Legacy of failure: MLA Hunter weighs in on Trudeau resignation

Posted on February 27, 2025 by Ryan Dahlman

By Trevor Busch
Commentator/Courier
editor@tabertimes.com

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s confirmation of his resignation earlier in 2025 seemed inevitable considering the mounting pressure in Ottawa, and Taber-Warner MLA Grant Hunter wasn’t pulling any punches in his assessment of Trudeau’s troubled legacy.

“I don’t believe that the Prime Minister has been an effective advocate for such an amazing country such as Canada,” said Hunter. “I think that he has been radicalized somehow, and has had radical ideas and because of that, we’re suffering.”

Hunter argues that Trudeau engaged in an ill-advised tit-for-tat with a then-unelected Donald Trump that later served to antagonize the relationship between the two countries. 

“Here’s a guy that, on more than one occasion, totally slammed Donald Trump, knowing full well that he was up in the polls down in the States while he was doing it, knowing full well that he could become the president of the United States, which is our largest trading partner,” said Hunter. “And yet this guy still, rather than using diplomacy, and being an adult in the room, he slams the incoming President of the United States? Well, no wonder we have this kind of acrimony that’s happening between our two countries.”

Shifting gears slightly, Hunter pointed out that the so-called trade deficit between the U.S. and Canada is really more of a political fantasy in Washington, but squarely blamed Trudeau for the negative erosion of positive relations between the two nations.

“Really, there’s no trade deficit between the United States and Canada. If you took out oil and gas, there would be roughly a $60 billion trade surplus with the United States. And look, Trump has got to know that – President Trump has got to know that. But we are now in a situation where you poke the bear, and the Prime Minister has basically shot every Canadian in the foot, and he’s put us in a position where, rather than President Trump’s sights being on China, which is where his biggest concern is – a $1.2 trillion trade deficit – he is now talking about a 25 per cent tariff on Canada. We should have never been in his crosshairs, because of the great relationship and the partnership that we’ve had for so long with the United States. We are literally the feed stock of the United States for their industrial might, and for us to be in this situation is 100 per cent fully on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s shoulders and his cabinet, who have just drank the Kool-Aid for so long that they have gotten themselves now to the point where they just want to fight with their largest trading partner. Who would have thought that we would have been in that situation?”

With a federal election now looming sometime in 2025 and prospects looking good for a potential Pierre Poilievre Conservative majority, Hunter is looking forward to ending some of the long-standing disputes between Ottawa and Alberta that have dominated discourse over the past nine years.

“I think we’ll be back at the table, which is nice. For the last nine years now, I would say that not only have we not been at the table, but we have been treated terribly by the Trudeau Government. It’s not just the Liberals, it’s the NDP as well. The NDP and the Liberals have really been quite hostile towards us, either through stopping energy projects, pipeline projects, bringing in terrible bills that really go against us and fight against Alberta. I just can’t wait to have a change.” 

Investment uncertainty isn’t about anything Alberta is doing, says Hunter, but rests on the shoulders of the federal government.

“We try to sell this fantastic agrifood processing corridor, which provides so much to the world and can provide so much to the world. The number one thing that they tell me, though, when I talk to these international companies, they don’t say Alberta is not doing some great things. You’re doing some great things there by expanding irrigation and Highway 3 twinning, and all the stuff you’re doing there, that’s all great. We’re happy with the red tape reduction measures you guys are doing. It’s all good. What they do say is we are uncertain of the federal government. We are uncertain of where they’re going to go. They talk about some pretty crazy stuff, they just don’t seem to be interested in creating jobs and having economic growth. Most of the policy seems to stop that economic growth and stop the jobs, and so this is what I hear from international organizations. So this is what we have to really try to fight against.”