Competing visions for the future of Canada were on full display at a Fredericton-Oromocto federal election candidates’ debate on Tuesday, with Liberal David Myles and Conservative Brian Macdonald verbally squaring off.

The debate, held at the Cyber Centre in Fredericton’s Knowledge Park, a business tech hub, saw Macdonald, Myles, Green Pam Allen-LeBlanc and the NDP’s Nicki Lyons-Macfarlane face questions for about an hour.

Topics discussed included the trade war, housing, immigration, the “knowledge economy,” and trade and population growth.

Myles mentioned Liberal Leader Mark Carney five times; Macdonald didn’t mention Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, but did take one stab at Carney.

It was generally a friendly affair, but sparks flew a few times.

The first topic of discussion was about the housing crisis, and how Ottawa can help address the housing crisis.

Myles applauded the Liberals’ plan, which would see Ottawa “getting into the business of home building … and taking that initiative like they did after the Second World War.”

Macdonald replied that while he has personal respect for Myles, the idea of government stepping into the real estate market highlights “our different ideological perspectives” and “makes my skin crawl.”

“You know, those of you that have studied economics or know anything about economics … if the demand is there, often the supply comes to meet it, and if it doesn’t, there’s something in the way. And what’s in the way of home building in Canada is government,” Macdonald said.

That theme, of government “getting out of the way,” was one Macdonald returned to several times.

When asked about how a Conservative government would accelerate urban development, Macdonald began his reply by noting that “I do believe the government needs to get out of the way.”

He did it a third time when the candidates were asked about how their party’s government would grow the “knowledge economy.” Drawing on his experience as a businessman, Macdonald complained that many sectors are highly regulated.

“One of the things we need to do to encourage growth …  (is to reduce) red tape, reduction in bureaucracy,” he said, also advocating for tax cuts to help businesses grow.

That’s when Myles chose to hit back, and used the business tech venue to make his argument.

“You know, this is one of those things where I’m not sure anybody in this room or in the tech sector … in Fredericton would say the government should get out of the way,” Myles said.

“Would it exist if the government got out of the way, if it wasn’t for the fact that government worked with private industry? It was a partnership.

“I haven’t been reading about this for very long, but I have looked into it enough to know that public money was invested in all of this. This was a plan that was built out for a long time. Government can do things that private industry won’t do. It’s not to say that you don’t need both. You want a thriving private sector.”

Allen-LeBlanc, meanwhile, accused both big parties of making “reckless and irresponsible decisions for a very long time now, and I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of it.”

“Our kids don’t have the same opportunities that we had,” Allen-LeBlanc said.

“We are pumping billions of dollars into foreign-owned oil and gas corporations, large corporations. Well, your tax rate has not been lowered. Consecutive Conservative and Liberal governments have favoured their friends in the large corporations, and we have tax loopholes for billionaires that have to be closed.”

Lyons-Macfarlane’s best moment came shortly after Macdonald said a Conservative government will move harm reduction clinics, which he said he calls “harm multiplication clinics,” away from core city areas.

“We’re going to make sure that those clinics are not near schools, they’re not near parks, and we’re also going to make sure that there’s care available for people that are suffering from addiction,” Macdonald said.

“Shutting down safe injection sites isn’t going to solve anything,” Lyons-Macfarlane told Macdonald. “We cannot force people into addictions treatment. It is a collaborative effort. It’s mental health care. It is physical health care.”

An executive order from U.S. President Donald Trump that aims to deregulate the U.S. fishing industry is concerning, says Premier Susan Holt.

That’s as the president’s rhetoric on the fishing waters between New Brunswick and Maine are “reprehensible,” Holt adds.

The premier’s words come after Trump signed a raft of executive orders late last week in the oval office in efforts to boost commercial fishing, although primarily aimed at doing away with a protected area near the U.S. territory of American Samoa, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

But a final executive order claimed that the American seafood industry as a whole is “dramatically” over regulated. That’s while also alleging unfair trading practices from foreign partners, although without specifics.

