Stephen Harper, Conservative Party
Health Care
Prevent the drift toward two-tier health care. Establish maximum acceptable wait times for essential medical services. Press for faster processing of drug approvals. Support health research and innovation. Ban embryonic research for at least three years and encourage granting agencies to focus on more promising adult (post-natal) stem cell research.
Add a sixth principle to the Canada Health Act calling for stable and transparent federal funding.
Provide stable and transparent federal funding that grows when needed.
Economy
Reduce subsidies to for-profit businesses. Secure more international free trade agreements. Lower income and corporate taxes. Privatize crown corporations that compete with comparable private services.
Strengthen internal audit and controllership functions to ensure programs are delivering what was promised. Enact balanced-budget legislation, with overrides for declared national emergencies. Pay down the national debt by introducing a legislated debt repayment plan that sets a target of debt-to-GDP ratio well under 20 per cent.
Cut taxes across the board, including income, payroll, business and capital gains taxes. Implement a Taxpayers' Bill of Rights and an Office of Taxpayer Protection.
Regional Issues
Use tax credits to spur investment in low-income housing.
Remove non-renewable resources from the equalization formula for all. Fix the fiscal imbalance by increasing transfer payments, reducing taxes or transferring tax points to the provinces.
Allow provinces to opt out of federal programs with full compensation, in areas of shared or exclusive jurisdiction.
Defence
Demand greater parliamentary oversight over national defence. Increase equipment and resources to exercise Canada's sovereignty in the Arctic. A "Canada First" defence policy to defend the national interest first.
Provide more front-line personnel, and less administration. Increase defence spending to the NATO European average as a percentage of GDP. Increase investment in infrastructure, including military housing. Increase regular force to at least 75,000. Defence procurement will support Canadian industry where possible.
Families
Introduce a deduction for dependent children. Change Divorce Act to guarantee access to children by both parents and grandparents when a marriage breaks down. Appoint a minister responsible for seniors.
Remove post-secondary education from provincial transfer funds and create a separate Canadian education transfer, which will be targeted to post-secondary education. Scholarships and bursaries should be tax free. Eliminate parental income as a consideration in student loan applications.
Support the rights of parents to raise children according to their own conscience and beliefs by giving child-care money directly to families to use as they choose. Offer choice in schooling to First Nations families.
Workplace
Introduce a National Disability Act that would include provisions for reasonable access to employment.
End mandatory retirement. Maintain support for low-income seniors. Ensure those over 65 who are working do not have to pay employment insurance premiums. Appoint a minister responsible for seniors.
Establish an independent employment insurance system, with a self-accounting fund administered by employees and employers.
Border Issues
Improve co-operation among defence and intelligence agencies. Establish a national intelligence agency to co-ordinate info from all sources. Establish a committee of senior government and opposition members to oversee intelligence activities. Increase resources to secure Arctic sovereignty.
Participate in the North American missile defence system. Border officials should be armed, if necessary, and should not work alone.
Ensure adequate long-term funding to the provinces to help immigrants settle in Canada. Streamline the process of validating refugee claims. Reverse policy of separating married couples while application of non-status partner is processed. Establish a new system for assessing the credentials of foreign-trained professionals with a view to granting equivalent Canadian professional status.
Justice
Oppose decriminalization of marijuana possession.
Repeal the gun registry legislation. Work with the provinces on cost effective gun control programs designed to keep guns out of the hands of criminals. Institute mandatory minimum sentences for the criminal use of firearms.
Put more law enforcement officers on the street. Adopt a national strategy to fight organized crime. Allocate more money to the RCMP. Reverse the burden of proof for criminal organizations to prove goods seized are not proceeds of crime.
Aboriginal Affairs
Ensure aboriginal self-government occurs within the context of the Constitution of Canada, with charter principles applying. Give aboriginal governments the power to raise their own revenues to reduce the cycle of dependency. Work toward a system where "those who receive services contribute to the cost of those services." Offer choice in schooling for First Nations.
Speed the pace of resolving the backlog of land claims negotiations. Transfer reserve land title from the federal Crown to willing First Nations.
Enforce strong regulations for drinking water standards. Give aboriginals protection under the Canadian Human Rights Act.
Environment
Develop a national alternative energy strategy to increase the use of renewable energy and support innovative research and development.
Provide long-term funding to clean up federal contaminated sites and offer incentives to encourage the private sector to clean up contaminated sites. Guidelines for ships on managing ballast water to prevent the introduction of invasive species should be mandatory.
