Shaun Newman Podcast - #1124 - Chad Robertson

Episode Date: September 8, 2026

Chad Robertson is a sixth-generation Prince Edward Island potato farmer at Marvyn’s Garden Inc. in the East Point area, where he grows potatoes and grains with his family and is a partner in East Point Potato, packing for retail. He has served as vice-chairman of the PEI Potato Board, representing table-stock growers, and is a frequent industry voice on production, markets, and trade.Cornerstone Forum 26’https://shaunnewmanpodcast.substack.com/Silver Gold Bull Links:Website: https://silvergoldbull.ca/Email: [e-mail] Grahame: [phone]Bow Valley Credit UnionBitcoin: www.bowvalleycu.com/en/personal/investing-wealth/bitcoin-gatewayEmail: [e-mail] Get your voice heard: Text Shaun 587-217-8500

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This is James Lindsay. This is Vance Crowe, and you're listening to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the podcast, folks. Happy Tuesday. How's everybody doing today while we're on the move, but currently sitting in P.E. I know I had a bunch of texts come in, you know, asking if we've dodged some of the weather. It has been raining a ton, but no worries on this side. We've been pretty fortunate.

Shout it again to Patrick and Laura for allowing us to come in and invade their space and spend some time and all the meals and the conversations, everything else. It's been awesome. P.I. If you get a chance to visit, it's a pretty unique spot. The birthplace of Confederation, I guess, where I'm told. Regardless, super cool. And just wanted to say thank you again for, you know, letting the... us come in and once again invade your space and had the kids hang out and lots of fun considering

how much rain was let loose over the days we were there. But regardless, thanks again. Now, on a Tuesday, learned a little bit about, or hearing maybe a little bit about two of the companies that, you know, are bringing the Cornerstone Forum back to Calgary next year, May 15th, 2027. Of course, I'm talking about Silvergold Bull, Bow Valley Credit Union. and when it comes to precious metals here in Canada, here in North America, silver gold bull is who I'm pointing you to.

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These are the guys you want to go see. They got everything. You also hop online and see what they're doing there at rektekpowerproducts.com. But once again, stop in. Like to me, if you're going through Lloyd Minster, stop in, say hello to Ryan, the manager, or Al the owner. And they'll get you squared away with all your outdoor needs. Planetcom, when you're busy running and growing a business. everything seems to gravitate to online these days.

And the thing that I always have appreciated from Planetcom, not only is there professionalism on a website, you can see it at the shan Newmanpodcast.com. It has been the security, you know, if you've been around long enough, you know, I got my website stolen and that became a Chinese gambling website. And, you know, with PlanetCom,

they make sure that isn't happening ever again. And you can find them, planetcom. dot CA. They're based at a Shored Park and you know you probably ran into Carl. He's been at the Cornerstone forums as well and when it comes to building, you know, a sharp looking website, they can do that, the security they can do that. You want to build the store, they can do that. So for all your online needs, planetcom.com.com.com.com. The road trip's been powered by Zeebs. They're out of Chestermer, Alberta. And they do Zeebs Performance Restorations delivers expert classic car restoration, custom exhaust and performance upgrades that keep your ride reliable and roaring.

And certainly the suburban has been a trucking along here now into PEI. So if you've got a ride or you've got a custom ride or maybe you're looking for a classic car restoration, visit zeebs.ca say how to Zane and his dad, Brian. If you're not on substack, I don't know what you're doing, but we're talking about the first tickets to the Cornerstone Forum being, giving away to paid subscribers on there, working out some thoughts there. You've got the week in review, you don't have to be a paid subscriber for that, but if you are a paid subscriber, you know all the bonus questions that we've been doing come out on

Substack. And so we've been having some fun there. Also, Tanner in today's master classes there. And just, yeah, lots of fun happening on Substack. You really need to hop on over there and see what's going on. Now, I could go on and on today, but it's a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday. Hope everybody's doing well out west and, well, wherever you're tuning in from.

We're on the move from PEI. We're going to be in Cape Britain at some point today. And looking forward to that, it's been raining a tonne. So the sun's going to be a welcome change. Either way, I appreciate you guys tuning in. Let's get on to that tale of the tape. Today's guest is a sixth generation potato farmer from Prince Edward Island. I'm talking about Chad Robertson.

So buckle up. Here we go. All right, welcome to the Sean Newman podcast today. I'm joined by Chad Robertson. Sir, thanks for doing this. Thanks for having me. Well, I know this is probably making you somewhat uncomfortable, but shout out to Pat for for hooking us up and doing this.

