Conservative Leader Stephen Harper has tried to remake his public image into something more moderate to get elected. But his true intentions, as revealed in his party’s just-released policy platform, are to dismantle the caring society built by working Canadians with help from the party that protects their best interests, the NDP.
- CUPE’s 2006 election campaign page
- How CUPE members can protect public services, a HOW-TO guide for the election campaign
- Federal NDP website
- Tell a friend about this site
The Conservatives have massively underestimated the cost of their tax cuts. They have also hidden the enormous magnitude of the spending cuts that they would make. His promised tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy would put the federal government into deficit, justifying even more spending cuts to public programs. Their platform and fiscal plan points to an even more right-wing ideological attack on the role of government than even Mike Harris attempted.
We know we don’t want a Conservative government but the best way to defeat them is not to vote Liberal but to vote NDP. NDP social and economic policies benefit working families far more than the policies of the other parties. Electing more NDP MPs is more likely to mean a minority government and a stronger voice in the house.
A Conservative government would create tax unfairness by:
- Eliminating capital gains taxes – taxes on money made from stocks, shares and other assets would go tax free when reinvested. This would provide billions in benefits for the rich and privileged and enshrine wealth inequality for generations.
- Proceeding with the corporate tax cuts promised by the Liberals
- Allowing corporate income trusts to avoid taxes, as promised by Liberals
- Enshrining so-called “property rights” that put private interests over public and social policies like making low-cost drugs available, protecting labour standards and improving the environment.
- Enacting legislation that would let corporations and the wealthy sue for “property rights” compensation as a result of any federal government initiative, policy, process, regulation or legislation. This could create a domestic situation similar to rules under the North American Free Trade Agreement that allow corporations to sue governments for “lost profits”, strangling governments from making social, environmental or economic changes.
- Severely constraining federal public spending and freezing spending for many programs;
- Limiting funding increases by linking funding to the inflation rate and population growth.
- Refusing to increase funding for communities and infrastructure beyond inadequate Liberal promises;
- Taking money away from public transit by steering Liberal “New Deal” money to roads and bridges;
- Strangling non-profit social housing by not funding new development or upgrading old housing;
- Giving private developers tax breaks without making them charge lower rents or rents geared to income;
- Privatizing coastal ports.
- Letting private, for-profit health care flourish;
- Permitting the provinces and territories to increase private health care delivery;
- Letting private health care suck resources from our public health care system;
- Eroding the public system instead of properly funding and staffing the public system;
- Focusing on wait time benchmarks without ensuring quality care;
- Entrenching conveyor-belt private medicine geared to maximizing profits.
- Destroying progress made on the child care program by scrapping agreements with the provinces and territories;
- Instituting flawed a tax-cuts approach that will give the least benefit possible;
- Taking control of child care out of the hands of communities and parents and putting it in the hands of corporations.
- Refusing to commit to stable funding for Aboriginal needs;
- Pushing private ownership over collective ownership on reserves;
- Destroying the framework for land claims negotiations by focusing on industry interests instead of Aboriginal rights.
- Taking away voting rights for prisoners, something that could only be achieved by stacking the Supreme Court with conservative judges, setting the stage for an attack on abortion rights and same-sex marriage;
- Violating international human rights standards by hastily deporting people without due process, placing many at risk of torture.
- Trashing Canadian content rules that encourage Canadian radio and television production – while “giving Canadians increased access to international and foreign-language television and radio programming;”
- Refusing to guarantee permanent, stable funding to the CBC and Radio-Canada.
- Placing a vague and casual promise under the health care section, exposing a bias towards the medical model which advocacy groups soundly reject.
- Refusing to ensure quality non-profit long-term care and home care;
- Further privatizing the Canada Pension Plan.
- Refusing to tackle the deepening of poverty for many people, including women, Aboriginal persons and children;
- Pushing tax cuts as a solution, when reducing the GST by a few points will do nothing.
- Focusing on tax cuts and regressive student loan schemes that pile on more debt;
- Signaling a move to more privatization in post-secondary education by releasing election platform at a for-profit college.