Prairie farmers have plenty to say about federal election
Every week here at the Western Producer, our reporters write stories covering the news we believe is of interest to our readers.
However, it’s not just a one-way street.
Follow all our Federal Election 2025 coverage here
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There’s nothing we enjoy more than receiving feedback from our readers to help us zero in on the issues currently impacting their business and their lives.
Indeed, garnering this kind of insight from our readers is a key part of our North Star — a set of guiding principles we use to maintain our focus on serving our readers.
Next week’s federal election is one of several important issues currently on our readers’ radar, and a survey we recently published has clearly struck a chord.
The idea was to make a simple survey that wouldn’t take long to complete, but that would allow our readers to share the election issues of greatest importance to them.
We compiled a list of issues — tariffs and trade, capital gains tax and AgriStability, to name just a few — and used them as the basis for the survey.
Readers could check boxes from among nine issues they felt were of greatest importance.
In addition, we asked two simple questions:
In your opinion, what is the most pressing issue facing Canadian farmers today?
If you could ask any political leader a question, what would that question be and who would you ask?
The survey was published simultaneously on March 26 to a number of Glacier FarmMedia publications across Canada, and the responses have been flowing in ever since.
Carbon pricing, government spending and debt and trade and tariffs were among the leading issues readers selected from the list provided.
The cost of fuel and fertilizer, as well as the rising costs of both land and machinery, were also noted. At least one respondent wondered how young farmers would even be able to afford to pursue agriculture as a viable way of making a living in the future.
When it came to the “pressing issues” portion of the survey, many farmers wanted to know what the federal government would do to help Canadian farmers through these challenging times.
The looming threats of on-again-off-again tariffs and insuring long-term strategies to keep Canadian farmers competitive and food secure were also raised. As well, more than one farmer in Western Canada shared they are feeling ignored or even forgotten altogether.
One respondent wanted to ask Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre how he would respond to U.S. president Donald Trump’s tariff threats, while another wanted to ask prime minister Mark Carney if he would stop ignoring the needs of western Canadian farmers.
The internet these days can be filled with anger and emotion, and asking for input could easily have led to a minefield of cursing and spleen venting, but the responses we’ve received to our survey have been thoughtful and precise.
There is concern among western Canadian farmers about a variety of issues important to our country as a whole, and the federal government would be well-served were it to pay attention to those concerns.
Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with us.
If you’d care to express your own views, you can find the survey online here.
Beyond that, there is only one other important thing left to do, and that is to vote.
Karen Briere, Bruce Dyck, Robin Booker, Paul Yanko and Laura Rance collaborate in the writing of Western Producer editorials.
Source: producer.com