- Home
-
News
-
Opinion
-
Business
-
Sports
-
Entertainment
- Life
-
Technology
-
Travel
-
Topics
-
Jobs
-
Cars
-
Homes
-
Classifieds
Don't miss:
Promise Tracker: What the major parties say they'll do for you
Health Care
Conservative Party of Canada
- Promises incentives for doctors and nurses to practise in rural and remote areas.
- Would fund Brain Canada research.
- Pledge defibrillators and proper training in every recreational hockey arena.
Liberal Party of Canada
- Would convene a first ministers meeting on health care within 60 days.
- Promises a Canadian brain health strategy.
- Wants a Canadian health promotion strategy to reduce obesity.
- Has an appetite for a national food policy to encourage healthier eating, and clearer food labelling.
- Offers incentives for doctors and nurses to practise in rural and remote areas.
- Would work with the provinces to lower the cost of prescription drugs.
New Democratic Party
- Commit to six per cent escalator for health care funding.
- Pledges $165 million to hire more doctors and nurses, repatriate Canadian health care workers practising abroad and fix credentials for foreign doctors.
- Would create a Children's Nutrition Initiative to provide healthy food in schools.
- Pledge to create a Canadian Food Strategy to encourage healthier eating.
Green Party of Canada
- Create a Canadian Disabilities Act and basic income program for the disabled.
- Would create a national food plan that focuses on local grown, health choices.
- Calls on every party to endorse the five principles of the Canada Health Act.
- Would create a national pharmacare plan.
Taxes
Conservative Party of Canada
- Plan on doubling the child fitness tax credit to $1000 immediately.
- Pledge to create an adult fitness tax credit worth $500 once the federal budget is balanced.
- Would increase the amount that can be saved in a tax-free savings account once the deficit is eliminated.
- Would offer tax credit for volunteer firefighters.
- Promise income-splitting up to $50,000 for families with children under 18. Cost is $2.5 billion a year but will only begin once federal books are balanced, currently scheduled for 2015-16. Savings of $1,300 per family per year.
- Small business breaks, such as one-year EI tax break to hire new employees. The new hiring incentive credit will be available to approximately 525,000 employers, reducing their 2011 payroll costs by about $165 million.
Liberal Party of Canada
- Would cancel corporate tax cuts and restore tax rate to 2010 level of 18 per cent.
- Would cap stock-option deductions.
- Favours innovation and productivity tax credit
- Would extend the "flow-through shares" tax model.
- Pledges green renovation tax credit.
- Wants volunteer fire fighters tax credit.
New Democratic Party
- Would reduce tax rates for small business and provide $4,500 in tax credits per new hire. Would raise corporate taxes to 19.5 per cent to pay for this program.
- Would create a caregiver benefit for people caring for elderly or dependant family members.
- Pledge to increase the education tax credit amount.
- Would create a rebate on federal taxes on home heating fuel.
- Promise to reduce tax rate for small business to nine from 11 per cent.
- would institute a Job Creation Tax Credit.
- Would give tax credits for trades people who travel more than 80 km for work.
- Would keep the corporate tax rate below that of the United States.
- Would create a volunteer firefighters tax credit.
Bloc Québécois
- Pledge tax incentives for home energy retrofits.
- Would eliminate tax havens.
- Would institute a surtax of very high incomes and executive bonuses.
Green Party of Canada
- Want income splitting for common law, same sex families and single mothers with adult children.
- Would legalize and tax marijuana.
- Would eliminate income taxes for those who make less than $20,000.
- Would eliminate the deficit by taxing pollution.
Jobs / Economy
Conservative Party of Canada
- Would guarantee Quebec $2.2 billion compensation for harmonizing sales tax.
- Would implement tax writeoffs for companies to buy new equipment.
- Would move Quebec economic regional development office out of Montreal.
- Would support agriculture by boosting funding to find more export markets.
- Would complete the Dempster Highway between Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk.
- Would eliminate mandatory retirement for federally regulated companies.
- Would extend the life of some job retraining programs and wage earner protection program, as well as interest-free student loans for part-time workers.
- Small business - one-year EI tax break to hire new employees. New hiring incentive credit will be available to approximately 525,000 employers, reducing their 2011 payroll costs by about $165 million.
- Loan guarantees for Lower Churchill hydroelectric project from Labrador to Newfoundland. Would also provide financial support to other clean energy infrastructure projects in Canada.
- Would reintroduce the budget bill that was defeated in March.