If I come all the way to PEI and I didn't sit with a potato farmer, I probably would have got harassed about it because it's kind of an iconic thing of P-E-I. You got the red soil, potatoes. I think they just kind of, you know, roughly go hand in hand. And so I appreciate you doing this and allowing me to ask you some questions. But before we get into some of the questions,

tell the audience a bit about yourself. You know, sixth generation farm. Like, I mean, I don't know, you've grown up here all your life tell the audience a bit about Chad yeah born and raised here I guess never left firm with my father and my brother my sister actually helps us out too when she can and we grow potatoes wheat hay barely we have a packing plant which all of our potatoes go through that's just up the road from the firm East Point potatoes and yeah I guess that's I have should tell you a little more than just the business side I guess a wife and two boys 15 and 13

and hoping that there's going to be something to pass down to them when the time comes that's the passing down that's something that I've ran into a lot on the island is that a culture thing? Just curious. Because like I've now heard two fishermen talk like that and now a potato farmer say, I just hope there's something to pass on to the kids. And I guess it gets talked about from time to time back home. But I feel like it's like, you know, three times out of like five conversations, you're like, this is becoming a theme of where you're talking about passing things down

to your kids. Is that a culture here in PEI? I guess it could be. I think to me as being the sixth generation, like I've, I worked with my grandfather, you know, when I was a kid growing up and lucky enough until I was in my 20s and my father. So now my 15-year-old's been on the farm all summer with us, and it's nice being able to work with family every day. And you're trying to build something, I guess, you think, to keep the legacy going. But it's a different business for sure.

It's not just a business, obviously, I guess. It's more of a lifestyle, part of the culture for sure. when your grandfather, I assume, has passed. Yes, yeah. When he was alive, did you bug him? Like, because you just toured us, the packing facility and... Sorry, folks. I'm like, I should have taken video out of it or something.

I was just, like, walk around. Like, this is a lot of automation, like a lot of machinery. When you were talking to your grandfather back in the day, did you ever pick his brain on, like, how they used to do potatoes? Or were... I mean, have you always been in potatoes? Yeah. Yeah, so he would have started as a mix firm with, you know, pigs and cows and, say, like, five acres of potatoes would be the norm at that time.

And whatever else, you grew your own to feed your family and feed your animals and sell a little bit extra. Obviously, there was no big money around, but that was, I loved doing that, hanging out with my grandfather in the evenings after work and hearing about the old days and the ways that things were done and the things he did for entertainment. that we would never think of doing now. What were some of the things he thought of doing for entertainment? The big thing would be going to like the general store and the evening kind of thing and just telling yarns there kind of thing. And he used to have a story about pulling on the lazy stick.

And I, what is that? So it was like a length of wood that the two strong guys that sit on the floor opposite of each other and pull away. And whichever guy pulled the other over first was the stronger guy on the lazy stick, I guess. Just a different way of doing. doing things, but yeah, he was a talker.

Like, he could go on and on. So, yeah, I really enjoyed spending time with him, and he's had a lasting impact for sure. And my life, and we still tell stories about him. Yeah. So that's part of the family thing, I guess. You do spend a lot of time with your family, for sure, when you're working with them every day.

But you see, they go in the bed, and it's kind of, it's a neat thing, too. Not many people could do that. I asked a fisherman what he would ask a potato farmer and his question was, why didn't you become a fisherman? You spent a little bit of time, and it's funny, you know, coming from the prairies, you know, you look at PEI and I guess obviously there's more than two options, but the two big options from afar seem you either become a fisherman or potato farmer.

Did you ever dabbling fishing? Yeah. And, you know, being on the island was that something that, you know, intrigued you and you wanted to go do? And I don't know. Yeah. No, I spent near five years, I guess, helping out on lobster boats in the spring. So I was missing planning seasons then, but I was kind of fresh at a school.

And it was probably a higher earning job than being on the firm at the time. And, yeah, there's, I mean, if you're on the water in a beautiful day with, you know, light winds and the sun's out. There's no better job in the world, but not every day's like that for sure. And the rough days aren't too fun out there. But I was intrigued. to I actually did look into purchasing a license at that time. And things weren't great on the firm economy then at all.

