MOOSOMIN — Parliament may be paused until March, but there’s still quite a bit happening in federal politics. Souris-Moose Mountain MP Dr. Robert Kitchen took some time out of his schedule to give an update on what’s been happening during this time of prorogation, and his thoughts on looming tariff threats from the United States.
What are the Conservatives doing right now during this period?
There’s plans in place looking at if and when the election is, getting ready for that, having a plan for that stage, as well as if and when the House resumes, as what would transpire with that, and the steps being taken. So there’s all sorts of hypotheticals that could be there, and it’s difficult to say which one is going to be the one that transpires.
In the midst of the leadership race, we’ve got to deal with tariff threats from President Trump south of the border. What are your thoughts on that?
We hear what’s going on with the new leadership that they have in the U.S. and the challenges that are there. Part of your audience and my audience is North Dakota, and there are many Americans on that side who have family members up here because they’re close to the border, and there’s a great relationship between them.
What do you think would be the proper response to these threats?
It’s something that’s at this point in time is hypothetical; it’s being thrown out there. Is it being thrown out there to watch people react? I don’t know what their rationale is behind it. I truly believe that what President Trump is, he’s a good negotiator, and he’s finding ways to try and negotiate. And sometimes when you do things that he does, it throws people off. So how do you best respond to that?
I mean, ultimately, as Canadians, we need to be focused on Canada and what’s there. But at the same time, there is a lot of trade back and forth, and issues that can be effective to both populations and in the sense of job losses, increased costs, inflationary costs, etc. That will go on and there’s a lot of that that could possibly transpire, and hopefully wiser heads will sit down and do the discussion amongst themselves, as opposed to spreading it all out such that it a puts out people thinking differently and creating confusion and despair and that just makes people very uncomfortable.
What we need, though, is we need governance, and we don’t have that right now. The worry will be for Canadians, that there’s a potential depending on how things transpire, that we could be having an election in the spring, and ultimately that means we’re going four, five, six months without solid governance, and we need that decision faster. That’s what I believe and hope we should have, because that’s going to help us keep the good governance model that we need to have and to keep this country strong.
The tariff example is just one example. If we’re without governance for that long, what else is going to come down the pipe, what else are we going to be missing?
Sometimes people throw a lot of stuff out there so that they hope other parts get missed, and what they’re really after is going to get missed. So you need people that are that are looking throughout the whole picture, not just the main elements that they might be talking about.
Until things happen in March, is everything at a complete standstill now—are all MPs in their home ridings—or is there some behind the scenes movement in Ottawa?
I was up in Moosomin yesterday. I was in Weyburn on Wednesday. I’m out and about in the riding, still meeting with who I can and about issues that are important to them, and steps that I might be able to at least assist with. So that part is going on, I assume that is going on in every other Member of Parliament’s riding.
I was very fortunate to meet with your mayor yesterday and met with some other councilors, and so that was a good opportunity to talk about issues relating to Moosomin and area. Weyburn—same type of thing in issues on education and other aspects that are important to that community.
So those are things that I’ll continue to do for the time being, and at this point in time, everything would say that prorogation will end on the 24th of March. Assuming that that happens, then we would be going back to Ottawa at that point in time and see what goes from there.
But as you’re aware, there’s a Liberal leadership race going on right now, and they’ve they will choose their leader by March 9, and then whoever that new leader may be, it will be interesting to see what they try and do. Or if they have someone that’s not a Member of Parliament, then the challenges that they will have along those lines to deal with that part, and likewise. Will they call an election before we even go back from prorogation?
In your travels throughout the constituency, what sorts of comments are you hearing from the people that you’ve interacted with?
They want an election and they want it yesterday! And I would say to you, that’s 99 out of 100.
There are issues with what has transpired down in the States, the changes and fluctuations in the markets that are out there, so people’s worries about prices for their wheat, their canola going up and down, likewise for cattle, etc. Those are all huge challenges that are being balanced. How do they deal with that? Obviously, they need to discuss with their financial advisors as to what they think is the best way to move along those lines, and that’s something that I can’t provide assistance with.
You’ve got so many Canadians and people throughout this riding that are in despair with the cost of living going up. Getting rid of the carbon tax, that is obviously something we’ve said we will do the moment we become government, that’s going to be out the window and that needs to be done ASAP.
Chrystia Freeland and Mark Carney, the two biggest proponents of the carbon tax, are now saying, ‘we’ll get rid of it too if we’re elected’. What are your thoughts on that?
Again, it’s a sales story to try and confuse people, to get them to believe that they’re going to get rid of something, when in fact, they may be getting rid of it, but they’re going to come up with a different tax of some other name.
They’re just going to continue to do what they do. It’s trying smoke and mirrors on Canadians and getting them to try and buy into some other aspect of ‘they’re different than Trudeau’ when, in reality, they’re cut from the same cloth.
