Justin Trudeau might be taking fire from all sides, including members of his own party, but the Conservative MP for Prince George-Peace River-Northern Rockies thinks he’ll stay in office until the bitter end.
Ahead of Bob Zimmer’s Christmas open house with his Cariboo-Prince George colleague Todd Doherty on Dec. 18, The Citizen sat down with the MP to reflect on 2024 and discuss his plans heading into an election year in 2025.
Just two days before the interview, former Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland dropped the bombshell that she was leaving the federal cabinet in a letter that alleged the prime minister had told her he was going to change her portfolio just a few days prior.
In the wake of that news, other Liberal MPs have publicly called for Trudeau to resign as party leader while the NDP joined the Conservatives and Bloc Quebecois in their promises to bring down the government in a non-confidence motion.
“I think he’s going to stick around,” Zimmer said. “I’ve gotten to kind of know who he is over the last 13 years and I don’t see him leaving after doing all this work to day. I think he’s going to take it right to the end. I think he wants to run against Pierre Poilievre. I think he’s still in that ‘emperor with no clothes’ situation.”
Despite the extra instability in a minority Parliament, Zimmer said it doesn’t change his strategy heading into 2025. Under federal law, the next election has to take place on or before Oct. 25, 2025.
In other words, they know Canadians are heading to the polls sometime within the next 10 months and are planning accordingly.
Zimmer said people are seeing the country stray so far to the left wing they don’t recognize it anymore.
Asked to elaborate on that point, the MP said when a lot of people grew up, the natural resource sector was valued whether it came to forestry, oil, gas, agriculture or anything else.
“That’s really shifted because a lot of those same opportunities have been slowly declining or closing,” he said. “Places like Mackenzie, places like even Fort St. John, there’s not one mill left that’s open.”
As a result, he said people are wondering how they’re going to pay their own bills as well as the country’s debt.
“Ten, maybe 15 years ago, it wasn’t even a question whether you could buy your own house,” Zimmer said. “Canadians just want to get back to that normalcy.
Both in his role as MP and as the federal critic for northern affairs and Arctic sovereignty, Zimmer said he’s been pressuring International Trade Minister Mary Ng over what he sees as a lack of urgency on lumber trade with the United States and restrictive regulations for mining companies.
“I think we’re in a new era,” he said.
“The environment is the top concern, I think, for mining companies and I’d say also for communities. They know that they have to do better, but it doesn’t mean that we shut down mining. We can’t. We have critical minerals that the world needs. We have them in BC. Going forward, I think we need a good plan on how we get our natural resources to market but also doing it in a very environmentally sound and safe way.”
On Dec. 3, Reuters reported China was banning exports of gallium, germanium and antimony to America as well as implementing stricter reviews on graphite exports in retaliation for the United States introducing a new slate of export restrictions aimed at China’s semiconductor industry.
Both gallium and germanium are used for creating semiconductors, while graphite is used to make electric vehicle batteries.
That could introduce opportunities for Canada. Zimmer said Canada and the United states already have agreements around the procurement of critical minerals.
“When China is going to limit the flow of critical minerals outwards to countries within North America and our allies, then Canada and British Columbia need to step up.”
Zimmer pointed out that a critical minerals company that Justin Trudeau visited in 2023 and provided $5 million in funding to, Saskatoon-based Vital Minerals, has declared bankruptcy since.
A state-owned Chinese company tried to buy the company’s rare earth minerals stockpile, but the federal government blocked the purchase. Zimmer said that situation shows the important of expediting mineral development and breaking down silos between different levels of government.
While affordability is a concern across the country, Zimmer said prices for things like groceries are especially high in the territories. In the Arctic, Zimmer also outlined sovereignty concerns with China and Russia being more aggressive militarily.
Speaking about his riding, Zimmer said he was impressed by stories of people working together during wildfire season to help save each other’s farms and businesses.
He said he’s been working to bring attention to the plight of the forestry industry, especially in those communities where mills have closed.
“For me, it’s really prioritizing around jobs because I think that’s where for people rubber meets the road,” Zimmer said. “When you come home, can you put a meal on the table and keep your furnace on?”