And I honestly thought that we probably weren't going to be able to continue on. So I said, well, I want to go, if this is there last year, I want to be on the firm for the last of it. Just I love doing it. And helping out dad at that time. So luckily things turned around and we're still here. What was going on back then? Like what years are you talking? Oh, that'd be early 2000s, I guess.

Part of it was drought, low commodity prices. It was just everything was tough then, and we just weren't making any money, I guess, so I didn't know how much longer we'd be able to tough it out. This is going to be one of a series of dumb questions. On an island in the middle of, surrounded by water, obviously an island, drought. That just doesn't seem like it should go together. Yeah, so... I mean, as it's literally downpouring right now,

it's been storming all pretty much since I got here, you know? Like, it doesn't seem like it should go together. We've had a great growing season this season, but last year we had a significant drought, probably once in a 20-year drought that would have corresponded to probably with the early 2000, the last one that was the same. So our yields were down probably 25% on average across the island last season.

and hopefully this year will be better than average, I'm assuming with the moisture that we've received. So it's just, it's probably like anywhere and just, you know, it's kind of a cycle when it comes to the weather, even on an island where you think, you know, you get tons of precipitation and it just didn't happen. Yeah. You know, and all of a sudden you have a drought on an island.

Yeah, it's definitely happened. And, yeah, just a cycle, I guess, yeah. With everything going on between Canada and the U.S., your guys' business is tied. Well, I mean, you do a ton of business with the States, correct? Yep. Like, I mean, walk around your place. I got a picture of the five guys bag.

I'm like, that's super cool. I don't eat there. Honestly, I probably only eating there once or twice in my life, but it's still an iconic, like, you know, I see it. I'm like, oh, that's cool. So seeing the bags and that's interesting. And then hearing you talk about all the businesses you deal with, like, oh, you sell a lot of stuff to the states, a lot of potatoes to the states. Yeah.

So like when you see the government's jockeying for position and, you know, I'm coming from the prairies, hearing them talk about how they're going to use oil or potash or or, I know what goes from my brain. When you're sitting on this side and I'm assuming potatoes or other parts of the industry get brought. brought up from a, from a P-E-I standpoint. There's a business guy who's, you know, there's a lot of money tied up in how closely tied the two countries are. Yeah. What do you think? Yeah, it's scary. It's hard to make plans going forward what you're going to do if the door shuts all of a sudden, which it very well could.

Podatoes are a pair of the Kuzma deal now, so they're not affected by tariffs. But tomorrow could be a different story. Yeah, just kind of every day you're watching the news to see what's coming next, but it's, yeah, it's very unsettling and hard to make plants is the biggest thing. And your customers on the other side that you want to supply, you don't like having to worry them either. And then, you know, if it's in the back of their mind, they're probably lining up somebody in the United States to supply that. And once you're out, you're pretty much out, right? So it's, yeah, I'd like to get it settled, but I don't think it's going to happen anytime soon. Well, you, I'm sorry I'm jumping around on you, but if you go back to when you came back for what you thought was going to be the final planting season because of how basically you were losing money.

Yeah. What happened in the following subsequent years that started to turn the corner? Because, like, when I walk around this place, like, this place is not closing anytime soon. Like, this is an operation. This is, you know, what did you say, 24 million pounds of potatoes? That's what we grow on our farm, yeah. But that's not, I mean, it's what you grow and then you have deals with other places. And it's just moving and shaking.

You're doing lots of things here. But if you go back to when you thought it was going to be the final plant season, you're coming home because you want to be a part of it, what started to happen in the subsequent days, weeks, months, years after that? I guess a lot of things probably, but markets started to improve. Different potato varieties was a huge thing for us as well. Some newer varieties came out that we were able to get bigger yields, created more dollars for us. Our firm was probably a fifth of the size it is today then as well,

so we wouldn't have been able to support three families on it at that time probably. And my brother came along. He's five years younger than I am. We were both pretty young and driven, I guess. and willing to work hard and do whatever it takes to make things work. And probably didn't take a lot out of the firm, I guess, at that time, just trying to keep continue building the firm. And, yeah, we put the firm first, I guess.

