As the federal election draws nearer, parties are making their stances on vital issues clear.
Campaigning for the 2025 federal election began far before Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that Canada’s federal election would be taking place months earlier, on April 28, instead of its planned timing for fall of 2025. As such, in the midst of this politically tense moment, the federal election has centred around a few key issues that have become imperative to campaigning.
Here is where each party stands on the most pressing issues in Canada.
Canada-U.S. relations
According to Carney, Canada’s current trade relationship with the U.S. was the catalyst for calling a federal snap election, contributing to it being one of the core pegs of the major parties’ election campaigns thus far.
In a media release posted to the Liberal Party of Canada’s website, the Liberals outline that their approach to the trade crisis is focused on the auto and manufacturing industries. In the release, the Liberals pledge to begin a Strategic Response Fund of $2 billion, wherein the money will be used to “boost our auto sector’s competitiveness,” enhance expertise in manufacturing sectors and establish a fully protected Canadian supply chain for automaking industries.
The media release also outlines that the Liberals plan to remove “all federal-regulated internal trade barriers by Canada Day,” giving them a mere two months to do so. They have also pledged to make Employment Insurance (EI) more accessible and reinvest the proceeds gained from tariffs back into Canadian workers.
Pierre Poilievre, Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, has said that he decided not to base his election campaign around the current status of Canada-U.S. relations, as many issues integral to his campaign predate the tariff conflict. In a media release on the Conservative Party of Canada’s website, Poilievre said he will create a “Keep Canadians Working Fund,” which is a fund specifically dedicated to providing a temporary loan and credit program to businesses that are directly affected by Trump’s tariffs.
Another media release outlined that the Conservatives plan to remove the Goods and Services Tax (GST) from Canadian-made vehicles following Trump’s tariffs on the Canadian auto sector.
The New Democratic Party (NDP) shared a comprehensive tariff response plan on their website. In the plan, the party pledges to improve EI in several ways, including raising to Maximum Insurable Earnings, increasing the benefit to above 55 per cent; reducing the qualification threshold to “a universal 360-hour standard”; extending EI benefits to contractors and the self-employed; broadening work-sharing programs to ensure hours are spread evenly among employees; eliminating the one-week waiting period for benefits; and extending coverage to 50 weeks.
The response plan also includes removing the GST from “essentials like home heating” as well as Canadian-made vehicles to prevent U.S. corporations from taking valuable assets from Canadian plants. This move would incentivize processing in Canada to strengthen the job market and protect social services from cuts, said the NDP release. Also planned is the enlisting of a “No-Trade” clause, wherein Canadian industries cannot be exploited by foreign states and “Indigenous Treaty rights, Charter rights, French language and labour protections, and environmental safeguards” cannot be sacrificed in trade negotiations.
The Green Party of Canada also posted a media release on their website regarding the tariff conflict, wherein they urged the federal government to keep infrastructure “safe and livable” by providing long-term maintenance funding for public housing, creating a Strategic Reserve of critical Canadian materials and reinvesting profits from Canadian industries back into our communities, not to “foreign shareholders.”
Tax plans
After the controversial consumer carbon tax was removed by Carney, taxes continue to be a major point of discussion in campaigning for the federal election.
The Liberal Party announced plans to put forth a middle-class tax cut, wherein they plan to reduce the marginal tax rate on the lowest tax bracket by 1 per cent. This comes alongside their plans to eliminate the GST on homes, up to $1 million, for first-time home buyers as well as bring more efficiency to EI programs.
The Conservative Party have also laid out their tax plans, promising to cut income tax by 15 per cent and reduce the tax rate on the lowest income bracket from 15 per cent to 12.75 per cent. According to the party’s media release, these tax cuts will save the average worker $900 per year and save the average family $1800 per year.
The NDP proposed tax plans wherein GST would be permanently removed from “daily essentials” like “grocery-store meals, diapers and strollers, plus monthly bills including cell, internet and heating bills.” The NDP also pledged to reverse the “Carney/Poilievre capital gains tax cut,” double the Canada Disability Benefit and raise the Guaranteed Income Supplement to make life easier for seniors.
The Green Party recently announced that they plan to raise the federal Basic Personal Amount to $40,000, which would provide $3675 in annual tax relief for 78 per cent of taxpayers earning less than $100,000 annually. This tax reform is a part of the Green Party’s “Fair Taxation” priority in their platform, wherein the party aims to end tax loopholes for the ultra-rich and relieve tax-related costs for those in low-to-middle income households.
The cost-of-living crisis
In the same vein as the tax plans, many parties are exploring other avenues to make daily life more affordable for Canadians.
The Liberal Party focused their approach to the cost-of-living crisis on the lack of affordable housing options for Canadians. Through their Build Canada Homes initiative, the Liberal Party pledged to double the pace of homebuilding construction, resulting in approximately 500,000 new homes built every year if they are elected. They also plan to cut municipal development charges in half, provide $10 billion in low-cost financing and capital to affordable home builders, and use Canadian resources to build these homes sustainably.
The Conservatives took a similar approach, with Poilievre announcing that his party would cut development taxes on new home construction. According to a media release from the party, the Conservatives will reimburse every dollar cut by a municipality in development charges at a rate of 50 per cent, leading to a total possible savings of $100,000 per household.
Although the NDP also pledged to build 3 million homes by 2030 and establish a permanent $16 billion national housing strategy to protect affordable renting options and build homes faster, they also centred their approach to the cost-of-living crisis around daily costs rather than major ones like affordable housing. If elected, the NDP promised to introduce emergency price caps on food essentials like “pasta, frozen vegetables and infant formula.” They also plan to regulate pricing practices in the grocery industry.
The Green Party also took the affordable housing focus in relation to the cost-of-living crisis, promising to launch the biggest public housing construction program since the 1970s using Canadian materials, prevent corporations from buying single family homes and ensure that houses built using public money are “truly affordable.”
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Although we are just mere weeks away from election day, the federal parties still have time to clarify their campaign promises and respond to the promises made by their running mates in the upcoming debates on April 16 and 17.