Conservative leader Rona Ambrose returned to her roots this week and talked shop with local business owners.
On Wednesday afternoon Ambrose stopped by the Morinville Chamber of Commerce as a guest speaker to discuss policy and economics with local business owners.
“Trade is in trouble,” Ambrose said. “When trade is in trouble, Canada is in trouble. We need tariff free markets for our businesses as much as possible.”
Ambrose, who is also MP for Sturgeon River-Parkland, expressed her concern that a trade deficit has emerged in the last year and that Canadian exports are down, despite a low dollar.
“Now more than ever we need to expand our reach and open up markets for more goods,” Ambrose said.
The interim Conservative leader praised Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s trip to China and she went on to discuss the potential of pushing pipelines to open up Canadian markets to China.
“There is nobody that wants our commodities more than Asia and there is a perfect client to sell our stuff to,” Ambrose said. “We are a very small country by population and we have to open up markets.”
Following her appearance in Morinville, the Conservative leader rushed off to Monjeloco Jeans in St. Albert to continue to celebrate free trade.
Nora Furber, founder of Monjeloco Jeans, was born in Columbia and moved to St. Albert more than 30 years ago. In 2012 the shop opened and partnered with workers in Medellin Colombia to import jeans. After an appearance on Dragon’s Den the shop received plenty of publicity and the City of St. Albert declared July 13 as Monjeloco Jeans day.
“Free trade is a huge issue,” Ambrose said. “A lot of people think about free trade and it sounds so far away from the work that we do but it hits you right in your pocketbook.”
The day wasn’t all work, as Ambrose made sure to try on a few pairs of pants and walked away with jeans, a jacket and a slice of specially made cake.