And it's luckily, probably luck has a lot more to do with it than anything. But, yeah, yields based on new varieties and better market is probably the key thing, for sure. What was the, you know, I bring up five guys, but was there, you know, so you're starting to make your way. Was there a contract or you started dealing with a customer, you know, like, it's so foreign to me, right? I got a contract with five guys or Walmart or, you know, whoever, it doesn't matter, some grocery store chain. You're like, I never saw that coming. Like, was there a contract you got at some point in time? You're like, holy crap, we've got to change a few things.

and I mean like when you walk through your, is it your distribution center? What do you call it? Packing plant. Like the packing plant folks, the amount of automation of machines in there makes you scratch your head and like, holy crap, this is a lot going on. You know, one-fifth the size back in the day when you first started. I assume that packing plant was not sitting there the way, at least in the way it is now. No, it wasn't there either.

That's part of it. That packing plant got us one step closer to the marries. as well to the final customer. So we took out the middle guy, which added a little more to our pocket as well, which is a huge benefit. Yeah, so at the start, you were doing potatoes, then you changed the yield on the potatoes,

and then you went and looked at it and said, hmm, if we added in this, which is a huge cost, it'll actually earn us more money in time and actually open up customers we never thought we could get. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, back to your question. Probably might have been, the five guys deal.

That was the real first one that we got on our own without kind of a broker being the middle guy in between us and the final customer. And it started small, but it's really, we've proved ourselves, I guess, to them. What is small? Curious, what, like a thousand pounds, a million pounds? No, it'd be like a few stores in Atlantic, Canada. Okay. kept moving further west and we're Ontario.

east with them now and down the eastern seaboard of the U.S. If you were brought in to talk to young entrepreneurs, what advice would you give them about starting a business? I honestly don't know. Like just, I guess if you believe in something and you're passionate about it, then you're going to work hard and do whatever it takes to make it work. I think it'll either work or it won't, but don't give up. There's always a way to find a way to make things.

work I guess. And it's interesting, you know, you bring up five guys. So how many years was that into your farming career that you guys finally got five guys? I'd probably been farming for, I'd say a dozen years then at that point. So like 12 years in? Yep. And you're like, you know, you're doing, everything's going well. You know, you're just picking away at it.

but I mean you haven't landed I don't know what's what's the what's the holy grail of the potato world McDonald's yeah I guess probably that's yeah kind of a whole different market with frozen fries we just do fresh

cut fry like fresh potatoes okay so in the fresh potato world what is the holy grill hmm you want it all I guess I don't know I guess the contract with a major grocer probably probably yeah but 12 years in that's a I mean it's not a it's not

overnight it's not 50 years yeah but that's a lot of work so by the time 12 years in did you have the distribution or the packing plan I want to keep calling a distribution center but yes we started that in 09 with another firm in the area and my uncle is actually one of the owners of that farm. So we came together and made the packing plant between us. How hard of a endeavor was that? Well, it was there before that. It was owned by a company from Ontario. And we were sending some potatoes there each of our farms every year, but we weren't getting great returns on it. They were making money at the backing plant, but they, I don't want to say threatened,

but they basically said they were pulling out of the area, so we were going to miss that resource to get rid of our potatoes there. So we came together and took it over, and same thing, I guess, put our heads down and we're tired at it, and it's turned out to be a success. Hey, you ever, like, you think your 20-year-old self would walk in and be like, holy crap. Like, you ever think you'd, you'd, I don't know,

I keep coming back to 24 million pounds of potatoes, right? Like, that's a, I feel like that's a lot, but I'm sure you look at another potato farmer and they do 50 or something. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Like, it's a big number, but it's not as much as you think. Yeah, and that's just our farm. Like, through that plant, we hope to put 100 million pounds of potatoes through it every year. So 100 million pounds of potatoes through your packing plant.

Yeah. Yeah, as a 20-year-old, if I could have seen that, it would be nice to be able to see that all your hard work is going to pay out. I guess, but yeah, we kind of built a monster that we didn't think. How many packing plants are on PEI? So a big ones like that, there might be, let's say, half a dozen. And then there's a lot of smaller ones that would be like kind of family farms and doing their own, but not buying from other firms and packing theirs as well. So we'd be in the top three or four, I guess.

In PIE? NPI, yeah. Hmm. It's, once again, I can't explain it to the listener because I should have, I don't know,

video it would do the entire thing or something, but the amount of automation and there is, you know, from like cameras checking the sizes of potatoes and just by cameras doing that, they can shuffle them to whatever line they need so you don't have big and small together

or rotten and healthy together or green, you know, and you're just like, there's a lot of goes into potato farming that a guy. guy didn't realize. Yeah. Now, a naive question, the red soil, does it help potatoes at all?

