Bradley Ryan Trost (born May 15, 1974) is a former Canadian politician who served as a Conservative Member of Parliament in the House of Commons of Canada, representing the ridings of Saskatoon—Humboldt from 2004 to 2015 and Saskatoon—University from 2015 to 2019. He was a candidate in the 2017 Conservative Party of Canada leadership election, finishing fourth. Trost was known for his support of socially conservative positions.
Brad Trost | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Member of Parliament for Saskatoon—University Saskatoon—Humboldt (2004–2015) | |
| In office June 28, 2004 – October 21, 2019 | |
| Preceded by | Jim Pankiw |
| Succeeded by | Corey Tochor |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Bradley Ryan Trost May 15, 1974 Langenburg, Saskatchewan, Canada |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Spouse |
Gerelt (m. 2012) |
| Residence(s) | Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada |
| Alma mater | University of Saskatchewan (BA, BSc) |
| Profession | Politician |
| Website | Leadership campaign website |
Early and personal life
editBefore being elected, Trost worked as an exploration and mining geophysicist. Trost holds a Bachelor of Science in geophysics and a Bachelor of Arts in economics, both from the University of Saskatchewan. He married in August 2012.[1]
Political career
editIn 2004, in what was the closest four-way race in the country, Trost received 417 more votes than second-place candidate, the New Democratic Party's (NDP) Nettie Wiebe, 435 votes ahead of the third place candidate, Liberal Patrick Wolfe, and 2368 votes ahead of former Canadian Alliance Member of Parliament Jim Pankiw.
Trost was re-elected, in 2006, 2008, and 2011 earning between 49 per cent and 53 per cent of the vote defeating the second-place NDP, and the third-place Liberals in Saskatoon-Humboldt in each election. In the 2015 federal election, Trost was elected in the new urban riding of Saskatoon-University with 41.5 per cent of the vote.
Parliament activity
editIn November 2015, Trost was named the Conservative Critic for Canada/U.S. Relations by Interim Leader Rona Ambrose, Leader of the Opposition.[2]
Trost has been an outspoken critic of moves toward a carbon tax, arguing that such a tax kills jobs and blocks job creation. In a series of House of Commons Order Paper Questions, Trost questioned the benefits of a carbon tax and raised concerns as to its effects on Canada's economy.[3]
Brad served as a member of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Natural Resources. He had also served as a member of the International Trade Committee and, before that, the Industry Committee. He is the founder of the Conservative Party's Energy Caucus[citation needed] and was a member of the Parliamentary Pro-Life Caucus.[4] He also served as an elected vice-chair of the Canada-U.S. Parliamentary Association.
In the 40th Parliament, Trost introduced private members legislation into the House of Commons that would open the Canadian uranium mining sector to increased foreign investment.
As a member of the Standing Committee on International Trade, Trost was a supporter of the Canada–Colombia Free Trade Agreement.[5]
Conservative leadership run
edit
Trost announced his entry into the 2017 Conservative Party of Canada leadership election in the summer of 2016, saying, "I believe the Conservative Party needs what I'm calling a full spectrum conservative candidate."[6] The Campaign Life Coalition endorsed candidates Trost and Pierre Lemieux in the leadership election.[7] Between August 2016 and May 2017, Trost campaigned to become Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada. He was the third runner-up in a field of thirteen candidates, being eliminated on the tenth ballot after coming in fourth behind frontrunner Maxime Bernier, eventual winner Andrew Scheer, and Erin O'Toole, who would become leader of the party in 2020.[8][9]
After the leadership race
