Conservative leadership candidate Aitchison says he wants to end supply management
Debate over dairy, egg and poultry subsidies helped shape Conservative fortunes in recent years
Conservative leadership hopeful Scott Aitchison is reviving a heated debate from the 2017 Conservative race by calling for an end to supply management.
At a time when Canadians are struggling with higher grocery prices due to spiking inflation, Aitchison is proposing to dismantle the supply management system to save Canadian households money.
Supply management is a system that allows specific commodity sectors — dairy, poultry and eggs — to limit the supply of their products to what Canadians are expected to consume in order to ensure predictable, stable prices.
Aitchison and others have argued that the limits on competition artificially drive up the price of milk, eggs and other products.
WATCH: Scott Aitchison discusses his Conservative leadership bid on CBC's Power & Politics
In a press release issued by his campaign, the MP and former mayor of Huntsville, Ontario said he would wind down the system "in his first term" as prime minister. Aitchison said he would also compensate farmers who hold quota under the current system and offer them help in international markets.
While presumed front-runner Pierre Poilievre has based his own campaign on promises to maximize Canadians' "freedom" and complaints about "big, bossy governments," he also has said he would keep the current supply management system in place.
"The reason is that the farmers who own the quota have had to pay millions of dollars for it," Poilievre told The Western Standard in March.
"And furthermore, if we brought [supply management controls] out, then it would cost more to do that than it would to keep the system that is in place right now."
The debate over supply management has left its mark on the Conservative Party in recent years.
During the 2017 leadership race, Quebec MP Maxime Bernier also proposed ending the system and made the pledge one of the key planks of his campaign.
The proposal alarmed many farmers, who feared that dismantling the system would make farming unaffordable.
Andrew Scheer, a fierce defender of supply management, beat Bernier on the 13th ballot of a close race. Dairy farmers in Bernier's own riding of Beauce turned out in droves to vote against him because of the supply management debate.
After that devastating loss, Bernier said he would stop talking about his views on supply management. Scheer attempted to reconcile publicly with his former rival by making him industry critic.
But the siren song of subsidized milk proved too tempting for Bernier. He released a chapter of a book he'd written that specifically took issue with the supply management system.
The book also took a swipe at Scheer, claiming it was "fake Conservatives" from Quebec's dairy industry that won Scheer the leadership.
Bernier would go on to start his own political entity, the People's Party of Canada. In 2019, Bernier lost his seat by more than 6,000 votes to Conservative Richard Lehoux, a former dairy farmer.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