Review all environment and energy initiatives, including Kyoto. The party has described the accord as fatally flawed.
Foreign Affairs
Aid should be delivered, where possible, through Canadian agencies. Give the Canadian International Development Agency authority to monitor all development assistance money. Introduce legislation that would provide legal framework for development assistance money.
Vigorously pursue the reduction of international trade barriers and tariffs. Find new markets for Canadian through trade ties with emerging markets.
Political Reform
Consider changes to the electoral system, including proportional representation, the single transferable ballot and fixed election dates. Any electoral reform must be confirmed by referendum.
Support the election of senators. All judicial appointments should be ratified by a free vote in Parliament.
All votes in Parliament should be free votes, with the exception of budget and main estimates.
Primary Industries
Appoint a special envoy to focus on resolving the softwood lumber dispute with the United States. Provide financial support to companies hurt by the dispute. Commit $100 million a year for 10 years to combat pine beetle infestation in B.C.
Extend Canada's custodial management on the East Coast over the nose and tail of the Grand Banks and the Flemish Cap. Invest more in fisheries science and research, especially as it relates to sustainable harvesting. Extend current capital gains deferral available to farmers to commercial fisheries. Work to eliminate international trade bans on Canadian seal products.
Ensure that industries under the protection of supply management remain viable. Use safety net programs to assist producers struggling with conditions outside of their control.
Paul Martin, Liberal Party
Health Care
Focus on reducing wait times for medical procedures. Continue to follow the 10-year plan agreed to by first ministers in the fall of 2004. The deal includes targets for reducing wait times and plans to study national pharmacare and homecare programs. Contribute to international efforts to combat infectious diseases.
Favour public delivery and financing of health-care services as opposed to private delivery. Funding must be directed only to the public health-care system.
Attach conditions to funding to ensure any future investment goes only to the public health-care system.
Economy
Reduce the corporate tax rate from 21 per cent to 19 per cent. Encourage companies to boost productivity. Millions recently announced for research and development in the private sector and universities. Funding will educate skilled workers and help small businesses move into emerging markets.
Be responsible fiscal managers. Continue to bring in balanced budgets and pay off the country's debt while maintaining and improving social programs. Bring the federal debt to 25 per cent within a decade. Maintain a $3-billion contingency fund in event of emergencies. Have a parliamentary committee conduct an ongoing expenditure review to make sure programs are doing what they were intended to do.
Recently announced higher level of income before taxes must be paid. Also announced a one per cent cut to the tax rate for low and middle-income earners from 16 per cent to 15 per cent. Corporate tax cuts that were previously dropped were reinstated to reduce the general corporate tax rate from 21 per cent to 19 per cent by 2010. Plan to eliminate the 1.12 per cent corporate tax surcharge by 2010.
Regional Issues
Instituted a GST rebate, and offered cities 1.5 cents per litre of the gas tax.
Sustain regional development strategies, including a new strategy for the North, that recognize strengths and challenges unique to different parts of Canada.
Continue working to include all the provinces in national agreements and programs and meet regional needs on a case-by-case basis.
Defence
Maintain current commitments and evaluate new requests on an individual basis. Overhaul announced in June 2005 will emphasize its mission within Canada to respond to domestic disasters and terrorist attacks.
Expand the forces by 5,000 and the reserves by 3,000. The 2005 budget promised a $13-billion increase in spending over five years.
Families
2005 budget increased the amount of money that Canadians earn tax free. The budget also increased the Guaranteed Income Supplement for seniors.
Recently announced a $2.2-billion increase in financial aid for post-secondary education.
Designated $5 billion over five years in the budget for a National Early Learning and Child Care Program. How the money is spent in each province is determined by negotiations with Ottawa.
Workplace
Remove barriers to post-secondary education, training and workforce participation.
Encourage companies to give older workers training and opportunities. Consider providing mentorship and knowledge transfer opportunities between older and younger workers.
Ensure that employment insurance meets the changing needs of the workforce and the economy.
Border Issues
Overhaul of Armed Forces announced in June 2005 will emphasize its mission within Canada to respond to domestic disasters and terrorist attacks. Enforce Anti-terrorism Actl on grounds that Canada's security is "indivisible" from that of the U.S.
Maintain and strengthen relationship with the U.S. Enforce Anti-terrorism Act on grounds that Canada's security is "indivisible" from that of the U.S.
