This Federal Election Matters. A Lot. Here’s What On Offer From The Parties

Canada’s 45th general election could be one of its most consequential. In the United States, the Trump administration is waging an economic war on the country as Canadians continue to struggle with an affordability and housing crisis. Canadian nationalism is surging and people are asking big questions about their country and its leadership.

The parties fielding candidates across the country–the Conservatives, the Green Party, the Liberals and the New Democratic Party–have their work cut out for them on a variety of issues. In this piece, we outline where the parties stand on tariffs, the cost of living, housing, climate and (de)funding the CBC/Radio-Canada.

Tariffs 

Conservatives

Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre has called Donald Trump’s tariffs “unjustified.” His party is also promising to renegotiate the USMCA with the United States as soon as possible. It would also keep current counter-tariffs, add targeted federal support for affected businesses and workers and remove the sales tax from cars made in Canada. The party also supports bolstering internal trade and building deeper trading relationships beyond the U.S.

Green Party

Co-leaders Elizabeth May and Jonathan Pedneault also support retaliatory tariffs. They’re calling for a strategic national lumber reserve “to protect Canadian interests, stabilize prices and revitalize domestic industries.” They would also create strategic reserves for other resources for domestic or international sale, depending on market prices.

Liberals

The incumbent government is in caretaker mode during the election, which limits what it can do while parties campaign, but Liberal leader Mark Carney is still the prime minister. Accordingly, the Liberals are already putting some of their promises into action, for instance on tariffs. The government has levelled a 25 percent tariff on vehicles from the U.S. that aren’t compliant with the USMCA free trade agreement. Those duties are on top of existing counter-tariffs on U.S. goods launched to match Trump’s. To support the auto industry, the Liberals are promising a “strategic response fund” of $2 billion to protect the industry and jobs. They would also renegotiate the USMCA with the Trump administration, the former NAFTA deal that was renegotiated during the first Trump administration. Carney says he would also eliminate internal trade barriers, for instance on alcohol, and boost external trade, including the United Kingdom and the European Union.

NDP

Jagmeet Singh’s party is promising to issue five- and 10-year “Victory Bonds” to raise funds to support Canadians during the tariff crisis. The money would be used to build domestic infrastructure. The party also supports retaliatory tariffs and removing the GST from Canadian-made vehicles. The NDP would use counter-tariff money to support workers and businesses affected by the trade war.

Cost of living

Conservatives

Like their Liberal competitors, the Conservatives promised a tax cut early on in the election, pledging to reduce the lowest bracket by 2.25 points to 12.75 percent. They would introduce a tax-free savings account “top up” of $5,000 more per year for money invested in Canadian companies. The party would allow capital gains to be deferred if those profits are invested back into Canada. Conservatives would increase how much low-income seniors could earn before paying tax by $10,000. They’d also eliminate a planned increase to taxes on alcohol.  

Green Party

The Greens would raise the untaxed basic inclusion amount, but they’re proposing to eliminate federal tax on the first $40,000 earned. They would also launch a plan for “universal early learning and child care that every family can afford” alongside free college and university tuition. They are also promising a “Guaranteed Livable Income.”

Liberals

Early in the campaign, the Liberals announced their plan to cut 1 percentage point from the lowest tax bracket, a cut that would lower rates for all those who pay federal taxes. Before the election began, Carney reduced the carbon tax rate to zero. The Liberals also cancelled the government’s previous plan to raise the capital gains tax inclusion rate. Carney has also announced temporary, lower employment insurance claim standards. He introduced a temporary increase to the Guaranteed Income Supplement and said, if re-elected, his government would permanently raise the rate by $500.

NDP

The NDP is also promising a tax cut by way of raising the untaxed basic inclusion amount from $16,129 to $19,500 a year. They’d also remove the GST from “essentials,” including grocery-store meals, diapers, cell phone and internet bills, home heating and other items. They would double the Canada Disability Benefit and raise the Guaranteed Income Supplement for seniors. They would expand federal pharmacare and dental care programs. The party says part of the funding for these initiatives would come from keeping the proposed capital gains inclusion rate increase.

Housing

Conservatives

The Conservatives are offering a higher threshold than the Liberals for a GST break on the purchase of a new home: $1.3 million. They would also extend the break to all buyers. They would reduce regulatory measures on municipalities and incentivize them to open land for development, while also selling 15 percent of federal buildings for housing. The party says they’ll address the trades gap, which contributes to the slow rate of new home building, by pushing to open 350,000 trade school and union hall positions while reviving the Justin Trudeau-era apprenticeship grant and raising it to $4,000.

