Foothills MP John Barlow delivered lots of support to Pierre Poilievre, literally and figuratively (photo: John Barlow facebook)
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Shadow Minister for Agriculture, Agri-Food and Food Security John Barlow backed Pierre Poilievre for the leadership of the federal Conservatives from the start.
So, as you'd expect, he was pleased with the results of Saturday's vote.
The Alberta MP doesn't believe Poilievre's win will lead to a split in the party.
"Just to have such a resounding win, obviously the membership has given him a very strong mandate to lead the party and I think that's really healthy. Certainly to see the energy and the enthusiasm around our team and our membership on Saturday at the event and today at our caucus meetings is really inspiring, I can't wait to see where we go from here," Barlow says.
Barlow met with some of his Quebec colleagues Monday and says the energy was just incredible, as it was during the caucus meeting in the afternoon, and feels the contest is over and it's time to focus on standing up for Canadian taxpayers and winning the next election.
He was very pleased that Poilievre got the highest number of votes, over 4,200, from Barlow's Foothills riding, which demonstrates the people in his riding agreed with his choice to back Poilievre.
He says Poilievre has a great grasp of the problems facing the west.
"I think that's one of Pierre's great strengths, born and raised in western Canada, Calgary and has a suburban Ottawa seat so he certainly understands the east-west dynamic but he understands the western Canadian and rural issues and how important it is we advocate for resource development in our energy sector, in our agriculture sector but at the same time he understands what it's going to take to win in suburban ridings across Canada, that's our path to victory."
Barlow says most importantly Poilievre is talking about the issues that matter most to Canadians, affordability, the impact of inflation, buying your first home and putting gas in your car.
The agriculture and agri-food critic doesn't expect his responsibilities will change when Poilievre takes the reins.
"I hope not, I relish my role as the shadow minister for agriculture, I think we've proven ourselves, I'm hopeful that I stay where I'm at, certainly I haven't had any indications from Pierre that I will be moved, I think quite the opposite, the conversations we've had during the campaign and he's always been great about phoning me about any questions on agriculture issues and certainly gauging by his speech on Saturday night he knows how important agriculture is and the fertilizer reduction emissions reductions are devastating and the carbon tax and the effect it's having on farmers, ranchers and processors."