- Would not raise personal or business taxes.
- Would eliminate one regulation every time a new one is introduced.
- Pledge to invest in research and science chairs.
- Would implement a digital economy strategy.
- Support aerospace and shipbuilding, fishing and mining industries.
- Would introduce legislation to implement an accord with Quebec on development of offshore resources.
- Would create a "Helmets to Hardhats" program to retrain veterans in the construction trades.
Liberal Party of Canada
- Would support the Conservative plan for loan guarantees to the Newfoundland government for a hydroelectric transmission line.
- Pledge flexible funding programs to help farmers.
- Would launch an Innovation Gateway to support innovation and entrepreneurship in aerospace, manufacturing, natural resources and new emerging sectors.
- Pledges youth hiring incentive.
- Would cancel the accelerated capital cost allowance for oil sands investment.
- Would strengthen the Investment Canada Act and clarify the "net benefit" measure.
- Would launch an Innovation Gateway to support innovation and entrepreneurship in aerospace, manufacturing, natural resources and new emerging sectors.
- Promises Transportation and Infrastructure strategy incuding high speed rail, highway repairs, commuter rail and municipal water and sewers.
- Would spend $500 million for full national high-speed wireless internet.
- Would treat pay equity as a human right in federally regulated industries.
New Democratic Party
- Would reduce business tax rates and provide $4,500 in tax credits per new hire.
- Pledge $1 million for "helmets to hard hats" program to retrain veterans for the construction industry.
- Would give $45 million for a third power line for PEI.
- Pledge tax writeoffs for companies to buy new equipment.
- Would increase funding for regional development in Northern Ontario.
- Would strengthen the Canada Investment Act.
- Would use the gas tax to fund municipal infrastructure.
- Pledges to invest in agriculture to support family farms, and local, organic farming.
- Would give Quebec $2.2 billion compensation for harmonizing sales.
- Would balance the budget within four years.
- Would create a federal minimum wage.
- Plan to extend EI stimulus measures until unemployment rates drop to pre-recession levels.
- Would reform EI.
- They support a pro-active pay equity program.
Bloc Québécois
- Pledges support for older workers.
- Want changes to EI for seasonal workers like fisherman.
- Would reform EI.
- Support pay equity for women.
- Would create high speed rail between Quebec and Montreal.
- Would renovate docks and wharfs used by commercial fishermen.
- Pledge support for the forestry sector.
- Pledge improvements to the Guaranteed Income Supplement, including automatic registration of all eligible seniors.
- Wants better protection for private pension plans under federal jurisdiction.
- Support supply management in agriculture.
- Would ban replacement workers from crossing picket lines.
Green Party of Canada
- Youth employment plan.
- Want high speed rail corridors between Windsor, Ont. and Quebec and Edmonton to Calgary.
- Calls for a national initiative on youth education and employment.
- raise corporate taxes to 19 per cent.
- Support sustainable agriculture, fishing and forestry industries.
- End corporate bail-outs for big business and subsidies to the nuclear and fossil fuel industries.
- Implement a carbon-neutral pricing model for the economy.
- Create six municipal superfunds to help modernize transit and infrastructure, community housing, recreation and water.
- Pledge to expand EI, protect pensions of retired workers and reduce EI, CPP contributions for business.
Ethics / Democracy / Open Government
Conservative Party of Canada
- Would reform the Senate including term limits and elections.
- Would expand the House of Commons.
Liberal Party of Canada
- Wants more open and available data for more accountable government.
- Would establish a Canada Service Corps to encourage volunteerism and community building.
- Would reinstate the Court Challenges Program.
- Pledges Public Service renewal.
- Would post access to information requests online.
- Would examine internet voting to improve voter turnout.
- Plans to reform Parliament, including limits to the prime minister's power to prorogue Parliament.
- Would establish a "People's Question Period" to complement the one politicians have.
New Democratic Party
- Penalize MP's that miss votes in the House.
- Support official bilingualism.
- Would Reinstate the Court Challenges Program.
- Would reform Parliament to make it harder for a prime minister to prorogue a session.
- Plan to abolish the Senate but in the shorter term ban party insiders from being appointed.
- Would examine the 'first past the post' voting system with the intention of changing it.
Bloc Québécois
- Pledge reform to Access to Information laws.
- Would abolish the Senate.
- Would treat Quebec City as a national capital.
Green Party of Canada
- Green Party MPs would bring respect and civility to Parliament: no heckling or schoolyard bully behaviour, and of course no attack ads in or out of an election.
