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Democratic Party Platform
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Québécois
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Conservative
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Health
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Same
Sex Marriage
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Issues
Analysis
Election
2004: Women’s Equality and Party Platforms
Canadian Labour Congress releases Gender-Equality
Analysis of main party platforms - June 24, 2004
Gender
Based Analysis of Policy Platforms
Disability
Analysis of Federal Party Policy Platforms
Coalition
for Women's Equality (CWE) Analysis of Party Platforms
Conservative
Platform Will put Government in Deficit - CCPA Report
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Release dd June 11,
2004
Can the three
major national parties pay for what they say? That's the question
posed by a new study released today by CCPA. Can they
pay for what they say? A pre-election comparison of the Conservative,
Liberal, and New Democratic platforms, by economists
Ellen Russell and Sheila Block, assesses the ability of the
parties to balance their budgets and deliver on their promises.
Canadian
Labour Congress (CLC)'s Analysis of Party Platforms
Comparing the Platforms - Which party is the Better Choice for
working Canadians? For
working families, the important issues for this election are
clear. We want good jobs in a stronger economy and a health
care system that is there when we need it. We want education
and training opportunities that give working people and their
children the skills to succeed. And we want secure pensions
for every Canadian.
Conservative
income tax proposals disproportionately benefit men, upper-income
families -
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Report Media Release
dd June 22, 2004 -- Families with incomes over $150,000 are
the big winners in the Conservative Party's proposed income
tax package, according to Who benefits? A gender and distributional
impact analysis of election income tax promises. Furthermore,
low-income and even middle-income Canadian families benefit
very little from the Conservative income tax promises. The
study, released today by the Canadian
Centre for Policy Alternatives, also found that men received
the lion's share--73%--of the value of the tax reductions under
the Conservative's proposal.
Comparison
of party platforms in relation to urban issues - Federation
of Canadian Municipalities (FCM)
LIBERAL
PARTY OF CANADA
Where
the Liberals stand
FROM CANADIAN
PRESS
HEALTH CARE
- Promise
a 10-year plan with a sustained boost in health transfers
to the provinces.
- Demand
new accountability measures from provinces, like published
lists of waiting times for procedures.
- Support
public funding for medically necessary care but have no policy
against private-sector involvement in providing services.
ECONOMY
- Use
budget surplus to pay down national debt with goal of reducing
it to 25 per cent of GDP.
- Sell
off government shares in Petro-Canada and invest proceeds
in an eco-friendly technology fund.
CITIES
- Transfer
slice of federal gas tax or other revenue stream to municipalities
for infrastructure improvements.
SOCIAL/ENVIRONMENT
- Re-establish
a national housing plan.
- Improve
aboriginals’ systems of education and accountable government,
and
ensure clean drinking water on native reserves.
- Create
an international niche for Canada as a builder of democratic
institutions
- Accelerate
transfers from $1-billion Municipal Rural Infrastructure Fund
to five-year period instead of the anticipated 10 years.
- in failed
states.
- $3.5
billion cleanup of polluted federal sites, with 60 per cent
of the fund to be spent in the North.
- Create
a national child-care system.
SAME-SEX
MARRIAGE
- Claim
support for same-sex marriage but have avoided moving forward
with legislation before election.
DEFENCE
- $7 billion
in capital projects promised, including $2.1 billion for joint
support ships, $700 million for mobile-gun system, $1.3 billion
for search-and-rescue aircraft, $3 billion for maritime helicopters.
- Create
an integrated foreign policy where military interventions
are tied to aid projects, trade initiatives and diplomatic
missions.
- Add
5,000 new members to the regular forces and 3,000 more to
the reserves, which currently have 15,500 part-time members
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NEW DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF CANADA
Where
the NDP stands
source:
FROM CANADIAN PRESS
ECONOMY
- Committed to balanced budgets and slow debt-reduction.
- Targeted tax cuts for low- and middle-income earners.
- Eliminate GST for essential goods.
CITIES
- Transfer five cents per litre from federal gas tax, or
$2.5B, to provinces for municipal infrastructure repair.
HEALTH
CARE
- Immediately
re-establish federal funding at 25 per cent of medicare costs.
- Reverse
private delivery of services.
- Create
national homecare and pharmacare programs and enforce national
standards on access to care.
DEFENCE
- Improve
salaries and job benefits for armed services personnel.
- Refuse
to participate in proposed U.S. missile-defence program.
SOCIAL
- Re-establish
a national housing plan.
- Cut
tuition by 10 per cent. Student loans interest free.
- Create
national transportation strategy to provide long-term funding
and incentives to promote public transit.
- Cap
credit-card interest rates to five points above prime rates.
- Complete
support for same-sex marriage.
ENVIRONMENT
- GST
rebates for clean cars.
