The recently announced Conservative agriculture critic says market access and strength is one of the key issues they plan to focus on.

Chris Warkentin says they're hopeful the Liberal government will ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership to open more market access.

"We for too long have depended primarily on the United States market for the products we produce," he says. "The United States will always be our number on trading partner, but the reality is that when they hit a slump, we are all impacted as farmers across the country. What we need to ensure is that we have alternative markets so we can continue to not rely on a single market, but actually have access to additional markets to ensure that we're not held basically hostage by the Americans if they take a slump."

Warkentin says as the official Opposition, the Conservatives will continue to press the issue of Country of Origin Labelling in the United States. And in order to get Canadian products to market, he says it's also important to work on Canada's infrastructure and rail issues.