Our Politics
2021
Conservatives
Liberals
NDP
Affordability
Conservatives
- No major policies announced
Liberals
Arts & Culture
Conservatives
Liberals
- Temporarily match ticket sales for performing arts, live theatres, and other cultural venues
- Require foreign companies (e.g. Netflix) to contribute to the creation and promotion of Canadian arts
- Require social media platforms to share revenue from news distribution with Canadian news outlets
- Increase funding for CBC/Radio-Canada, eliminate advertising on news and public affairs shows
Civil Rights
Conservatives
Liberals
- Improve labour protections for gig workers
- Establish a Black-led Philanthropic Endowment Fund
- Right to Repair for household appliances
- Make replacement workers illegal when an employer locks out union workers in a federally-regulated industry
- Right to Disconnect outside of work hours
- Right to a Healthy Environment
NDP
- Telecom Consumers’ Bill of Rights
- Prevent credit and debit card companies from selling personal information
- Protect vulnerable contract, internship, and union workers
- Require internet companies to take responsibility for what appears on their platform
- Require employers to be transparent about pay
- Add sexual orientation, gender identity and expression to the Employment Equity Act
- Ban carding by RCMP
- Proactively expunge criminal records for Canadians convicted of minor cannabis possession
- Increase federal funding for legal aid programs
- Digital bill of privacy rights
- Right to Repair
Economy & Business
Conservatives
- Implement tax on digital services
- Allow tech companies to issue flow-through shares
- Partially cover salaries of new hires after the end of Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy for six months
- 5% investment tax credit for two years
- Tax credit on personal investments in small businesses for 2 years
- Loans for small and medium businesses in hospitality, retail, and tourism
- Exempt Canadian companies from stock option deduction cap
- Criminal penalties and increased fines for price-fixing
Liberals
Education
Conservatives
Liberals
- Remove interest on Canada Student Loans and Canada Apprentice Loans
- Increase threshold for repayment assistance on federal student loans to $40,000 for borrowers living alone
- Allow individuals to use current year’s income for Canada Student Grant eligibility
- Increase student wage subsidy to $7,500 per student
- Increase Eligible Educator School Supply tax credit
NDP
- Work towards making post-secondary education public
- Stop issuing federal student loans, double Canada Student Grants
- Change EI rules to allow workers who quit their job to go to school to qualify for EI benefits
- Require large employers to spend at least 1% of payroll on training for their employees annually
Environment
Conservatives
- Reduce emissions by 30% below 2005 levels by 2030
- Protect 17% of Canada's lands and waters
- Personal Low Carbon Savings Accounts
- Cap the carbon tax increase to a maximum of $50/ton for consumers
- Tax credit for investments in carbon capture, utilization & storage projects
- 30% of light duty vehicles sold to be zero emissions by 2030
- Ban the export of plastic waste
Liberals
- Reduce emissions by 40–45% below 2005 levels by 2030
- Protect 25% of Canada's lands and waters by 2025
- Ban on single-use plastics
- Improve plastic recycling
- Eliminate fossil fuel subsidies by 2023
- 100% of new light-duty cars and passenger trucks be zero-emissions by 2035
- Net zero electricity by 2035
- Ensure every new building built in Canada is net-zero by 2025
- Increase carbon tax to $170/ton by 2030
- Quarterly carbon tax payments back to individuals
- Cut income taxes by 50% for manufacturers of zero-emissions technologies
- Tax credit for investments in carbon capture, utilization & storage projects
- Interest-free loans up to $40,000 for deep retrofits of homes
- Require oil and gas companies to reduce methane emissions by at least 75% below 2012 levels by 2030
- Ban coal exports by 2030
- Green Bonds
- Create 15 national urban parks by 2030
- Eliminate flow-through shares for oil, gas, and coal projects
NDP
- Reduce emissions by 50% below 2005 levels by 2030
- Protect 30% of Canada's lands and waters by 2030
- Ban on single-use plastics
- Improve plastic recycling
- Eliminate fossil fuel subsidies
- 100% of new car sales to be zero-emissions by 2035
- Net zero electricity by 2030, 100% non-emitting electricity by 2040
- Ensure every new building built in Canada is net-zero by 2025
- Ban the export of plastic waste
- Create Civilian Climate Corps
- Create a Climate Accountability Office to provide independent oversight of federal climate progress
- Environmental Bill of Rights
- Retrofit all buildings in Canada by 2050
Foreign Policy
Liberals
- No major policies announced
Government
Liberals
Health & Safety
Conservatives
- Increase sickness benefits from 15 weeks to 52 weeks if suffering a serious illness
- Mental Health Action Plan
- Independent oversight and accountability for sexual harassment and assault in the military
- Create simplified gun classification system
- End long-gun registry, reintroduce expiry to firearms restrictions from violent or criminal past
- Increase the annual growth rate of the Canada Health Transfer to at least 6%
- Merge Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) and Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) into one system of benefits
- $3 billion over three years to renovate Long-Term Care Homes
Liberals
- Increase sickness benefits from 15 weeks to 26 weeks
- Universal pharmacare
- Independent oversight and accountability for sexual harassment and assault in the military
- $4 billion top-up to Canada Health Transfer
- Develop and fund national mental health service standards across the country
