Parties silent on seniors’ poverty
No party has a real plan to eliminate seniors’ poverty – but we do! We can meet this goal by bringing Old Age Security into the 21st century.
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.
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Check out our party assessments
Can we really cut taxes AND increase spending?
Leading parties are promising to cut taxes AND increase spending. We break down this magical thinking.
Can any party really double home building?
A promise to build more homes looks good on paper – but parties offer little evidence that they can meet these ambitious goals.
Should Canada keep or sell public land?
Should public land be sold off to private developers? We break down what leading parties are proposing.
Why aren't parties investing in postsecondary?
By 2028, Ottawa will add $71B for Old Age security and $5B for post-secondary. No party is talking about whether this is the right balance.
Affordability is top of mind this election - so why isn't affordable child care?
Families are being squeezed by rising costs, but child care funding is being crowded out.
Millennials and Gen Z take the hit from Canada's housing policy
Young people endure high housing costs so the wealth gains of homeowners who came before them are protected. No party is talking about the compensation they deserve.
Can any party balance the budget with the shadow of OAS?
OAS is the largest and fastest growing cost in the federal budget. No party can fix the deficit without addressing its outdated design.
No party is clear about their target for home prices
Do parties want home prices to rise, stall or fall? No party has a clear target to guide all housing investments.
Public policy from 1952 doesn't work in 2025
Old Age Security gives $18k to retired couples with $180k household incomes. No party is planning to fix this inefficient spending.
Canada's housing policy pipeline is failing young people
Decades of housing policy has protected homeowner wealth gains by tolerating rising rents and prices. Why aren't parties proposing solutions?
Parties are missing a big piece of the housing puzzle
No party can fix housing without compensating Millennials and Gen Z for the intergenerational solidarity they are offering by propping up high home prices.
Listen to our 2025 Federal Election Podcast
We dive into party promises on housing, pollution pricing, tax cuts, and balancing the budget through the lens of generational fairness.
Do party platforms offer facts or fiction?
We dig into Conservative, Liberal and NDP promises (or lack thereof) on medical care, retirement spending, tax cuts, housing, postsecondary, child care, and deficits.
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
Prior to the election, both the Conservative and Liberal parties claimed that they wanted 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.
We now know that neither party is entirely serious about this goal (see the previous section in which we show no party has a credible plan to balance the budget). The parties are weak on this front because they regularly imply that the federal budget can be balanced without taking a hard look at the largest line items -- especially Old Age Security -- and carefully considering whether revisions are required. -
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.
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