That prompted U.S .Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to say that the United States imports more seafood than it exports.

“Can you imagine that? We import seafood, and we have the greatest coasts and fishing in the world,” Lutick said.

It then spurred Trump to bring up Maine, alleging that Maine lobstermen can’t fish in areas off its coast that Canadian fishermen can.

“The Maine lobster,” Trump said. “You can’t get Maine lobsters…

“So Maine’s forced to go for days out to some other area that’s not as good. We have to free that up, too.”

He added: “Canada fishes there and we’re not allowed to.”

The words appear aimed at the disputed waters around Machias Seal Island, a remote, rocky island in the Bay of Fundy off New Brunswick’s southwest coast. The roughly 550 metre-long and 250 metre-wide island remains in a longstanding sovereignty dispute between Canada and the United States.

In 1832, New Brunswick built a lighthouse on the island to physically stake its claim, and it remains the only lighthouse in the Maritimes with a full time keeper, partly to maintain that ownership.

That said, every once in a while the dispute over the island and surrounding waters heats up.

A 110-square-mile area around Machias Seal Island is considered a “grey zone” where both Canadian and U.S. lobster fishers set traps, but with different rules.

Americans accuse the Canadians of operating under a different, more accommodating set of rules that allow them to catch larger lobsters.

Canadians counter that the Americans have higher catch limits and often don’t follow established boundary lines.

Just last year, New Brunswick’s Fundy North Fishermen’s Association alleged that Maine fishers were crossing into Canadian waters near New Brunswick to poach lobster in the absence of federal enforcement.

“We’re quite concerned about it,” Holt said, when asked about Trump’s executive order, the premier noting that New Brunswick fishermen and women in that area are “responsible,” while potentially fearing the opposite from American counterparts.

“We think some of the rhetoric from the president has been reprehensible,” she added. “So we are doing the work to make sure that we can support and defend our fishers’ interests in that area.

“It has been something that has been debated and disputed for some time, but New Brunswick fishermen and women have the right and earn a livelihood in fishing those waters and we’re going to make sure they can continue to do so safely and freely going forward.”

Asked exactly what the province is doing to ensure New Brunswick fishermen aren’t being put at a disadvantage, and whether Trump’s words could amount to an annexation threat, Holt said the provincial government is seeking clarity.

“As with anything that President Trump says, you have to dig in to try to find the reality in all of it, because often sometimes the rhetoric doesn’t match what is real and what are the rules,” Holt said.

“And so we are working to understand what exactly he’s proposing to do, and whether he can do that, while making sure we have all our ducks in a row so that we can strongly and forcefully defend our interests in that space.”

While signing the order, Trump alleged he changed the rules in that region during his first presidency, but while suggesting support for the Maine lobster industry lapsed during the Biden administration.

“That’s why we have to stay president for a long time,” he added.

The new executive order specifically calls for the U.S. Secretary of Commerce to immediately consider suspending, revising or rescinding regulations that overly burden America’s commercial fishing, aquaculture and fish processing industries.

It gives 30 days to do so.

It also calls for a review of all geographic limits on commercial fishing, including protected areas, within 180 days of the order.

It claims that nearly 90 per cent of seafood on American shelves “is now imported, and the seafood trade deficit stands at over $20 billion.”

In a statement, the New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association said Trump’s order “commits the (U.S.) federal government to improving our competitiveness in international markets.”

“The order breaks with decades of overregulation that has crushed working families in maritime communities,” it adds.

That’s while stating “the gray zone has always been an issue.”

Meanwhile, there are concerns south of the border both with the legality of the order and its environmental fallout.

“What we do know is executive orders tend to be unlawful and create a lot of chaos,” Conservation Law Foundation Senior Counsel Erica Fuller told CBS news WGME in Portland, Maine.

The Conservation Law Foundation is concerned about the impact of deregulation on endangered species like right whales.

“You still get other whales entangled in weak rope, and they can’t all break free,” Fuller said. “If it becomes a wild west on the water, it’s also going to harm the lobster fishery itself and the coastal communities that depend upon it.”