- Remove charity status for anti-abortion organizations
- Cover mental health costs of veterans waiting for benefits
- Increase the home accessibility tax credit to $20,000
- Ban unvaccinated passengers from interprovincial trains, commercial flights, and cruise ships
- Cover the cost of implementing “vaccine passports” for provinces and territories
- Provide funding to hire 7,500 new family doctors, nurses, and nurse practitioners
- Make Disability Tax Credit, CPP-Disability available to those with mental health challenges
- Increase long term care worker wages, safer conditions for seniors
- Introduce new restrictions for marketing of food and beverages to children
- Ban conversion therapy
- Mandatory labelling of chemicals in consumer products that impact health or the environment
NDP
- Increase sickness benefits from 15 weeks to 50 weeks
- Universal pharmacare
- Independent oversight and accountability for sexual harassment and assault in the military
- End private, for-profit long-term care
- Provide mental health care for uninsured Canadians
- Ensure all provinces make medical and surgical abortion available in all parts of the country
- Ensure prescription contraceptive and reproductive health care options are easily accessible at no cost
- Permanent paid sick leave
- Provide 10 days of paid leave for those dealing with family and domestic violence
- Regulate natural health products
- Create a safe supply of medically regulated alternatives to toxic street drugs
- Better enforcement and reporting on use-of-force incidents by police
- Ensure all major cities have dedicated hate crime units within local police forces
- Ban conversion therapy
- National standards for identifying and recording all hate incidents
- Dental care coverage for those earning <$90,000
Housing
Conservatives
Liberals
- Build 120,000 additional homes, repair 130,000 homes in 4 years
- Home Buyers’ Bill of Rights
- Ban foreign investors not living in or moving to Canada from buying homes for 2 years
- Rent-to-own program
- Double the Home Buyers’ Tax Credit
- 1% tax on non-resident, non-Canadian owned residential real estate that is vacant or underused
- End chronic homelessness in Canada
- First-home savings account for Canadians under 40
- More flexible First Time Home Buyer Incentive
- Reduce mortgage insurance costs by 25%
- Convert empty office and retail space into housing, including federal and commercial property
- Anti-flipping tax for properties held for <1 year
- Tax landlords who increase rent too much
- National flood insurance program
NDP
- Build 500,000 affordable housing units in 10 years, 50% of those in 5 years
- Allow 30-year mortgages on entry-level homes for first time home buyers
- 20% tax on real estate purchased by foreign buyers
- Double the Home Buyers’ Tax Credit
- End homelessness in Canada within 10 years
- Provide up to $5,000/year to renters
Immigration
Conservatives
- Allow individuals to pay for expedited processing of immigration applications
- Expand super visa program
- Allow employers to sponsor applications for permanent residency
- Replace all public, government-assisted refugee places with private and joint sponsorship places
- End illegal border crossings
- Ensure that a higher proportion of immigrants settling in Quebec speak French
Liberals
Indigenous Relations
Conservatives
Liberals
NDP
- Implement all of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Calls to Action
- Create National Council for Reconciliation to provide oversight and accountability
- Appoint a special prosecutor to pursue those responsible for the harm caused in residential schools
- Fully fund Indigenous National Housing Strategy within the first 100 days
- Support Indigenous-led water management training programs and water system operations
Infrastructure
Conservatives
Liberals
NDP
- Ensure every Canadian has access to affordable, reliable high-speed broadband internet by 2025
- Declare high-speed internet an essential service
- Create Crown corporation for telecom services
- Require the use of Canadian-made steel, aluminum, cement and wood products for infrastructure projects
- Develop a public inter-city bus program
- Create Crown corporation responsible for domestic vaccine production
- Work with Canada Post to provide postal banking
Science
Liberals
NDP
- No major policies announced
Financial Support
Conservatives
- Increase EI benefits during provincial recessions
- Double the Canada Workers Benefit with quarterly payouts
- Require employers of gig economy workers to pay into Tax-free Employee Savings Account
- Canada Seniors Care Benefit
- Double the residency deduction, increase the basic amount in the intermediate zone for Northern residents
- Reduce hours required to qualify for the Disability Tax Credit and the Registered Disability Savings Plan
Liberals
- Make EI simpler, expand support to seasonal and gig workers
- Expand Canada Workers Benefit
- Increase OAS by 10% for those 75+, indexed to inflation
- Increase Guaranteed Income Supplement
- Up to 26 weeks of unemployment assistance for self-employed Canadians
- Require employers of gig economy workers to pay towards EI and CPP like other employers
- Additional support for workers laid off after 5 years of employment at a business that closes
- Canada Disability Benefit
NDP
- Make EI more accessible
- Allow parents to take shorter parental leave at a higher replacement rate
- Allow self-employed workers to opt-into parental benefits at any time before taking their leave
- Guaranteed livable income for all Canadians, starting with every senior and person living with a disability
- Make automatic enrolment in OAS and GIS retroactive
- Make the Canadian Caregiver Tax Credit refundable
- Compensate consumers who have been misled by financial advisors
- Create a mandatory, industry-financed pension insurance program