Survey says Conservatives farmers’ favourite but some divisions remain
Most Canadian farmers feel best represented by the federal Conservatives, though devision still exists in some regions, according to a University of Calgary survey.
Two reports from the university’s Simpson Centre, titled “Voices from the Field: The 2025 Federal Elections Project” outline the results of a national survey of 979 farmers, conducted with Stratus Ag Research. The results cover voting intentions and policy priorities among Canadian producers.
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The results showed just under 70 per cent of surveyed producers said the Conservative Party best represents their interest. Those numbers are even higher in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
The numbers from the survey differ from general election polls like Nanos and Canada388, which put Liberals at around 42 per cent of the popular vote and Conservatives around 39 per cent.
Support for the Liberal party showed mild division among farmers in the survey. The Liberals were the least favoured political part, with 34.2 per cent of farmers ranking them last. However, they were also second most favoured party, with 15.3 per cent of farmers’ vote.
Quebec was the main regional outlier where Conservatives ranked third among 103 respondents after the Bloc Quebecois and Liberals.
Farmers’ voting priorities
Supply management protection was the top issue for Quebec farmers in this election. The Bloc has shown support for supply management, having promised to reintroduce a bill to protect it in their 2025 election platform.
For 79 per cent of respondents, the most important policy priority is trade and market access, followed by tax breaks and financial support at 58.8 per cent. Other issues like transport infrastructure, supply management protections and risk management were also top concerns.
On trade, producers supported strategies like diversifying export markets and expanding dimestic processing. On taxation, they showed support for measures like fuel and energy exemptions and small business and corporate tax rate reductions.
Priorities varied by geography and commodity.
In British Columbia and Atlantic Canada, tax-breaks and financial support were the top priorities, while supply management protections topped the list in Quebec. In every other province, trade and market access was the top policy priority.
While trade and market access was the highest priority for field crop, vegetable crop, beef cattle and hog producers, tax breaks and financial support were the main issue for potato, greenhouse and orchard producers. For dairy and poulty/egg farmers, it was supply management protection.
According to the survey, nearly three quarters of producers did not feel agricultural interests are fairly represented in federal policies. Only 38.6 per cent expressed condifence in the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), and 62.5 per cent expressed little or no confidence in Environment and Climate Change Canada.
Source: producer.com