Green Party

The Greens would create a definition of “affordable” housing alongside “clear rules” that would include an affordability threshold of 30 percent of income. It would use covenants “to make sure housing built with public money stays affordable forever,” take on money launderers who use real estate to hide their cash, ban corporate owners from purchasing single-family homes, and tighten real estate investment trust tax advantages. They are also promising to launch “the biggest” public housing construction program in five decades.

Liberals

The Liberals say they will “double the pace of construction to almost 500,000 homes a year.” Their plan includes creating Build Canada Homes, which would act as a public developer for affordable homes on private and public land. The party says it would provide $25 billion in financing for prefabricated homes and an additional $10 billion in low-cost financing for affordable homes. It would cut municipal development charges to lower home prices on multi-unit residential housing while also eliminating GST on homes for first-time buyers on purchases under $1 million. The Liberals would also bring back a 1970s-era tax mechanism to incentivize building multi-unit rental buildings. They’re also promising a new apprenticeship funding for training skilled trades of up to $8,000 per tradesperson. 

NDP

Promising to build 3 million new homes by 2030, the NDP says they’ll get rid of the current Housing Accelerator Fund and introduce a permanent strategy worth $16 billion. That undertaking would include acquiring public land for building rent-controlled homes while banning corporate investors from buying existing rental stock. They would direct the CMHC to issue low-interest, public-backed mortgages. Under the party’s Canadian Homes Transfer, the government would “reward cities that build quickly, allow more townhomes and apartments, and prioritize homes near transit.” The party would also introduce a Communities First Fund to pay for local infrastructure needed to support new housing. They are also promising to train 100,000 new skilled tradesworkers to build new homes.

Climate and the environment 

Conservatives

Under Pierre Poilievre, the Conservatives have consistently said they would end the consumer carbon tax. They would repeal the law—which is still on the books–and also end the price on industrial emissions and let provinces come up with their own plans. They would increase federal tax credits for more climate-friendly manufacturing and the development of cleaner technologies. The Conservatives are pitching a "National Energy Corridor" that would "fast-track approvals for transmission lines, railways, pipelines, and other critical infrastructure across Canada in a pre-approved transport corridor entirely within Canada."

Green Party

The Green Party would end oil and gas subsidies and use that money to invest in green energy. Their plan calls for placing a total limit on pollution in Canada, ending future fossil fuel infrastructure projects, and for holding “big polluters responsible for the climate damage they cause.” They also would create a Youth Climate Corps to prepare communities to manage the effects of climate change.

Liberals

The Liberals eliminated the consumer carbon tax ahead of the election, but they say they will keep, and improve, the existing industrial carbon price. Carney says the Liberals would replace the consumer carbon tax with incentives for adopt climate-friendly purchasing decisions, including on energy. The Liberals would also create “at least 10 new national parks and marine conservation areas, and 15 new urban parks.” Carney is also promising to make Canada an "energy superpower" by speeding up the approval of resource projects, both for clean energy and also fossil fuels; it's a proposal that the Conservatives under Poilievre have long been advocating for.

NDP

The NDP also supported repealing consumer carbon pricing and, like the Liberals, plan on keeping industrial pricing while ending oil and gas subsidies. The party also supports green retrofitting for homes, including heat pump installation, which it says will boost unionized jobs throughout the country.

(De)funding the CBC/Radio-Canada

Conservatives

The plan for Conservatives is to defund the CBC and “save taxpayers over $1 billion” per year. A Poilievre government would, however, maintain funding for the French-language wing of the broadcaster, Radio-Canada.

Green Party

The Greens say they would “provide stable, sufficient funding to CBC–Radio-Canada.”

Liberals

Alongside a mandate review, the Liberals are promising more money for the public broadcaster to the tune of an initial increase of $150 million a year. They’ll also “enshrine” its funding in law to provide long-term stability.

NDP

The New Democrats haven’t released a specific plan for the public broadcaster, but they say they will “invest in journalism that can report and broadcast locally, ban CBC executive bonuses so that money can go in quality journalism, and ensure Canada continues to have a strong, reliable and local public broadcaster.”