Canadians don’t want to be duped by Trump-style politics
We’ve created our brand-new Dupe-O-Meter to make it easy for voters to judge whether parties are delivering...
Dig in with us to insist that political leaders offer responsible platforms you can trust.
A real platform should not…
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Cut taxes and increase spending
‘Get More – Pay Less’ may be an appealing slogan for a store like Target, but we should hold our political leaders to a higher standard than big box chains.
Elections are prime time for parties to promise voters more of the things they want. These promises are rarely accompanied by thorough accountings of costs, or where the money will come from.
This election, parties must be honest about the choice we face: pay for the services we want, or scale down these services to the level we’re willing to pay. Responsible platforms offer a vision for how to balance trade-offs, rather than pretending it’s reasonable for voters to expect more while paying less.
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Claim to ‘fix the budget’ while ignoring its biggest hole
Both parties leading in the polls want to restore balanced budgets. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre aims to eliminate the federal deficit over his first term (4-5 years). Liberal Leader Mark Carney promises to restore balance to the operating budget within three years.
You will know if either of them are serious if – and only if – they don’t pretend the federal budget can be balanced simply by cutting things that some love to hate. Bringing back budget balance requires taking a hard look at the largest line items, and carefully considering. -
Hide the fine print
We live in an information economy, yet political parties are offering voters less and less of it. When party promises aren’t described and priced out in detail, it’s not a platform – it’s a press release.
Respect for voters begins with honesty and transparency about what’s being offered, what it costs, and who will pay. That’s how we can assess whether commitments are genuine, not just rhetoric that grabs headlines but leaves voters in the dark. The antidote to US-style political chaos and fake news begins with holding parties to account for comprehensive, clear and honest platforms.
A real platform should…
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Eliminate seniors’ poverty
Despite the big investments Canadians make to support retirees, about half-million seniors still struggle with poverty. This fact alone should make us rethink our Old Age Security system – and whether the $86 billion we’re spending on it this year alone is achieving the outcomes we want.
A Canada that works for all generations should lift all seniors out of poverty. If party leaders say we can’t afford it, you need to know that they’re duping us. This goal is squarely within our grasp – and achieving it doesn’t require more taxpayer dollars.
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Compensate Millennials and Gen Z: housing, child care, postsecondary
Decades of political dialogue on restoring housing affordability haven’t done enough to reduce the harm young people are suffering from the high cost of home ownership and rent.
Since prices began spiraling around 2000, young Canadians have endured a harrowing level of financial insecurity, affecting not only housing choices but other life decisions, like starting a family. Yet the very same rising prices have generated huge wealth for homeowners, allowing many to build generous ‘nest eggs’ on which they are now counting to fund their retirements.
Young people are obliged to endure high prices to protect these nest eggs – that’s the political bargain we’ve struck in Canada. Parties of all stripes chose to protect housing equity for existing homeowners at the expense of financial security for Millennials and Gen Z.
This election, it’s time to talk about the compensation they deserve.
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Clean up our pollution messes
This election, taking responsibility for cleaning up our pollution is once again a ballot issue. With the consumer carbon price gone, attention is shifting to whether it’s reasonable to expect industrial polluters to help protect our future by cleaning up their messes today.
Most Canadians want to take responsibility for protecting our kids from pollution. Politicians betray this family value when they propose to end all pollution pricing, because it forces our kids and future generations to pay even more dearly for the messes we leave them. Dropping pollution pricing also undermines efforts to resist US threats with diversified trade and economic countermeasures.
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Protect the present and the future
Fiscal responsibility requires prioritizing long-term wellbeing, not just short-term political gain. To hold governments to account for thinking long-term, all parties should commit to adopting legislation that builds in safeguards for the wellbeing of younger and future generations.