Encourage more active recruitment of immigrants to meet Canada's labour and research needs. Recently pledged $1.3 billion over five years to improvement settlement services for new immigrants. Improve language training and the process of upgrading and recognizing credentials.
Justice
Introduced bill that would impose fines instead of jail sentences for simple marijuana possession.
Continue funding, but cap allocations to gun registry. Raise mandatory minimum sentences for crimes involving guns.
Recently promised $50 million to combat gang violence. Some of the money is to prevent young people from entering gangs.
Aboriginal Affairs
Not Available.
Environment
Offer financial incentives to encourage renewable energy power producers, individuals and industry to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Allow renewable energy producers to receive emission reduction credits and sell these to the Climate Fund Agency or other industries.
Created the Green Municipal Fund for municipalities to build environmentally sustainable infrastructure. Develop more stringent guidelines on water quality. Continue public awareness campaign to stop idling.
Find ways to accelerate progress to Kyoto targets. Invest $10 billion in the next seven years to achieve those targets. Encourage partnership with businesses and citizens to encourage emissions reduction. Give tax incentives for efficient and renewable energy production.
Foreign Affairs
Support the idea for a United Nations Human Rights Council. Establish a Global Centre for Pluralism in Canada, in partnership with the Aga Khan Foundation.
Grant debt forgiveness to progressive developing nations. Increase international assistance by $3.4 billion with the intention of doubling assistance by 2010-2011 from its 2001-2002 level. Develop the Stabilization and Reconstruction Task Force to build human security and assist peacekeeping in Africa.
Support services to business that enhance the abilities of Canadian companies to compete and prosper in the global economy.
Political Reform
Leave Senate and court appointments the responsibility of the prime minister, but with a greater degree of input from more sources than before.
The Liberals have introduced a three line voting system they say will allow more free votes. They plan to refer more bills to House committees to give them more influence.
Primary Industries
Recently announced $1 billion plan including $400 million in loan insurance to help softwood producers. The rest of the money is for retraining workers, finding new markets for Canadian lumber products, new technologies and research on new energy sources.
Encourage countries to toughen enforcement to protect fish stocks.
Continue to increase domestic slaughter capacity to reduce dependence on live exports to the U.S. Continue to find international markets beyond the U.S. for Canadian agricultural products.
Jack Layton, New Democratic Party
Health Care
Hire more doctors and nurses. Refuse money to doctors also working outside the public health care system. Launch a national not-for-profit homecare program for those caring for elderly or disabled relatives, and a national pharmacare program to lower the cost of prescription drugs. Shorten the length of patent protection for the makers of expensive new drugs. Ban unhealthy trans fatty acids from prepared and fast foods.
Amend the Canada Health Act to eliminate for-profit private delivery of diagnostic services such as MRIs and outlaw giving medicare money to private hospitals such as the ones that have started to take hold in Alberta.
Demand greater accountability from provinces and withhold federal health transfers to provinces that don't comply with the Canada Health Act.
Economy
Grow the economy and employment with a National Environmental Infrastructure Program that would create "green" jobs fixing up municipal water and sewage systems. Gradually replace top-down regional development agencies with bottom-up, local community economic development agencies.
Guarantee a balanced budget for five straight years. Delay promised changes if finances don't allow them right away. Restore funding to social programs by rescinding corporate tax cuts and spending less on paying down the national debt.
Bring in an inheritance tax on estates worth more than $1 million, excluding family farms and small businesses. Collect $8.5 billion in currently uncollectable tax revenue. Close tax loopholes for large businesses and impose a 20-per-cent excess profits levy when financial institutions report rates of return above 10 per cent. Make fines levied against businesses non-tax-deductible. Take GST off family "essentials" such as children's clothing, books and medicine. Increase the amount of the child tax benefit. Eliminate federal income tax for people earning under $15,000 a year. Raise taxes for people earning more than $250,000 a year. Give cities five cents a litre from the gas tax Ottawa collects.
Regional Issues
Implement a national housing strategy that would devote at least one per cent of the federal program budget to building non-profit affordable housing. The strategy would also provide low-interest loans to provincial governments, municipal housing authorities and co-op housing organizations.
Set provincial transfer payments at a level high enough to ensure all provinces have the capacity to serve the public interest. Let provinces keep resource revenues without having equalization payments clawed back.
Implement a social union with the provinces, based on the principle of co-decision, where governments work co-operatively to develop national priorities and standards for social policy. Recognize Quebecers as a people and embrace Quebec as a diverse, multi-ethnic society.