editAfter the election, Trost's leadership campaign was fined $50,000 by the Conservative Party for allegedly leaking the party's membership list to the National Firearms Association.[10] On February 11, 2019, the Conservative Party released a statement from its Leadership Election Organizing Committee (LEOC) which concluded: "In short, LEOC does not believe there is evidence that the Trost Campaign was responsible for leaking of the membership list...."[11] The fine was therefore removed from the Brad Trost Campaign. In 2018, Trost lost the renomination as the party candidate for his riding during the 43rd Federal election to Corey Tochor, former speaker of the Saskatchewan Legislature.[12]
Positions
editTrost has been noted for publicly taking fiscally and socially conservative stances. In a July 2016 interview, Trost indicated he was opposed to carbon taxes (as well as taxes in general), the legalization of cannabis, and transgender washrooms.[13]
During an unofficial debate in November 2016 between nine Conservative leadership contenders, Trost stated, "I don't believe climate change is a real threat."[14]
In July 2009, Trost criticized his own government's funding of Toronto Pride Week under the $100 million Marquee Tourism Events stimulus program.[15]
In November 2009, Trost launched a petition to stop the federal government's funding of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF). According to Trost's petition, the IPPF "promotes the establishment of abortion as an international human right and lobbies aggressively to impose permissive abortion laws on developing nations."[16] During the 2011 federal election campaign, Trost made news when he spoke at a Saskatchewan Pro-life Association convention and noted to the audience that the government had not renewed funding to Planned Parenthood over the previous year and urged continued support for their defunding.[17]
In September 2011, Trost publicly voiced his anger at the federal government's decision to fund the International Planned Parenthood Federation. He said that Conservative MPs' requests that the Prime Minister's Office cease funding have been ignored.[18]
In January 2012, Trost criticized the strict party discipline imposed upon Conservative MPs, saying it stifled debate and independent thought.[19]
Trost was one of the few MPs at the 2016 Conservative policy convention who insisted on retaining the party's definition of marriage as "the Union of one man and one woman". On May 4, 2017, Trost sent a private member's bill to the floor to privatize the CBC, Canada's national public broadcaster, and upon its second reading it was defeated 260 to 6, with only himself and five other Conservative members voting for the bill.
Electoral record
edit| 2015 Canadian federal election: Saskatoon—University | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Expenditures | |||
| Conservative | Brad Trost | 18,592 | 41.53 | -7.07 | $62,436.57 | |||
| New Democratic | Claire Card | 14,115 | 31.53 | -6.47 | $120,992.80 | |||
| Liberal | Cynthia Marie Block | 11,287 | 25.21 | +15.6 | $99,324.30 | |||
| Green | Valerie Harvey | 686 | 1.53 | -1.39 | $140.15 | |||
| Rhinoceros | Eric Matthew Schalm | 93 | 0.21 | – | – | |||
| Total valid votes/expense limit | 44,773 | 99.71 | $193,381.41 | |||||
| Total rejected ballots | 130 | 0.29 | – | |||||
| Turnout | 45,903 | 76.90 | – | |||||
| Eligible voters | 58,394 | |||||||
| Conservative hold | Swing | -0.30 | ||||||
| Source: Elections Canada[20][21] | ||||||||
| 2011 Canadian federal election: Saskatoon—Humboldt | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Expenditures | |||
| Conservative | Brad Trost | 19,954 | 52.7 | -1.1 | $61,713 | |||
| New Democratic | Denise Kouri | 13,271 | 35.1 | +7.3 | $72,371 | |||
| Liberal | Darren Hill | 3,013 | 8.0 | -4.0 | $45,694 | |||
| Green | Sandra Finley | 926 | 2.4 | -4.0 | $5,443 | |||
| Independent | Jim Pankiw | 682 | 1.8 | – | – | |||
| Total valid votes/Expense limit | 37,846 | 100.0 | – | |||||
| Total rejected ballots | 106 | 0.3 | +0.1 | |||||
| Turnout | 37,952 | 67.7 | +6.2 | |||||
| Eligible voters | 56,047 | – | – | |||||
| 2008 Canadian federal election: Saskatoon—Humboldt | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Expenditures | |||
| Conservative | Brad Trost | 18,610 | 53.8 | +4.7 | $57,441 | |||
| New Democratic | Scott Ruston | 9,632 | 27.8 | -1.7 | $43,654 | |||
| Liberal | Karen Parhar | 4,135 | 12.0 | -4.9 | $27,728 | |||
| Green | Jean-Pierre Ducasse | 2,211 | 6.4 | +2.7 | $5,910 | |||
| Total valid votes/Expense limit | 34,588 | 100.0 | $80,987 | |||||
| Total rejected ballots | 83 | 0.2 | 0.0 | |||||
