MP candidates campaign for Brantford-Brant South-Six Nations riding

MP candidates met with voters in the riding of Brantford-Brant South-Six Nations Wednesday, focusing on U.S. tariffs as a top concern.

A study from the Canadian Chamber of Commerce earlier this year ranked Brantford number five in a list of Canadian cities that will be hit the hardest by Donald Trump’s levies, due to its manufacturing and agriculture sectors.

After working in the financial sector for 30 years, Liberal candidate Joy O’Donnell says her focus, if elected, will be on bringing opportunities to the riding’s strong manufacturing and agriculture industries.

“As Mark Carney goes out and generates new trade deals with Europe and the U.K., we want to make sure that Brantford is there to take part in that and bring that new business to our community as well,” O’Donnell said.

“There are going to be new opportunities, as much as this is a crisis, we will make new opportunities.”

NDP candidate Anne Gajerski-Cauley is no stranger to the campaign trail – she’s helped run around 40 campaigns in her lifetime.

She says the NDP will help her riding’s residents through the tariff war by increasing employment insurance payments and accessibility, capping grocery prices, and eliminating tax off essential bills.

“We need to be strengthening those public services and the usual question is often ‘well how are we going to pay for this?’ especially because you have a diminishing tax base when people are unemployed and out of work,” Gajerski-Cauley said.

“We need to be taxing the profits on corporations.”

Green Party candidate Karleigh Csordas is coming fresh off the provincial campaign in the Brantford-Brant riding, where she picked up around 5 per cent of the vote.

She says while tariffs are a top concern, the government still needs to focus on local issues.

“Those are prominent in making sure we can maintain our own sovereignty, but to make sure that we can do that, we can’t push health care aside – we cannot push away our ability to reconcile with Indigenous communities,” Csordas said.

The riding includes Six Nations of the Grand River – the largest Indigenous reserve in Canada by population.

Conservative MP Larry Brock was unavailable for an interview, but in a statement sent to CHCH News, he says he hears about the cost of living crisis from constituents every day.

“Many families are living paycheque to paycheque. The City of Brantford has even declared a food insecurity emergency. We must do everything we can to put an end to this crisis,” reads his statement.

“A Conservative government will axe the entire carbon tax for good, cut income taxes, and lower taxes on homebuilding, investment, and energy.”

READ MORE: Many Canadians and Americans are angry about U.S. tariffs: poll