Perth-Wellington federal Conservative candidate and incumbent John Nater has been re-elected as MP for the riding.
Nater was first elected in 2015, after he ran for the Perth-Wellington seat that had been vacated by retiring Conservative MP Gary Schellenberger. Nater won 42.9 percent of the vote in his riding that year. He subsequently was re-elected in the 2019 and 2021 federal election.
Nater says he's thrilled to represent the riding again and thanked voters for placing their trust in him again. He says in terms of key items he'd like to advocate for, the agriculture sector is a big one, especially with the ongoing trade war with the US. Nater says we need to be able to retaliate when necessary.
"So talking especially with the beef and pork sector, that's gonna be an issue crossing the border because of the tariffs if they carry forward. So we have to look at what we can do long-term, as well. So the big thing is, with those industries, is processing capacity. We simply do not have adequate processing capacity for those industries in Canada. So we need to look at that," Nater declared.
Additionally, Nater shared that unlocking our national economy is key, and to do that, federal and provincial trade barriers within Canada need to be removed. He says all parties have agreed on that, and that should be among the first things to be done in the House of Commons when everyone gets back there.
"So if we can get that done before Canada Day, I think that's the first priority. The second thing when it comes to trade barriers, is we need to incentivize the provinces to do the same. So there are some provinces that have already taken the first step to introduce provincial legislation, so we need to get all 10 provinces and 3 territories on board, as well, and there are ways we can incentivize that," Nater noted.
One way to do that, according to Nater, would be to take the tax revenue generated from that and give it back to the provinces and territories that sign on to eliminate trade barriers.
Also of note, Nater points out that another issue is finding ways to support and protect local, homegrown media companies. Nater was a critic at the time the Online News Act was passed, and he says more should be done to protect local journalism when it was posed to him that a lot of local media might be completely gone in 10 years time.
"So we do need to support local journalism, and there are ways we can do that, whether it's local journalism initiatives or other ways to support it. We need to make sure that those who tell local stories are here for 10 years to come and beyond that," said Nater.
His win in 2025 marks Nater's 4th term as Perth-Wellington MP. In his previous term, he served as Shadow Minister for Canadian Heritage and was heavily involved in the Heritage Committee's work on the Hockey Canada sexual assault scandal in 2021.
Nater also served on the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs and was elected Vice Chair in 2022. The following year, Nater also served on the Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Accounts.