A real platform should…
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
