ELECTION 2021 WHERE THE PARTIES STAND
Each of the federal political parties have longwinded platforms for this election that can be found on the individual party website. We’ve taken some of the top issues in our communities and offer a general overview of each party’s objectives. For more in-depth information, visit the Party’s website.
COVID
LIBERALS: The Party will continue on the path they’ve taken over the last 18 months. They pledge to continue to encourage vaccinations and vaccine certifications, and they also plan to extend the emergency wage subsidy to October and the Canada recovery hiring program to March 31. They have pledged to help the hard-hit tourism industry with a temporary wage and rent support for up to 75 percent of expenses. CONSERVATIVES: Canadian travellers would need to pass a rapid test or present a recent negative test result before boarding a plane, train, bus or ship. As well, they pledge to help the hardest-hit sectors, offer loans to small and medium businesses in the hospitality and tourism sectors and help the rebuilding of the airline sector. NDP: The NDP supports a mandatory vaccine policy and domestic vaccine passports. They promise to extend wage and rent subsidies for small businesses and “dedicated support” to help the hard-hit tourism sector rebound. GREEN PARTY: Before making any decisions to make changes to the current vaccine policies, the Party “wants to see more details.” The Party promises to create “green jobs” for those who have been “severely affected.” They also pledge to extend rent and wage subsidies until restrictions due to COVID-19 are fully lifted. PEOPLE’S PARTY: The Party strongly opposes vaccine passports and mandatory vaccination policies. While supporting emergency provincial measures to protecting those most vulnerable, the Party says it will phase out all COVID spending programs and reverse new spending programs announced by the previous government. LIBERTARIAN PARTY: The Libertarian Party of Canada pledges not to enact any such measures as lockdowns within the jurisdictions of the federal government.
ECONOMY
LIBERALS: The Liberals have a multi-faceted plan to deal with the economy, including: $10 a day child care to make life affordable for families: bring all businesses along to recovery and support them to hire the help they need; develop a better Employment Insurance system to support gig workers, self-employed people, and give workers more financial security; boost world-
leading Canadian innovation and research; and make sure everyone pays their fair share, including big banks and the wealthiest among us. CONSERVATIVES: The Conservatives stress the need to get spending under control and to do this, their platform includes: Winding down emergency COVID support programs in a responsible way as Canadians are vaccinated and the economy re-opens; and ensuring that stimulus measures are targeted and timelimited to avoid creating a structural deficit. NDP: The Party plans to create one million new jobs in its first mandate with “bold investments” in transit, community infrastructure, affordable housing, energyefficient retrofits and more. They would also increase the $15 federal minimum wage to $20 and immediately deliver a new disability benefit. New Democrats have said they would make the “creation of a guaranteed livable basic income” a priority in order to strengthen Canada’s social safety net. GREEN PARTY: The Green Party is committed to a guaranteed livable income, arguing the Canada Emergency Response Benefit could have been converted to meet those ends. The Party also says they want to establish a “fair, national minimum wage.” PEOPLE’S PARTY: The People’s Party says it can produce higher-paying jobs and tackle workplace shortages in many sectors by lowering taxes for all businesses. They promise to cut the corporate income tax rate to 10 percent from 15 percent over the course of one mandate. LIBERTARIAN PARTY: The Libertarian Party believes in a free market economy where entrepreneurs and employees can flourish by producing the goods and services wanted by consumers thereby creating jobs and higher wages. The Libertarian Party of Canada would pay off the $1.1 trillion federal debt by selling Crown Corporations like the CBC and seek to eliminate all forms of compulsory taxation including the income tax, corporate tax, carbon tax, capital gains tax etc.
HEALTHCARE
LIBERALS: The Liberals multi-pronged healthcare plan, includes support to hire 7,500 doctors and nurses; better care in long-term care; work to hire 50,000 PSWs and raise their wages to $25 an hour; provide publicly accessible mental health care; and action to address the opioid crisis and make it easier for people with problematic substance use to access treatment. CONSERVATIVES: The Conservative Plan includes boosting funding to the provinces for mental health care; providing incentives to employers to provide mental health coverage to employees; and creating a nation-wide, three-digit suicide prevention hotline. September 10, 2021 - The Kawartha Promoter
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