The suddenly famous mushroom farmer in the middle of the Poilievre-vs.-Trudeau carbon-tax fracas

OTTAWA — Mushroom farmer Mike Medeiros is suddenly famous. His name kept coming up in question period exchanges between Pierre Poilievre and Justin Trudeau this fall. But the man himself says he doesn’t need a spotlight, he needs a solution to a mounting problem for his business.

“It’s fine that they mentioned my name or my farm, but it’s all farmers. It’s chicken. It’s pork. It’s all farmers that are feeling this,” he said in a recent interview.

Medeiros and his family business, Carleton Mushroom Farms in Osgoode, Ont., have become one of the Conservative leader’s favourite examples in debates with the prime minister about the Liberal government’s carbon tax.

“Carleton Mushroom Farms’ owner will pay $100,000 this year, rising to $400,000 over the carbon tax increase the prime minister proposes, and he is sending them tiny rebate cheques to their household mailbox,” Poilievre said in a raucous exchange with the prime minister in Parliament’s final sitting before the Christmas break. “Is the prime minister committing today that he is going to send a $400,000 rebate to this family farm?”