- Would examine the "first past the post" voting system.
- Endorse Openmedia.ca proposals for internet regulation.
Education
Conservative Party of Canada
- Promise interest free student loans for part-time workers.
Liberal Party of Canada
- Pledge $1 billion annually for high school students to attend university or trade school.
- Pledges a Veterans learning benefit.
- Pledges an Aboriginal learning benefit.
- Wants language training for new Canadians.
New Democratic Party
- Would create integrated, community based child-centred early learning and education centres.
- Pledge more money to the provinces to lower tuition fees.
- Would increase the education tax credit amount.
- Plege increased funding to Canada Student Grants for marginalized groups.
- Would invest $1 billion in Aboriginal education.
Seniors
Conservative Party of Canada
- Would extend a retraining program for older workers.
- Would increase the Guaranteed Income Supplement.
- Would change sentencing laws to take into account age and vulnerability for crimes against seniors.
Liberal Party of Canada
- Offer $700 million to boost the Guaranteed Income Supplement.
- Would expand the Canada Pension Plan.
- Promise a voluntary, tax-deductible savings plan.
- Will tackle stranded pension plans i.e. manage private pension plans after a corporate bankruptcy.
New Democratic Party
- Pledge to support $700 million increase to the Guaranteed Income Supplement.
- Would work with the provinces to double the Canada and Quebec pension plans.
- Would protect pensioners and those on disability are protected when the company goes bankrupt.
- Support making home care an insured service under the Canada Health Act
- Pledge more money for long-term care beds
- Would double loan amounts for Home Adaptations for Seniors' Independence program.
- Promise tougher penalties for elder abuse.
- Would work with the provinces to make voluntary contributions to public pensions possible.
Bloc Québécois
- Would increase allowance to widows and widowers.
- Pledge improvements to the Guaranteed Income Supplement, including automatic registration of all eligible seniors.
- Wants better protection for private pension plans under federal jurisdiction.
Environment
Conservative Party of Canada
- Would establish a hunting and wildlife advisory panel.
- Would extend the ecoEnergy retrofit program by one year.
Liberal Party of Canada
- Wants a s Canadian freshwater strategy.
- Pledges cleaner Oil Sands Development.
- Wants a Green Renovation Tax Credit.
- Would re-establish the Renewable Power Production Incentive.
- Would create a cap and trade system to reduce greenhouse gases.
- Would work with other countries to secure a global climate change agreement.
- Would develop a plan to protect the Pacific Salmon.
- Would develop an oil-spill contingency fund to limit taxpayer liability.
- Pledges to protect coastlines.
- Wants to ban oil exploration in the Arctic and prevent oil tankers from accessing certain areas of the B.C. coastline.
New Democratic Party
- Would cancel subsidies to fossil fuel companies.
- Pledge to restore the Eco-Energy retrofit program.
- Would adopt the Climate Change Accountability Act to meet greenhouse gas reduction targets.
- Would create a cap and trade system for the biggest corporate polluters.
- Would create a national public transit strategy.
- Would invest in renewable energy industries and programs.
Bloc Québécois
- Will run a carbon-neutral campaign by buying carbon offsets.
- Would promote development of electric cars.
- Support tax incentives for home energy retrofits.
- Support the development of green businesses.
Green Party of Canada
- Would ban crude oil tankers from BC coast.
- Would invest in light-rail lines on major corridors: Windsor-Quebec and Calgary-Edmonton corridors, as well Halifax-Sydney and Regina-Saskatoon routes.
- Support sustainable agriculture, fishing and forestry industries.
- Pledge to create a solar roof program.
- Would meet targets set at 2010 climate negotiations (COP16).
Crime
Conservative Party of Canada
- Would clamp down on drug use in prisons.
- Would scrap the long-gun registry.
- Would revive human smuggling legislation.
- Pledge to make it easier to deport foreign criminals.
- Would re-introduce 12 crime bills that did not pass in the last Parliament.
- Double the victim surcharge and make payments mandatory.
- Support the Youth Gang Prevention fund.
- Would change sentencing laws to take into acount age and vulnerability for crimes against seniors.
Liberal Party of Canada
- Plans to strengthen the firearms registry by eliminating registration fees and simplifying the registration process.
- Would improve oversight of the RCMP.
- Wants to establish a Community Heroes Fund.
- Would establish a national task force on missing and murdered Aboriginal Women.
