in the marketplace that are there, whether it be Chinese tariffs or the potential trade disruptions that might occur along the way from that, they’re causing turmoil as well,” Perkins said.
“The machinery we buy or the various inputs that we buy are all affected by this turmoil in world trade.”
Ontario
Underwood is optimistic during this election that there’s a chance to overturn “the status quo” in Ottawa and begin promoting Canadian agriculture at home and abroad.
“There’s a lot of opportunity for our government to support farmers more,” he said. Examples could include a carbon tax exemption for businesses that dry grain and efforts on a global scale to facilitate export of Canadian farm products outside North American.
Oxford-area dairy farmers Pete Overdevest and Davina Garner want to see less red tape for farm construction and/or expansion.
Quebec
Hébert said there’s a lack of support for small and mid-sized farms both at the provincial and federal levels.
“Support programs are abandoning this section of the industry,” he said. “The majority of farms in Québec and Canada are approaching this critical zone: they are no longer a small farm, but they are not a large enterprise either. Insurance and financing programs are not designed for them and innovation support programs don’t work.”
The sector also needs to look into the future and think about how climate change will affect crop production methods and insurance programs, he added.
Representing farmers
Manitoba
McCrae said his biggest fear is that eastern voters will forget what has happened in the last ten years.
“We haven’t been represented as part of the country. We’ve just been where everything gets pushed to solve problems,” he said.
He said he’d love to see a government that understands the importance of primary industry, and the growth it can spur in the rest of the economy.
Peters, who sits on the Canadian Pork Council, said representation has been OK at times. It can be difficult to get meetings with officials, but he understands they are very busy.
However, he said AgriStability has been toyed with too much, and programs have been cut — possibly because agriculture is poorly understood or forgotten.
Alberta
Perkins said agriculture seems to get lost in the mix, while tariffs on other industries receive all the attention from the federal government.
“They’re spending a lot of time working on and being worried about tariffs and whatnot, but we’re here with 100 per cent tariffs on canola oil and canola meal and 25 per cent tariffs on pork going to China, and there just doesn’t seem to be a whisper on that,” he said.
“Yet, when there’s a 25 per cent tariff on automobiles or steel and aluminum — and those are all really important industries, for sure — all of a sudden there’s lots of government attention,” Perkins said.
China placed tariffs on agricultural products in retaliation for those Canada placed on electric vehicles, he said.
Ontario
The farmers Glacier FarmMedia spoke with generally felt well represented by their MPs. In all cases, those were Conservative MPs elected in ridings where agriculture is a significant economic driver.
“From Ottawa as a whole, though, I don’t feel the current government provides as much support as I would like to see for grain farmers across the country,” said Underwood.
Older says he “feel(s) like we’re rudderless right now.” He criticized former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for proroguing Parliament immediately upon announcing his intention to step down as Liberal leader. He also mused about the possibility that the nation could — if Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives win the election — potentially be led by three different prime ministers within a few months.
Overdevest, who is on the Dairy Farmers of Ontario board, says the ruling Liberals made campaign promises in the past but failed to follow through once elected. He expects little better this time.
Overdevest and Older shared the concern that if the Liberals secure a third successive victory the alienation due to lack of representation for farmers — particularly Prairie farmers — in Ottawa will rise to troubling levels.
Older wants to hear assurances from party leaders this campaign that supply management will be protected in any trade negotiations. But he admitted he worries that putting too much emphasis on poultry, eggs and dairy could leave voters in Western Canadian farm country feeling left out.
“We need to be united over the whole country,” agreed Overdevest.
Quebec
“The strongest element of a society is also its weakest link: its farmers,” said Hébert.
“We can’t just pick up tomorrow and go. So, if farmers’ concerns are not prioritized in public policy, then we’ll be the first ones sacrificed. I find this very sad.”
Hébert said Quebecers unanimously support reciprocal norms — that is, that imported products sold in Québec must be subject to the same standards and requirements as Québec products.
“The federal government is not playing an adequate role in terms of control over products coming through the border,” he said.
Hébert said in recent years there have been several demonstrations in Quebec, other provinces, the U.S. about reciprocal norms.
What do you want other farmers to know?
Manitoba
McCrae said he has a neighbor from Ontario who still farms in that province. Their priorities are very similar.
“We think a lot alike,” he said.
Manitoba is much more export-oriented than Ontario, he noted. Farmers there might not understand how crucial infrastructure like ports and railways are to producers in the West, and the magnitude of threats posed by strikes.
Alberta
Constantin said producers across the country can all agree on many concerns in the industry.
“I think at one time or another we all face each other’s problems. We’re all facing droughts, we’re all facing floods. But I think the biggest thing is when we have a swing this big on pricing,” he said.
Constantin said the lack of competition in grains pricing is damning to the industry.
“We don’t have enough competition in the grain market at all.… We’ve lost Viterra to Bunge, so what do we have for competition? We used to have the Canadian Wheat Board, and we had farmers running it at the end and doing a great job, but they shut us down. Then they took all our assets and sold it to G3.”
Perkins sees Alberta agriculture as an export-first economy as opposed to other regions that can rely more on domestic consumption. In a global trade war, that is a worry.
“Our western Canadian agriculture is very much oriented to export kinds of commodities. Certainly we use our products here in Canada, but a lot of the products — whether it be livestock or grains or oilseeds — are heavily exported,” he said.
“We have to be concerned about the supply managed sector having undue influence on trade negotiations,” he added. “I think it can be framed in a way, certainly, that makes it possible to still have that kind of program in place, but yet there needs to be respect for those of us who … are very much oriented to the export markets.”
Ontario
Garner would prefer if there was a better understanding of the different pressures faced by farmers in the East versus the West. As the organizer of an all-candidates’ meeting on behalf of the Oxford County Federation of Agriculture, she believes there’s a wider range of farms in Ontario than on the Prairies.
“Plus I think we tend to be more limited here by red tape if we want to expand,” Garner added.
Garner’s biggest concern during the campaign is whether the parties’ efforts to tackle the perceived housing crisis will accelerate the loss of prime agricultural land in the province.
Overdevest says it’s unfortunate that the news and culture of Toronto is often what Western farmers hear, when it’s a completely different reality in Ontario’s farm country.
Underwood suggesting western farmers might benefit from knowing that most of their Ontario counterparts live in ridings that have stayed blue for several elections.
This report is a collaboration of journalists who contribute to Glacier FarmMedia’s network of agricultural publications. Geralyn Wichers is Glacier FarmMedia’s associate digital editor and an award-winning agricultural journalist. She compiled this article. Zak McLachlan writes from Wainwright, Alta., and regularly contributes to Alberta Farmer Express, the Manitoba Co-operator and The Western Producer. Stew Slater operates a small dairy farm on 150 acres near St. Marys, Ont., and has been writing about rural and agricultural issues since 1999. April Stewart is editor of Country Guide magazine and works and farms in rural Quebec.