On Parliament Hill

Last Week the leader of Canada’s Conservatives, Andrew Scheer, outlined his bold and forward-thinking vision for interprovincial trade and national unity.

“Canada was built on the idea that it was possible to achieve a common prosperity while also preserving local identities of language, belief and self-determination,” says Scheer.

It was a bold experiment then, as it is now. Canada is a large and diverse country. To achieve and maintain unity is the challenge of each new generation.

As our first Prime Minister, and father of our confederation, Sir John A. MacDonald said: “Everything is to be gained by union, and everything to be lost by disunion.”

Sadly, the vision and wisdom of our first Prime Minister seem lost on our current Prime Minister. Despite his promise to work with the provinces, Justin Trudeau has been an architect of division, stoking regional alienation, pitting province against province, government against government, region against region, Canadian against Canadian.

“In just three short years relationships between governments and provinces are at their coldest in generations,” says Scheer. All because of Justin Trudeau.

“This is the very threat of disunion that MacDonald warned about and the polar opposite of the ‘sunny ways’ that Justin Trudeau campaigned on in 2015.”

There is a better way.

“My vision for our country… recognizes that decisions should be made by the smallest and closest authority to the people affected,” says Scheer. “Too often, people sitting at desks in Ottawa design programs with a one-size-fits-all approach. Instead, we should trust local representatives who know their communities better.”

We will have “a federation based on respect for provincial jurisdiction, with provinces as full partners…a two-way street of nation-building, where transparency and accountability are the cornerstones.”

Andrew has committed to holding a First Minister’s meeting within 100 days of taking office, to begin the process of fixing what Justin Trudeau and the Liberals have broken. Rather than dictate to the provinces, we will work with them to improve the lives of Canadians and strengthen our union.

Andrew Scheer has an economic plan that will being Canadians together. A Conservative Government will say yes to energy self-sufficiency by building a national energy corridor and working towards a Canada fueled exclusively by Canadian oil by 2030. We will say yes to getting our products to market, yes to infrastructure projects and, at long last, yes to breaking down interprovincial trade barriers. To that end, Andrew Scheer has proposed a bold new Interprovincial Free Trade Agreement.

A Conservative Government, led by Andrew Scheer, will undertake a government-wide effort to remove interprovincial trade barriers. The existing barriers make it more expensive to run a business. They hurt consumers with higher prices and less competition and they frustrate those entrepreneurs who want to bring business and innovation to Canada.

There is no reason a beef rancher who wants to sell cattle across provincial lines who has already passed a provincial inspection should have to undergo a federal one.

There is no reason why a welder who wants to work in different province should have to jump through so many hoops to do so.

Moreover, according to the International Monetary Fund, the removal of these barriers could add $90 billion to Canada’s GDP.

Strength is found in unity and freedom. Canada is one free country. We should have one free market. That’s what a Conservative Government will deliver.