Defence
Give Parliament a greater say in deployments. Position Canada as a leader in international peacekeeping. Strengthen the United Nations and make it more democratic.
Add resources for peacekeeping missions and boost salaries and living conditions for armed services personnel and their families.
Families
Push for support for seniors through the Seniors Charter of Canada.
Separate post-secondary money from the Canada Social Transfer and create a transfer solely for post-secondary education. Reinvest the billions removed from post-secondary education funding. Continue to consult with the provinces on post-secondary spending. Included $1.5 billion for tuition reduction and training in amendment to 2005 budget.
Direct national child-care money to non-profit day cares. Cap the number of children or centres any child-care company can manage.
Workplace
Remove barriers to post-secondary education, training and workforce participation.
Put employees first on the list of creditors when a company goes bankrupt. Recently amended the budget to include a $100 million pension protection fund for workers.
Improve access for seasonal workers by basing benefits on the best 12 weeks of income in the previous year, or the best 12 weeks since the beginning of the last claim. Workers on leave for training purposes should receive some compensation.
Border Issues
Work toward social justice around the world as a way of preventing future threats to national security. Safeguard civil liberties so the Anti-terrorism Act does not target Canadians from ethnic communities unfairly and all Canadians can feel free to express legitimate dissent.
Border crossing should be publicly owned.
Children adopted overseas by Canadians should receive immediate citizenship.
Justice
Fully decriminalize marijuana while introducing a non-punitive education program to reduce adult marijuana use. Restrict personal use and production of the drug through regulations, not the Criminal Code.
Implement a ban on sale and import of all assault and automatic rifles.
Increase penalties for hardened criminals and funding for law enforcement agencies and community policing plans. Attack the underlying causes of crime by fighting poverty; funding affordable, not-for-profit housing; and concentrating on children at risk.
Aboriginal Affairs
Recognize the inherent right of aboriginal people to self-government.
Respect treaty rights and resolve land claims as soon as possible.
There must be further investment in aboriginal housing and infrastructure. Canadians should be able to trust their water. Residential school abuse victims deserve a truth and reconciliation commission.
Environment
Set a target of 10,000 megawatts of wind power by 2010, with base financial support of 1.5 cents per kilowatt hour. Install 100,000 solar rooftops, with a federal grant of 30 per cent of the cost, and loans for the remainder. Provide financial incentives for other renewable energy sources, and to local co-operative and renewable power production.
Make polluters pay for the cost of cleaning up toxic sites. Replace legislative focus on voluntary pollution prevention with mandatory anti-pollution standards. Create "green" jobs through a National Environmental Infrastructure Program that would fix municipal water and sewage systems and prevent them from polluting their environments. Establish national standards for drinking water and ban bulk water exports. Encourage farming and fishing practices that are environmentally friendly.
Meet Kyoto Protocol targets by 2010 by designing laws and regulations that lead to lower industry and community emissions, and creating a Climate Change Exchange to auction off emission credits and make it good business for corporations to pollute less. Use proceeds from the auction to replace coal power plants with hydro plants. Create new environmental jobs for workers displaced as Kyoto Protocol targets are met, and bring in a Clean Air Fund to create environmental industry jobs in local communities. Retrofit more buildings to consume less energy, with projects funded by a revolving loan fund with funds coming from and profits going to the Canada Pension Plan. Put every federal policy through a "greenscreen" to judge its environmental soundness or risk. Push for more environmentally friendly ways of transporting people and goods.
Foreign Affairs
Canada must honour its commitment to devote 0.7 per cent of GDP to foreign aid. Forgive debts owed by developing nations.
Push for binding rules in trade agreements to protect human rights, labour standards, cultural diversity and the environment. Trade agreements should be approved by parliament.
Political Reform
Election dates should be fixed and should occur every four years. Eliminate the first-past-the-post voting system. Replace with a system that combines individual constituency-based MPs with proportional representation.
Develop and publicly release criteria based on competence for all appointments.
MPs should not be allowed to change parties without resigning their seats and running in a byelection. Tighten rules that regulate lobbyists and their fees and expenditures.
Primary Industries
Improve access for seasonal workers by basing benefits on the best 12 weeks of income in the previous year, or the best 12 weeks since the beginning of the last claim.
Review Canada's safety net programs. Offer federal support to farmers hurt by trade decisions, without making that support conditional on provincial government involvement.
Sources: CBC, Wikipedia
