Politics

Conservative leadership candidate Aitchison says he wants to end supply management

Conservative leadership hopeful Scott Aitchison is reviving a heated debate from the 2017 Conservative race by calling for an end to supply management.

Debate over dairy, egg and poultry subsidies helped shape Conservative fortunes in recent years

Dairy cows on a farm in Delta, British Columbia on Tuesday, May 5, 2020. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

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

Tory leadership candidate Aitchison pledges to end Canada’s supply management system

3 years ago
Duration 8:45
Conservative Leadership Candidate Scott Aitchison joins Power & Politics to discuss his bid to be the party’s leader, including his position on supply management and the federal budget

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.

Andrew Scheer, right, is congratulated by Maxime Bernier after being elected the new leader of the federal Conservative party at the federal Conservative leadership convention in Toronto.
Andrew Scheer, right, is congratulated by Maxime Bernier after being elected the new leader of the federal Conservative Party at the federal Conservative leadership convention in Toronto. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press)

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

Catherine Cullen

Host & senior reporter

Catherine Cullen is the host of The House on CBC Radio, Canada's most popular political affairs program. She's been chasing down politicians on Parliament Hill for over a decade with CBC News. Before that, Catherine learned the ropes of TV and radio reporting in Montreal, covering major stories including the student strikes and Lac-Mégantic rail disaster. She has also worked in Toronto and Vancouver.