These farmers want cost of living, cutting taxes and tariffs to be the focus this election. Here's why

Sam Van Uden, 21, and runs the seeder on a prairie farm in southern Alberta. It's good hours, but the paycheque doesn't stretch the way it did for young adults who used to start this way.

That's what he wants this federal election campaign to focus on, and he's not alone. 

"Talking to my parents, the money that I'm making now would have done them really well 15 or 20 years ago. But now it's nothing," he said.

"Grocery prices are through the roof, gas prices, vehicle prices…. The new middle class isn't $70K to $80K a year. It's $120K to live that middle class life where you actually own a home, you own one or two vehicles newer than 10 years old and can afford to put your kids through sports."

"It's just, it's really hard trying to push and build a future for ourselves."

CBC News was at the Agricultural Exhibition in Lethbridge, Alta., several weeks before the federal election was called, talking with dozens of farmers and representatives from agricultural businesses from across southern Alberta.

WATCH | How agriculture workers in Lethbridge feel about the upcoming federal election | What Matters

This is solid conservative territory — a region with a voting pattern that's so predictable, the political race here is normally a sleeper.

But on this day, CBC News was not asking for voting intentions. We asked about hopes and priorities.

An election campaign is a chance to debate a country's future, so we asked farmers about the issues that mattered to them this time around. What do they want the candidates to debate, and maybe even fix?

Van Uden is from Vauxhall, Alta., population 1,400. He works on a seed farm, but he hesitates when he thinks about settling down and having kids. Inflation, the cost of housing and groceries — these feel like a crisis, he said.

That's what he wants politicians to focus on. He said everything else feels like a distraction.

"That's where I'd like to see a lot of change," he said. "I respect anyone, all the LGBTQ. We all have our own life to live. You live it to your truth.

"But I'm tired of seeing the government constantly just easing to that side, constantly going on with it when I'd actually like to see them try and make this country livable and affordable for us to be a great country again."