Or is it just a little added something? Like, does it matter if it's black soil from where I come from or the red soil? Like, is there anything? Or why not barley or wheat? Why potatoes? Yeah, we grow barely in wheat as well. But there's lots of days we'd like to have the black soil. It's a lot more fertile, I think.

You think the black soil is more fertile, all? Yeah, they can get better crops for sure and black soil and we can for the most part. But the red soil is, it's a high iron content in it. So maybe our potatoes have a little more iron in it for you, vitamin-wise, than the black ones. Do you know the history of why potatoes here? Like, why did it just, it started to become a lucrative business and everybody saw that and they just started it hammering on potatoes? Yeah, I guess. Like, it's, uh, everybody would have been a mix farm at one time. And then, yeah, they kept getting more diversified into specific areas. Kind of the dairy was,

would be the same thing. They built their dairy herds up. Some guys stuck with that. And some still do both dairy and potato farming, not many, but, um, yeah, I think it really took off, like, in the late 70s, I think there was quite an expansion then. And then there was a processing plant built, I think, in the early 80s to make frozen fries. And that's kept expanding. And probably, I think 60% of the island's potatoes go for frozen fries right now. Do you think frozen fries are disgusting? No, not at all.

But you think fresh fries are better, yes? I'm going to assume? I guess I should say that, yeah. You should say. Yeah. I shouldn't say disgusting. It's not like it's funny. I just like fresh fries. All right, fresh potatoes. Sure. Okay. Frozen fries are very consistent. Frozen fries are? Fresh fries depends on the variety. It's going to taste different, cook different. Mash inside is going to be a little different. The temperature it's stored at it. There's a lot of things come into play. Do you like, but, uh, it's not that like, do you guys eat?

potatoes lots or no? Yeah, like, see, that's, I think that's really changing each generation. I know, like, growing up, we'd have potatoes every day. Every day. Yeah, that was us too. And my grandparents would be twice a day, probably. At home now, not every day for sure. I'd like to, but, yeah, not everybody likes them as much as me, unfortunately.

Hmm. Yeah, we used to have meat and potatoes every day. I mean, mom will laugh at me. She'll be like, no, it wasn't every day, but it was close to every day. That's what you grew up out on the farm. What's, like, growing up here, you remember the Confederation Bridge being put in? Yep. How big of a deal was that for the island?

It was pretty significant. It made things, I think, a lot easier to get off the island, shipping-wise. You didn't have to follow the boat schedule. or the watch the wind as much. It still shuts down in high winds, but not as much as a boat would. And yeah, it's made quite a difference. How about storms on the island?

You know, like, I'm sitting here across, I get to ask all the dumb questions to an islander because I'm like, you know, sit here and I go, you know, I was talking to Pat on the ride over and he's talking to winter and how much snow you get. And he's like, ah, you know, sometimes it just, it absolutely just comes in. And everybody just knows you're not going to work.

Yeah. And in fairness, that's what. it was when I was growing up, but as, I don't know, is it, technology gets better, cell phones, et cetera, et cetera, you know, like, can be minus 40 outside and we're still doing things, you know, growing up on the island, okay, so in your early years, there was no bridge. Yep. And so access to get off, you had to check very schedule. Okay, that makes sense. It's not that big of a deal, I don't think. But, like, you know, storms out here. How bad did it get? How bad does it get? They seem to be getting worse for sure.

I think it was in 23. We had Hurricane Fiona that caused a lot of damage. Like at our packing plant, it took a door down and then subsequently blew out a wall. And some damage to around fields. There was a lot of trees down. It was right before our harvest time, so we had to go around a lot of our fields and cut trees to get in and be able to harvest them. and there was power lines down across fields. It was, we were without power for 10 or 11 days, I think.

So, yeah, it was, it was quite a storm. Winter storms, it don't seem to be as bad as they were the last, the last probably five or eight years. The storms don't seem to be as bad. There's, you know, the odd one, that's a good, you're staying in that day kind of thing, but not like it used to be, I don't think that way. But we've had a couple little mini,

tornadoes here this summer, which we've never seen for. Tornadoes on the island. I never thought we'd see that. Yeah. You'd see the odd water spout kind of out to sea, but there's been a couple that, just mini tornadoes, I guess I'll call them, like EF zero, I think they measure, but yeah, it's pretty crazy. You see the funnel and pulling up some small trees. It's something that we didn't think we'd have to worry about. That's pretty scary. What do you think, uh, so, I don't know. Do you, obviously in business when it comes to what's going on with prices, tariffs, you know, I don't know. There's probably a few other things that you're keeping your eye on.

