We’ve looked at the promises of each of the federal parties. While the NDP platform offers a balanced and realistic platform that meets the needs of CUPE members and other Canadians, the Liberals fall short in a lot of places.

  1. Child Care. The Liberals have an incoherent promise with no specific dedicated financial allocation. The NDP has a committed to quality affordable (15 dollars per day) child care for all families.
      
  2. Health Care. The Liberals fail to commit to reversing the 36 billion dollars in Conservative cuts, they fail to commit to a new National Prescription Drug Plan, and they fail in having a comprehensive National Strategy for Seniors Care. The NDP has promised real action on all of these fronts.
      
  3. Pension Cuts. The Liberal platform is silent on the Conservative plan to allow employers in the federal jurisdiction to walk away from pension promises they’ve made to workers and retirees. The NDP opposes this initiative.
      
  4. Post-Secondary Education. The Liberals have only committed to delay interest charges on tuition fees, while the NDP has promised to eliminate interest on federal student loans altogether.
      
  5. Corporate Tax Giveaways. The Liberals would continue Harper’s billions in corporate tax giveaways. The NDP would ask Canada’s large corporations to pay their fair share of taxes.
      
  6. Climate Change. The Liberals fail to propose clear and decisive action on climate change. The NDP, on the other hand, would provide real leadership and action.
      
  7. Health and Safety. The Liberal platform says nothing about reversing Harper’s regressive changes to federal health and safety legislation that erode workers’ rights to refuse dangerous work. The NDP has promised to reverse these changes.
      
  8. Repealing C-51. The Liberal platform does not commit to repealing Bill C-51, the Harper government’s widely-criticized surveillance bill. The NDP has promised to repeal the hugely problematic bill if elected.
      
  9. Canada Post. The Liberal platform is silent on reversing Harper’s implemented cuts to door-to-door delivery – they only say they’ll stop further cuts. The NDP has promised to stop planned cuts and to reverse already implemented cuts to communities across Canada.
      
  10. Trans-Pacific Partnership. The Liberal platform is silent on the Trans-Pacific Partnership and Justin Trudeau has only said he’ll review the deal. The NDP has said they will not be bound by the Conservative agreement on this deal – a much stronger position given the potentially significant effects the deal could have on the economy and public services across Canada.
      
  11. Indigenous Peoples. The Liberal platform fails to earmark any funding for clean water for Canada’s Indigenous Peoples. Tom Mulcair and the NDP have spoken of a ground-breaking Nation-to-Nation relationship with First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples, and are providing over 470 million dollars to fix problems like the lack of housing, schools, and clean drinking water.
      
  12. Pay Equity. The Liberals are silent on the issue of ensuring that women in the public service are paid the same as men when doing work of equal value. Previous Liberal governments fought court decisions in favour of pay equity. The NDP has a firm commitment to enact the recommendations of the 2004 Pay Equity Task Force.