Video Our riding: Conservative candidate’s policies and platform for the federal election 2025

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — Ahead of the 2025 Canadian federal election, regional MP candidates are answering questions posed by locals on topics spanning local, regional and national topics. 

Four of the five candidates for the Prince George, Peace River and Northern Rockies MP seat sat down with Energeticcity.ca to answer questions submitted by readers during a survey conducted in the first week of April.

All five of the candidates were invited to conduct the interview either in person or virtually, and only one declined to participate. 

This interview features incumbent MP Bob Zimmer of the Conservative Party of Canada.

What are your thoughts on Northern Health and what is your party’s plan on addressing healthcare funding, specifically the nursing shortage?

“We’re completely funding healthcare as we have in the past,” Zimmer said. 

“One way we want to address the nurse shortage is we know there’s a lot of immigrants that have come in with the qualifications to be doctors and nurses and other healthcare practitioners, and we want to recognize those credentials as soon as we can.”

Zimmer also spoke about the Conservative Party’s intentions to create a “blue seal program” to increase the pace of foreign-trained healthcare professionals making the transition to provincial hospitals. 

“Our leader, Pierre Poilievre, has said sometimes the best way to get a doctor now is just to call an Uber, because they’re driving Uber cars instead of actually practicing as doctors and nurses.” 

What is your opinion on LNG in the region and expanding our market to Asia? 

Zimmer emphasized his support for LNG, and the role it will play in expanding the economy of northeast B.C. and Canada as a whole. 

“I think we need to do more,” Zimmer said. 

“In contrast to the current Liberal government and the former prime minister who said there’s no…business case for LNG, we completely disagree, we think that’s the way we’re going to unlock our economy.” 

Zimmer stated he hopes to support increasing LNG from the riding to world markets to support a global reduction of emissions by replacing coal power with LNG.

What is your response to tariffs and the future of our trade relations with the US?

Zimmer referred to the tariffs imposed by the United States as “unwarranted,” and expressed a desire to repair the trade relationship with the country. 

“We’ve had a great trade relationship before, but it’s been rocky at different times, and it’s imperative that we have a trade relationship and we keep on working on [it],” Zimmer said. 

“[The Conservative Party] also believe that we need to support our Canadian workers that are affected by those Trump tariffs, and we’ll create a ‘keeping Canadians working fund’ as part of that.

“I believe that we need to resolve these trade issues as soon as possible, and because it affects…both of our economies quite dramatically.” 

What is your opinion on the carbon tax? 

“[The Conservative Party has] been against the carbon tax right from the start, ‘axe the tax’ is our motto,” Zimmer said. 

Zimmer spoke about his experiences and conversations with Canadians in his former role as shadow minister for northern affairs and arctic sovereignty, as well as a recent visit to Fort Nelson. 

“We don’t think it’s the right focus, it’s really penalizing Canadians just for staying warm,” Zimmer said. 

Zimmer also stated he disagrees with the Liberal Party’s plan to apply the tax to industrial emitters, and explained the Conservative Party believes those emitters will simply pass the cost down to the consumer regardless.

In contrast, Zimmer stated the Conservative Party intends to “axe” the carbon tax “carte blanche.”

“We’re going to axe the carbon tax, because we just don’t believe that’s the way, especially in our country, where we have so many resources around energy, it just stifles our ability to grow.”

What is your idea of the future of energy in our region?

“I think our energy ability in the north, especially northeastern B.C., is, I would argue, second to none in the country,” Zimmer said. 

“When countries like Norway can produce oil and natural gas and still have a lot of respect for being an environmentally responsible country, that’s Canada and Canadians. 

“The way we produce our resources is second to none, it’s the gold standard in the world, we should be just doing more of it.”

How will you make housing more affordable for seniors?

Zimmer outlined multiple ways the Conservative Party of Canada intends to make housing more affordable, including removing federal sales tax on homes priced up to $1.3 million and removing “red tape” on building houses across the country. 

The party would “allow” seniors to earn up to $34,000 tax free, and keep retirement ages at 65 years old. 

“It’s going to be a great challenge for these municipalities to jump on to, because we just know the housing costs are exploding in some of these urban areas, and they’re not cheap even in rural areas, but we’re going to do our part to reduce those prices,” Zimmer said. 

What is your opinion on the Firearms Act?

Zimmer stated his disagreement with the act, saying it focuses on “law-abiding firearms owners” rather than criminals, taking guns away from “Grampa Joe.” 

“We are proposing that, instead of spending the money taking away firearms from law-abiding people like Grampa Joe, is to put that money towards things like scanning all containers coming across the border, dealing with those illegal firearms coming from the U.S. into Canada,” Zimmer said. 

Why should people vote for you?

The candidate spoke about his reason for getting involved in politics: to make a difference. 

“It’s to make a difference, and I believe we’ve done that, we just want to continue it, we have a lot to fix,” Zimmer said. 

“I say every four years I have to reapply for my job, and again, my trust is that because we’ve done a good job in the office and really brought local people’s voices to Ottawa, that they’ll give me a nod and put an X beside my name on that ballot.”

This is one in a series of four video interviews conducted with each candidate running for the Prince George, Peace River and Northern Rockies MP seat in the 2025 Canadian federal election. Each candidate was asked the same questions in the same order, with each one recorded in the Moose Media studio. 

Other interviews in this series feature Mary Forbes of the Green Party of Canada, Cory Longley of the New Democratic Party and David Watson of the People’s Party of Canada. Peter Njenga of the Liberal Party declined to participate.