- Build
10,000 wind turbines and retrofit buildings with new windows
and furnaces to make them more energy efficient.
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BLOC
QUÉBÉCOIS
Where
the Bloc stands
FROM CANADIAN
PRESS
ECONOMY
- Demand federal transfers of about $8 billion each year to
the provinces to eliminate so-called fiscal imbalance.
- Call for a more generous Employment Insurance program that
would reach additional workers while scaling back existing
EI surpluses.
- Eliminate gasoline surtax.
HEALTH CARE
- Call for substantial federal funding transfers to provinces
with no conditions attached.
SOCIAL
- Abolition of GST on books.
- Want $4.5 billion spent on affordable housing over three
years.
- Demand an additional $2.4 billion annually for international
aid.
DEFENCE
- See peacekeeping as military priority, not combat missions.
- Forbid Canadian soldiers from participating in wars deemed
to violate international law.
FOREIGN
POLICY
- Refuse to participate in missile-defence shield with the
U.S.
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GREEN
PARTY OF CANADA
Where
the Green Party stands
Star.com
staff
ENVIRONMENT
- Establish
a special five-year tax break on energy efficiency retrofits
in commercial and residential buildings.
- Push
for the adoption of profit-linked efficiency initiatives (gas/electric).
- Increase
fuel taxes by ten cents (to be phased in over three years).
- Introduce
tax incentives to help homeowners reduce home heating and
electricity bills.
HEALTH
CARE
- Reduce the long hours that Canadians are working
- for more time spent engaging in outdoor activities.
- Canadian consumers with stricter labelling requirements
on packaged foods.
- the availability of less expensive generic prescription
drugs.
international trade agreements to ensure that they protect
each nation’s ability to regulate health care systems,
in accordance with national and regional health and environmental
priorities.
ECONOMY
- Lower
taxes on income, profit and investment, to promote increased
productivity and job creation.
- Raise
taxes on harmful activities such as pollution, waste and inefficiency.
- Shift
taxes onto land use and away from incomes.
- Maintain
a balanced budget and reduce the national debt.
- Cancel
planned cuts to corporate capital taxes.
CITIES
- Negotiate an agreement to give municipalities a fixed share
of federal tax revenues.
- Support a grassroots movement to create municipal charters.
SAME-SEX
MARRIAGE
- The Green Party supports the right of gay couples to choose
a lifelong partnership and to achieve the full and equivalent
legal status of any married couple.
View
the party's complete platform here.
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CONSERVATIVE
PARTY OF CANADA
Where
the Conservatives stand
FROM CANADIAN
PRESS
ECONOMY
- Twenty-five
per cent tax cut for middle-income earners, with the long-term
goal of pulling Canadian tax rates lower than the U.S.
- Provide
a $2,000 tax deduction per child for families.
- Redirect
money from industrial subsidies to lower taxes and research
and development.
- Hand
provinces three to five cents from the 10-cent-a-litre gas
tax for road repair.
- Lower
business and capital-gains taxes and eliminate the capital
tax.
- Introduce
a legislated plan setting targets for national debt repayment.
- Eliminate
annual surplus in Employment Insurance fund.
HEALTH
CARE
- Deliver
almost $37 billion in new funding promised under the 2003
federal-provincial Health Accord.
- Support
a new national drug plan to be negotiated with the provinces.
- Maintain
the Canada Health Act’s guarantee of public funding for
necessary services.
- Favours
private delivery of some medicare services.
JUSTICE
- Scrap
federal gun registry and divert savings to hiring of 200 Mounties.
- Establish
retroactive national sex offender registry.
- Eliminate
'public good' defence as regards child pornography.
- Class
anyone convicted of a third violent or sexual offence as a
dangerous offender, allowing them to be jailed indefinitely.
- Strip
federal prisoners of voting rights.
- Stricter
standards for releasing dangerous offenders on bail.
- Introduce
consecutive sentences for multiple violent crimes.
- End
possibility of house arrest for violent criminals.
DEFENCE
- Boost
military funding by $1.2 billion immediately, and eventually
increase that to $2 billion.
FOREIGN
POLICY
- Talk
with U.S. about joining North American missile-defence system.
SOCIAL
- Scrap
the current Supreme Court reference on same-sex marriage and
let Parliament vote on the issue.
- End
existing firearms registry and work with provinces on another
gun-control strategy.
- On June
3, Stephen Harper revealed he would allow a free vote on abortion
if an MP introduced a private member's bill.
ENVIRONMENT
- Legislate
caps on smog-causing pollutants and spend $4 billion over
10 years to clean contaminated sites.
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For
complete information on the 4 major political parties included
below, please visit
Election
Canada On-Line | Political Parties, Candidates & Third Parties
or
Canada
2004 - Canadian Election Coverage
- David MacDonald
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us
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Updated Nov. 14, 2004
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