Do you pay attention to some of the societal things going on, you know, the constant talk for probably at least the last 10 years on climate change, different things like that. Are you like, do the, does the island care? Do you care? Canadian politics, I'm going to rattle off like seven things here. Do you care? Do you know, like does it enter into P.E.I. Everyday living where people are talking about it? Yeah, we have to, unfortunately, I guess.

Like, OZMPIC is a big thing for us now. People aren't eating as much so their portions are smaller. The potatoes aren't moving as well as they were before. Really? It's actually making a difference, yeah. OZMPIC. Yep. Potato farmers are sitting around going,

I didn't see Ozympic coming Really? Yeah Yeah Like the Ackins diet There a few years ago Sure That was huge

Whenever that was big You know everybody cut out carbs It made quite an effect On potato sales So you gotta get your own Propaganda going It says potatoes make you You know

Like the Hulk Yeah There you Right builds muscle Or something And get really creative Yeah have, oh, who's the, who's the, who's the, who's the chick, who does the Levi's jeans ads?

You know what I'm talking about? Sydney Sweeney. Sydney Sweeney. You need to get Sidney eating some potatoes, and then potato sales will go through the room. There you go. I mean, it'll cost a bit of money, but, I mean, right? Yeah. Yeah.

Oh, Zempick, I didn't see her that coming. Yeah, you know, it's whatever the buzzword or the new thing is, too. like regenerative agriculture is kind of a big thing now and when you look into it is are you changing a whole lot of from what you're currently doing to actually be regenerative i don't really think so in a lot of ways but to get that stamp of approval on being regenerative then you do a few little things and check the box and it's just kind of whatever's you know the next big thing you're you have to stay on top of it climate change you think uh I don't know.

Like maybe on the island you've noticed things, you know, like if I interviewed people pretty much all over the planet now, I'm always curious, like, I can sit here and say, I think it's a load of bollocks, but, you know, like at the same time, the climate does change and there's lots of things going on and we go through cycles of droughts and everything else. But maybe the island's seen something different. I don't know, honestly. Yeah.

I know our seasons are changing. we have a little longer growing season, I think, lately than we've had in the past, which is beneficial to us. We can push our harvest a little later, get a little better yield. Our falls have been the last probably five years, fantastic for harvesting. The right nice weather, but I don't know. Is that going to, if it keeps going that way, then, yeah, climate change is a great thing. You don't want to say that, but yeah.

It can warm up a little bit. up here. Yeah, I think we can all agree on that. Yeah, yeah. Alberta independence. There's a referendum coming in October. I'm, I grew up in Saskatchewan. I live in Alberta. I've been wondering, you know, do people out east care? Like, you're sitting in PEI and you're like, Alberta's doing what? Oh, all right. Yeah. Do you have any thoughts on, or to the Alberta audience, if they're, well, they are listening. Any thoughts on, on Alberta wanting to go its own way? please don't leave but if there was some words that I could move to I think Alberta would be the spot my second choice from where I am right now for sure I just like a lot of the ways that things are

done there I guess and and being a little more independent than some of the other areas of Canada I guess but yeah we need Alberta I think hopefully we could all come together with an understanding but I can see I can see both sides of that for sure you think we can come together I hope so. I actually should have looked this up. P.E.I. Is it voting liberal or are they conservative? By and large. Federally, they always pretty much voted liberal for quite a while now.

Just curious, like in the conversations that are had in the lead up to Mark Kearney being elected, does anybody, like out here, are they like, oh, Trudeau was the best? Like, we just love Trudeau. I think there would be some that would be, would have said that, yeah. But yeah, before he was elected, like Pierre Pollyov was here, he had a huge rally on PII. I was sure that some of his conservative members were going to get in on the island, but they didn't. And yeah, I didn't see that coming, I guess. I liked everything he was saying at the time.

So what do you think that is? Like, does P, forgive me, this is part of the reason why I like having conversations. I like having conversations with different guys. You run from where I'm sitting, a very successful potato business that's got to deal with lots of things going on between the U.S. and Canada and OZMPIC and lots of fun things, you know.

You're like, okay. And then you stare at politics and you go, well, you know, yeah, there's probably a few that like Trudeau. Yeah, probably. But by and large, most Canadians were done with Trudeau. And in my brain that means done with the liberals. It's like, we are done with the liberals. Maybe in 20 years.