- Plans to reinstate the Court Challenges Program.
New Democratic Party
- Promise tougher penalties for elder abuse.
- Would hire 2,500 police officers
- Pledge support to women's shelters
- Would give $100 million to the National Crime Prevention Centre.
- Would more than double funding to Youth Gang Prevention Fund.
- Would create new offences for home invasions and carjacking.
- Pledge to enact the citizen's arrest bill.
- Support mental health programs in prisons.
- Would grant explicit protection for transgender and transsexuals in the Human Rights Act and in hate crime laws.
Bloc Québécois
- Would give Quebec its own criminal code.
- Promises free permanent firearms registration, import controls that are on the books but not enforced, and the end of the amnesty.
Green Party of Canada
- Would legalize and tax marijuana.
Govt spending
Conservative Party of Canada
- Would eliminate the deficit by 2014-2015.
- Would create permanent, consistent funding for municipal infrastructure using gas tax revenues.
Liberal Party of Canada
- Would reduce the deficit to one per cent of GDP within two years.
- Would create a $3-billion prudence reserve.
- Pledges to cancel Public Private Partnership Fund.
New Democratic Party
- Would restore the long form census.
Immigration
Conservative Party of Canada
- Loans to immigrants to help them get their foreign credentials recognized here.
Liberal Party of Canada
- Would increase family class visas to the same proportion of overall immigration as in 2006.
- Plans language training for new Canadians.
New Democratic Party
- Would reform immigration to allow for faster sponsorship from disaster areas, allow a one time sponsorship of a relative not in the family class, provide language training and reform the appeals process.
Bloc Québécois
- Would opt out of federal multiculturalism policies.
- Quebec needs more control of immigration policies.
Consumers
Liberal Party of Canada
- Pledges a comprehensive review of the national food safety system.
- More money for improved food inspection.
- Would protect rural postal services.
New Democratic Party
- Create a consumer ombudsman and boost funding to Competition Bureau.
- Would put a cap on credit-card interest rates and regulation of transactions fees.
- Pledge more money to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to hire inspectors and strengthen food safety.
- Would enshrine 'net neutrality' in law and ban 'net throttling' by Internet service providers.
Bloc Québécois
- Would extend Quebec consumer protection laws for banks to the rest of Canada.
- Would increase minimum monthly payments on credit cards to five per cent per month.
Green Party of Canada
- Would create a national food plan that focuses on local grown, healthy choices.
Foreign policy
Conservative Party of Canada
- Promise to complete free-trade agreements with the European Union by 2010 and India by 2013.
- Pledge to work with the United States to reduce regulatory barriers to cross-border trade and travel.
- Would establish a new expeditionary wing at CFB Bagotville in Quebec.
- Pledge to strengthen the Coast Guard.
- Would create an office of religious freedom to protect vulnerable religious minorities around the world.
Liberal Party of Canada
- Would cancel the F-35 fighter jet contract and buy less expensive jets at time it felt these were needed.
- Would pursue bilateral trade agreements with China and India.
- Would restart Team Canada trade missions.
- Wants to work with the United States to better administer security of the shared border.
- Plans to phase out visa requirements for Mexicans visiting Canada.
- Would strengthen relations with other Arctic nations.
- Would create a Canada Democracy Agency to help emerging democracies.
- Wants to re-engage in Africa.
- Will focus the military on peace-keeping missions.
- Would support the training mission in Afghanistan through 2014.
- Plans to improve bilingualism in the Canadian Forces.
- Would review military procurement policies.
New Democratic Party
- Pledge $103 million for Canadian Forces and RCMP veterans, including a public inquiry into the use of Agent Orange at CFB Gagetown.
- Plan to table a white paper on defence policy within one year.
- Would scrap plan to buy F-35 jet fighters and use some of that money to replace Navy supply ships.
- Would increase foreign aid by $500 million per year.
- Would end the combat mission in Afghanistan.
- Pledge to make it easier for to export generic life saving drugs to the developing world.
Bloc Québécois
- Would increase foreign aid spending to 0.7 per cent of GDP.
Green Party of Canada
- Would refocus Afghanistan mission to poverty alleviation.
- Pledge to reduce military spending to 2005 levels.
Arts and culture
Conservative Party of Canada
- Support the Canada Periodical Fund.
- Support the Royal Conservatory of Music.
- Would fund a variety of historical anniversaries happening in the next few years.
Liberal Party of Canada
- Pledge stable funding for CBC/Radio-Canada.