| Turnout | 34,671 | 61.5 | -5 | |||||
| 2006 Canadian federal election: Saskatoon—Humboldt | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Expenditures | |||
| Conservative | Brad Trost | 18,285 | 49.1 | +22.4 | $70,424 | |||
| New Democratic | Andrew Mason | 10,975 | 29.5 | +3.9 | $51,091 | |||
| Liberal | Peter Stroh | 6,281 | 16.9 | -8.6 | $44,850 | |||
| Green | Mike Jones | 1,382 | 3.7 | +1.8 | $1,814 | |||
| Independent | Tim Nyborg | 342 | 0.9 | – | $1,160 | |||
| Total valid votes | 37,265 | 100.0 | – | |||||
| Total rejected ballots | 90 | 0.2 | 0.0 | |||||
| Turnout | 37,355 | 67 | +4 | |||||
| 2004 Canadian federal election: Saskatoon—Humboldt | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Expenditures | |||
| Conservative | Brad Trost | 9,444 | 26.7 | -23.0 | $61,922 | |||
| New Democratic | Nettie Wiebe | 9,027 | 25.6 | -0.9 | $58,415 | |||
| Liberal | Patrick Wolfe | 9,009 | 25.5 | +3.8 | $66,060 | |||
| Independent | Jim Pankiw | 7,076 | 20.0 | – | $73,828 | |||
| Green | Ron Schriml | 680 | 1.9 | +0.6 | $25 | |||
| Independent | Larry Zarysky | 71 | 0.2 | – | $2,594 | |||
| Total valid votes | 35,307 | 100.0 | – | |||||
| Total rejected ballots | 66 | 0.2 | 0.0 | |||||
| Turnout | 35,373 | 63 | -1 | |||||
References
edit- ^ "About Brad". Brad Trost M.P. Retrieved January 31, 2012.
- ^ John Paul Tasker (November 20, 2015). "Interim Conservative Leader Rona Ambrose taps women for top shadow cabinet jobs". CBC News.
- ^ "Notice Paper". House of Commons of Canada. May 9, 2016. Retrieved August 16, 2016.
- ^ Peter, Zimonjic (August 16, 2016). "Social conservative Brad Trost the 6th Tory to enter leadership race". CBC News. Retrieved February 3, 2024.
- ^ Trost, Brad (April 30, 2010). "Free trade for Colombia". National Post. Toronto, Ontario. p. FP11. Retrieved February 3, 2024 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ "'Leaked internal poll suggests three-way CPC race: La Presse'". CBC. June 30, 2016. Retrieved January 21, 2017.
- ^ "National Post".
- ^ Fekete, Jason (August 16, 2016). "Social conservative MP Brad Trost joins federal Conservative leadership race, will defend party's right flank". National Post. Postmedia. Retrieved August 16, 2016.
- ^ Ryan Maloney (May 4, 2017). "Brad Trost's Bill To Privatize CBC Fails Spectacularly By Vote Of 260-6". Huffington Post.
- ^ "'Brad Trost leadership campaign fined $50K over leaked Conservative membership list'". CBC. June 12, 2017. Retrieved August 26, 2017.
- ^ "Statement from the Leadership Election Organizing Committee | Press & Media | Conservative Party of Canada". Archived from the original on February 13, 2019. Retrieved February 12, 2019.
- ^ "Corey Tochor wins Conservative Party Saskatoon-University nomination". March 10, 2018.
- ^ Warmington, Joe (July 28, 2016). "'God put conservatives on earth to stop taxes everywhere, forever': Brad Trost". Saskatoon StarPhoenix. Postmedia. Retrieved February 3, 2024.
- ^ Raj, Althia (November 14, 2016). "Conservative Leadership Candidate Cheered For Dismissing Climate Change". The Huffington Post. Huffington Post. Retrieved June 4, 2019.
- ^ "Contributions and Recipients",Industry Canada website list of recipients of the MarqueeTourism Events Program Archived 2009-06-26 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Sharp, Jenn (November 4, 2009). "Sask. MP Trost launches petition against funding of planned parenthood group". The Star-Phoenix. Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Canwest News Service. p. B7. Retrieved February 3, 2024.
- ^ Warren, Jeremy (April 21, 2011). "Trost under fire over Planned Parenthood remarks". The StarPhoenix. CanWest. Archived from the original on February 2, 2016. Retrieved April 21, 2011.
- ^ Galloway, Gloria. "Backbench Tory breaks ranks, vows aggressive stand against abortion". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved September 28, 2011.
- ^ Warick, Jason (January 31, 2012). "Trost questions party discipline". and "Trost". Regina Leader-Post. Regina, Saskatchewan. pp. A1–A2. Retrieved February 3, 2024 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ Elections Canada – Confirmed candidates for Saskatoon—University, 30 September 2015
- ^ Elections Canada – Preliminary Election Expenses Limits for Candidates