I know in Alberta it'd be like 170 years, but regardless, maybe it's time to just switch over. Mark Carney slides in. Is it the elbows up? Was that like catchy out here? Like were people like, yeah, that makes sense, Mark Carney? Or you're like, no, actually, we don't, I don't remember that ever being a conversation point. no I honestly I didn't think that was going to work out the way it did

I really thought that the conservatives were going to win but obviously it was wrong I didn't really see them see that happening but I don't remember the elbows up moment being too strong here I mean sure it's a good it sounds good at first but

yeah it may be in the cities yeah but like the further you go out in the rural communities most people sit around and talk about it are like wait we're gonna I don't know the conversations I had with farmers back home. It's like, let me get this straight. Ten years of the liberals, and we're going to put them back in.

I mean, that's basically, you know, where the conversation went. You could be elbows up. You could have all the clever things you ever wanted, but they didn't go, oh, that makes sense. We've got a new leader in. It's going to be great. Yeah.

Is it? Like, on the island, I know for sure. It's a culture thing. Your father voted liberal. I'm going to vote liberal too. And there's nothing you could do to change their mind. It wouldn't matter who was running for them, I don't think. I think that hopefully that's changing some with our generation,

but that's been the way it's been in the past for sure. Yeah, well, I come from, I guess I just come from the opposite side of it, right? I've always, from where I'm from, always voted conservative. Always. It's been a conservative leaning as long as I can remember. and so it's not that I I guess I don't judge a liberal leaning like we always

voted liberal it's just at some point you'd think maybe we should just try something yeah exactly you know like I don't know or maybe PII's booming like is PIA in a boom like is there just crazy amount of work and money flowing everywhere and like maybe it's really doing really well

and that's why they keep voting liberal it has been doing fairly well yes, recently. And what's been doing well? Like fishing, potatoes, I keep coming back to those too, because those are the two I know. What else is P.E.A. Tourism's been huge, especially the last couple years with the elbows up thing, I guess. We're not going to the U.S.

We're going down east to the Maritimes instead. So that's been big. That's been noticeable. Yeah. Crazy immigration here that's been driving housing construction. It's been crazy busy the last few years. on the immigration thing that's obviously part of the referendum questions come in october um i don't know like has pei ballooned with you mentioned tons of building but of like you know is it noticeable then

then like tons of immigrants are in pei yeah just simple yes so it's like everywhere else it's mostly well i would say more so obviously in trail town the bigger city but Yeah, you'd see it everywhere's. Is one of the things I never thought I'd see in Lloyd Minster, right? Prairie town in the middle of Saskatoon and Ammonetton out in the middle of, I hate saying nowhere, but roughly nowhere. Minus 40 in the winter times, blah, blah, blah, we have a homeless problem. And I just go, if I was going to pick any place in the world to be homeless,

it would not be Lloyd Minster. Love my hometown, but I'm telling you, like, I would be down in California or I don't know, somewhere with a little bit of sun. Does P.E.I. Like, does Charlottetown have homeless? Yeah. Like, is that a thing? Yeah. And definitely, you see it more so in the last few years than when I was growing up, I guess, or whatever, say, early 20s around town. And you pretty much know the homeless people. There's a handful of them basically, right? Yeah.

Yeah. But now it's, yeah. Lots. A bigger thing, yeah. And then how about safety, theft, stealing, violence, violence. That type of thing. Because another one that I've been curious about as I go across Canada, and I actually haven't asked too many people about it. I've been having lots of conversations off here about it. It doesn't feel like anyone feels that safe in any of the places they live

because of the increase in violence. Is that a thing in PEI as well? I assume yes. It's growing a bit, I think, but still a relatively safe spot, I think, yet. Now, potato farmer commenting on the fisherman. I feel like they're a little old school and how they deal with the problems on the water. Is that a fair assessment of it?

Outside looking in, I guess, I would think, yeah. Well, I mean, you're a guy who's grown up here. You get to hear the stories, watch them, and you're like, correct. Yeah. They may not have the train station. You may never take it to that far, but if they have problems they deal with it on the water.

Yeah, it's a good way to do it. Yeah, I'd agree. Anything you'd want Canadians to know about P.E.I. Or potato farming. You stump me there. About P.E.I. There's a lot more than anti-green gables here, I guess. Come for a visit.