- Would guarantee stable funding for the "Own the Podium" program for Olympic athletes.
- Would invest $180 million over two years in the Canada Council for the Arts.
- Would restore $25 million annual funding to cultural promotion programs.
New Democratic Party
- Create a consumer ombudsman and boost funding to Competition Bureau.
- Would tighten foreign ownership rules to protect cultural industries.
- Pledge their support to cultural industries such as the CBC and Canada Council and museums.
- Would institute tax averaging for artists and cultural workers.
Bloc Québécois
- Would make Radio-Canada better represent Quebec.
- Would allow artists to spread out their income over a five-year period.
- Would abolish the GST on books
- Pledge to increase funding the Canada Council for the Arts.
- Would opt out of federal multiculturalism policies.
Green Party of Canada
- Would guarantee $450 million in stable funding for the CBC / Radio Canada. $100M in 2011-2012, $150M in 2012-2013, $200M in 2013-2014.
Families
Conservative Party of Canada
- Support doubling the child fitness tax credit to $1000 immediately.
- Support creating an adult fitness tax credit worth $500 once the federal budget is balanced.
- Income splitting up to $50,000 for families with children under 18. Will cost $2.5 billion a year but will only begin once federal books are balanced, currently scheduled for 2015-16. Savings of $1,300 per family per year.
Liberal Party of Canada
- $500 million a year to the provinces to create more childcare spaces. Would increase to $1 billion a year in four years.
- $1 billion in family care employment insurance benefit.
New Democratic Party
- Would expand Compassionate Care benefits.
- Wants inter-generational Home Retrofit program to help renovate homes when caring for aged relatives.
- Would extend EI eligibility to parents just finished maternity or parental leave.
- Would create a Caregiver Benefit for people caring for elderly or dependant family members.
- Pledge to reform EI to allow people to qualify while caring for relatives at the end of life.
- Would dreate 25,000 child care spaces.
- Plan to create a non-taxable Child Benefit.
- Would extend EI stimulus measures until unemployment rates drop to pre-recession levels.
- Would create a Children's Nutrition Initiative to provide healthy food in schools.
Bloc Québécois
- Improve measures for caregivers.
Green Party of Canada
- Would create a Canadian Disabilities Act and basic income program for the disabled.
- Would invest an early childhood education.
15
16
17
The key issues: What the politicians are saying
largefeature
Ousted MPs will take home millions in severance
They may not return to Parliament Hill to serve Canadians, but some 100 MPs who are leaving Ottawa will still receive millions in severance pay from taxpayers.
Sovereignty not dead but Quebec 'decided to get some air': Experts
It was all supposed to happen like clockwork.
Voter turnout estimated at 61.4 per cent nationally
Despite the metamorphosis in Canada's political scene and a slight bump up from the previous election, some 40 per cent of eligible voters stayed away from the ballot box for this week's landmark election.
Twitterverse rebels flout Elections Canada ban
It was surely the most succinct case of mass civil disobedience in Canadian history: revolution, 140 characters at a time. While the threat of a $25,000 fine kept many off their keyboards Monday, political vigilantes would not be deterred by a 1938 law...
Conservative majority leaves Harper 'humbled,' Liberals and Bloc stunned
A strengthened Stephen Harper Tuesday promised his majority government won't spring any surprises on Canadians, even as election aftershocks shook the ranks of the other parties.
Conservatives, NDP look to fill centrist void left by Liberal collapse
There's no question Monday's election has shaken up federal politics, but it's not clear yet if it marks a tectonic shift in power that leaves the political landscape more polarized, experts say.
'You need to blow it up,' observers say of Liberal party
The decline of the Liberals has been long in coming and it would seem the term "natural governing party" no longer applies.
CBC broadcasts poll results early
CBC-TV on Monday night took down an apparently accidental feed that was broadcasting to Ottawa poll results from the East Coast before the Elections Canada news embargo had lifted.
'Dying for the right to vote': Canadians inspired by international protests
As a brilliant spring sun beamed down on the Parliament Buildings ahead of Monday's federal election — a weekend calm, perhaps, before a coming political storm on the Hill — Ottawa tour-guide co-ordinator Kathy Sabourin gathered with a group of trainees...
Elections Canada warns voters of bogus poll calls
Elections Canada received reports Monday from across Canada of voters receiving bogus calls misdirecting them to the wrong polling stations.
Ridings
Use our drop-down menu to select a riding.