Foothills federal election candidates talk tariffs, trade war

A trade war with the U.S. has dominated headlines across Canada, making it a critical issue for federal election candidates to address.

The five candidates currently running for the Foothills seat have shared their stances on tariffs against Canada and the rest of the world by U.S. President Donald Trump.

In light of Mark Carney's recent phone call with Trump, Foothills Liberal candidate John Bruinsma reiterated that he believes the new prime minister is the right man for the job.

"His response is very balanced and steady," said Bruinsma. "It's not too reactionary and I know he has talked about retaliation, but I think it's really about retaliatory tariffs that are very targeted and not too broad."

Bruinsma is a firm believer in fighting Trump's tariffs by supporting "Buy Canadian" initiatives, including purchasing locally-made products, using identification apps to choose Canadian goods, vacationing within Canada and opting for Canadian entertainment services.

He added that as Foothills MP, he would work to balance federal trade goals and tariff responses with Alberta's provincial autonomy and economic objectives, while advocating for tariff revenue to go toward protecting healthcare, education and community support. 

Conservative incumbent John Barlow highlighted the impact tariffs are posed to have on the area's agricultural industry.

"The world needs what we grow, which is affordable, sustainable, quality food," said Barlow, who has served as shadow minister for agriculture, agri-food and food security under Tory leaders Andrew Scheer, Erin O' Toole and most recently Pierre Poilievre.

He pointed to sweeping tariffs threatened by Trump, as well as tariffs implemented on March 20 by China on some Canadian food and farm products, including canola and pork, as being of significant concern to those in the agriculture industry.

China is Alberta’s second-largest trading partner, with the trading relationship between the two more than tripling since 2003. From 2016 to 2017, Alberta’s exports to China grew by 26.4 per cent and in 2020, Alberta's exports to China were valued at $4.5 billion.

"His (Carney) first phone call should have been to President Trump or to Xi Jinping in China," said Barlow. "That's not what he did. He goes off to Europe, Paris and London. We don't have a trade war with the European Union. We have problems here at home, and he should be addressing these problems here at home."

A Poilievre government would respond to Trump with strategic retaliatory tariffs while working to build Canada's economy and become more self-reliant, said Barlow.

"You battle strength with strength," he said. "We have to come from a position of strength, and right now we are not."

NDP candidate Kaitte Aurora also pointed to the impact of tariffs on the Foothills agriculture industry and added that Canada-wide co-operation is a key strategy for effectively addressing the issue.

"We've stopped believing that we can do things together, we've stopped believing that we as a public have the ability to take action ourselves to our own benefit," they said, adding that the strategy is one best handled by New Democrats.

Protecting Canadian industry is a priority shared by the Green candidate Emma Hoberg.

"We must protect our resource sectors because countering tariffs to the United States is not enough to protect Canadian jobs," she said. "We need to strategically reserve Canadian resources such as aluminum, potash, bitumen, uranium, forest products, etc., so we have more control."

The Green Party's platform includes the removal of inter-provincial trade barriers and the creation of national strategic reserves to safeguard Canadian resources, similar to existing reserves of maple syrup and medical assets.

People's Party candidate Paul O'Halloran agrees the Canadian economy needs to be more self-reliant and that trade barriers between provinces should be removed.

"Sometimes it's easier, cheaper, to buy something in the States than it is in the next province. There's provinces you can't even buy Alberta products in, but yet they take billions of dollars from us every year," he continued, referring to federal equalization payments totalling $25.3 billion in the 2024-2025 fiscal year that will be split between every province except Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia.

"Our reliance on [trade with the U.S.] is directly related to the way that government has governed our country," O'Halloran said. "It has nothing to do with our capability. We are capable, and the prosperity this country has is phenomenal if we just let it happen."

O'Halloran added that he believes Trump's tariff threat is not to blame for any potential economic instability in Canada, but rather the government's response.

"[Prices] may very well get higher with tariffs, but it's not Trump," said O'Halloran. "Trump, first of all, he only threatened to do it, and then our whole government went off the deep end, they just panicked. They didn't really have any diplomacy whatsoever with the exception of Danielle Smith."

O'Halloran praised Smith's visits to the U.S. over the last few months, crediting her for Trump's decision to lower tariffs on Canadian energy exports to 10 per cent.

"It would have been zero if the other provinces and the other people [did not threaten retaliatory tariffs]... when we counter tariff, that's like another tax on us. Now we start paying more," he said.