Yeah, potato farming. Like you said, it's an iconic thing, part of the island, but I guess after your tour and seeing the workings of it, there's a lot more to it than you'd expect to, I guess. I think we're all just trying to do the right thing and grow a healthy crop for people to eat and do it the right way, and we want to leave the farm behind and the fields behind the ground in better shape for the next generation than we got it. Yeah, it's a pretty good, it's a pretty good thought.

If, I'm going to ask, so I should ask a couple questions on potatoes, I suppose. When you plant a potato, are you planting a full potato? And then how many, what's the yield off of one planted potato? So you can either, you can plant a whole potato, a small one, which we do some. But some of them we cut in to half or three pieces, depending on the size of the potato you're making your seed potato out of. So potatoes, the new tuber grows from the eye of the seed potato. So it depends how many stems that eye puts up. Let's say an average seed piece in the ground will give you 10.

it could be between 8 and 16, I guess, depending on the variety, but that's how many tubers you'd expect from that plant. When you go back to when almost losing, and then you mentioned like the yields changed, what did it used to be? Like was it like you planted a potato and you got four? Yeah, it could be. It was, I guess, let's say it was eight probably.

and now the newer varieties you could have grown eight but they'd be smaller potatoes too now we can grow say 10 but eight out of the 10 are bigger potatoes which is more money for a bigger potato too so it was really noticeable yeah

new varieties have changed the game I guess I'd say yeah and then we were talking on the drive over here I don't know if I knew this or not probably did probably lost it somewhere. It raining like this. It's like, oh, is this going to hurt a potato farm?

You know, this heavy rain. And, you know, like, it's not like it's going to lay down a crop, you know, at least in my brain. It doesn't lay down a crop. And you were talking about how potatoes need to breathe and it could maybe walk listeners through that. So, like, you know, you got all these potatoes and then you get a heavy rain. What is the problem with a heavy rain? I guess it comes down to like soil saturation. So in the low spot in the field, all the water is going to run through your low spot.

And the potato, like I said, it respires so it's breathing in and out. And if it's underwater for 12 hours, that potato is essentially drowned. And it will likely rot. Hopefully it'll show up starting to rot before you harvest it and not show up in your bins later on. When you say show up while you're harvesting, what do you mean? So you'd see it'd start breaking down. It'd be black and... Like when it's going up the conveyor belt type thing?

Yeah. So have you seen that, you'd stop, basically, clean it off and carry on. Go around that spot, yeah. It's no sense putting that in your warehouse because it's just going to turn to mush in there. So you stare at this rain and you're like, how many rotten potatoes am I about to have? Yeah, we're hoping.

open it's not going to be an issue but there's I think three and a half inches in the gauge there today so so is that like I can't see it I don't know what I'm looking for folks I was going to say like on the island it felt like sitting at Pat's house everything angles down to the coast does that make for a good potato field then because the water runs off of it and there's no low spot for essentially to drown potatoes yeah yeah it's nice to have a slow not too big of a slope obviously but that but it's not a big slope right everything is kind of like this nice grade down to the the shoreline yeah yeah that's nice you can if you don't have that hollow in the middle where everything's going to sit that's where you're going to get into trouble for

sure sure yeah and then one one final one you have uh i guess it shouldn't shock me because i think of rock picking back when i was a kid we used to pick rocks right but you were talking about, you know, your potatoes come in, then they drop into essentially a thing of water, the potatoes float, rocks go down. And I was asking a really probably dumb question of like, yeah, but eventually don't you just have less rocks? You would think, yeah. Right? You're, you're literally doing the same thing over and over and over and over and over again. We're like, no, there's just more rocks. Rocks just keep coming up. The frost just keeps pushing them up every year, yeah. doesn't that it almost surprises you a little bit doesn't it yeah you would it's like you would think eventually

you would get to the bottom of it but that freeze the cycle just keeps making new baby rocks i guess yeah well sir thanks for uh let me do this with you and uh allowing me to ask some questions of a potato farmer appreciate you tour me around and uh if people were wanting to uh um buy potatoes for me can they do that? Or is it like you guys are direct to different grocery store, restaurant, etc.? Yeah, we're pretty much direct to the food service industry and grocery stores. And we do local, local pickup at our pack and plant. But yeah, that's about it. So you got to come to PEI, folks. That's what it is. Well, I tell you what, we're going to ask, chat a few more questions on Substack. So if you're interested in hearing a couple of quick ones, head over to Substack and we'll do

some bonus questions there