Federal Party Platforms: 2005-2006 Elections Matrix
to January 23,
2006
This
chart has been designed to serve as a “starting point” for tracking the
political platforms and campaign promises made by five of the parties during
this federal election. The parties have been listed alphabetically. The YWCA of
Edmonton encourages you to continue to fill-in the blanks for the remainder of
the campaign, and to add any regional issues
that are specific to your constituency.
The
YWCA Edmonton One Woman One Vote initiative is providing this information from
a non-partisan perspective because we are encouraging eligible women and their
families to vote in an informed manner.
The YWCA Edmonton does not endorse any particular party.
Topics
Click on a topic to view each party’s public stance on
that issue*
Agriculture/Food Producers Family Sustainable Resources
Arts, Culture and Communication First Nations,
Métis and Inuit Taxes
Child Care Foreign Policy Veterans
Community Safety: Policing Governance Women
Education and Employment Housing
-
Forests Municipalities/Infrastructure
Ethics and Accountability Small Business
*Due to the size of this document, you may wish to
select and print specific issues only.
Matrix
|
|
Bloc Québécois |
Conservative Party |
Green Party |
Liberal Party |
New Democratic Party |
|
Leader |
Gilles Duceppe |
Stephen Harper |
Jim Harris |
Paul Martin |
Jack Layton |
|
Campaign Slogan |
"Heureusement,
ici, c'est le Bloc” |
“Stand Up For |
“We Can” |
“Moving |
“Getting Results For
People” |
|
The Bloc Québécois
electoral platform answers the challenges that face Québec. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Will
replace the Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization Program ( Commit
an additional $500 million annually to farm support programs. Ensure
that agriculture industries that choose to operate under domestic supply
management remain viable. Give
western grain farmers the freedom to make their own marketing and transportation
decisions. Defend
Implement
a Green Cover Crop Program to protect prairie farmers. Speed up delivery of the $755 million in emergency
aid the government promised grain and oilseed farmers in November. |
Assume
greater leadership in ensuring Support local, provincial and territorial
genetically engineered free zones and pass legislation requiring labeling of
genetically engineered foods. Ensure that supply management systems provide stable
domestic markets, viable farm income, and easier market access for specialty
and organic producers, and permit continued unregulated production by smaller
and mixed family farms that sell to local markets. Adapt food safety and other regulations and work
with provincial governments to provide area exemptions with locally adopted
regulations to support small and medium size farmers and food processors to
build and strengthen local food economies. Shift government-supported research away from
biotechnology and energy-intensive farming and toward organic food
production. Reform the regulatory environment of agriculture to
challenge corporate concentration, eliminate international dumping and
subsidies, and continue to allow seed saving by farmers. Fundamentally change the management of fisheries by
redefining the Department of Fisheries and Ocean’s mandate to protect and
conserve wild fisheries, introducing adaptive ecosystem and community-based
methods that support sustainable fisheries. Work with the provinces to re-establish a wild fish
economy based on the precautionary principle in risk management with primary
concern going to rehabilitating fish stocks, protecting fish habitats and
phasing-out fish farms. Protect animal welfare by phasing out factory
farming, reducing distances live animals can be transported, improving
conditions of animals in slaughterhouses, auctions, entertainment, and
prohibiting trade in exotic animals. Work
with provinces to ensure that 100 per cent of livestock waste is recycled
safely and no animal by-products are used in animal feed. Pass
a law that forbids the patenting of life forms and makes biotech developers
of genetically engineered crops liable for damage such crops might cause. Would
introduce a law requiring food manufacturers to accurately label all their
products, spelling out explicitly which contain genetically modified ingredients
and any other ingredients that may affect their health. |
As
a key part of the upcoming review of the Agriculture Policy Framework, we
will work with farm leaders and the provinces to continue to improve the farm
income support system based on lessons from the current business risk
management experience and specifically to address improved methods of
assistance in times of income disasters. Explore
ways to help producers earn a greater share of the total value of agri-food
products, drawing on the well-received “Easter Report” on Empowering Canadian
Farmers in the Marketplace. Amendments to the Agriculture Marketing
Programs Act (AMPA) which will extend spring and fall advances to the
livestock sector, increase advances from $250,000 to $300,000 and increase the
interest-free portion from $50,000 to $60,000. Earmarking
at least $5 million a year to support export market promotion of Develop
domestic “offset credits” for farmers who adopt low-till or zero-till
practices to reduce greenhouse gas emissions using the government’s new
Climate Fund. Continue
to support the successful Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration (PFRA)
in promoting a sustainable rural economy and look to expand its services,
with the first step being a pilot project in B.C. Continue to fund conservation and green-cover
incentives at a level of $30 million per year after the current program
expires in 2007-08. “Full democratization” of the Canadian Wheat
Board, by making all directors’ positions subject to election. ² ( Would ensure a one-time payment of $755 million
to grain and oilseed farmers, announced last November, would not be treated
as income for the purpose of Investment
in food safety and food quality initiatives to ensure a safe food supply for
Canadians and to assist the export marketing of our products. Patient
capital investments via Farm Credit Renewal
of the Municipal Rural and other infrastructure funds. New
funding for access to broadband services. |
Favour respecting consumers’ right to know through
mandatory labelling of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Stabilize income for family farms, initiatives
include: -
Overhauling the Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization program. -
Ensuring there is a permanent stand-by capacity to deliver assistance to
farming industries and communities by establishing a permanent farm
communities’ emergency support fund. -
Supporting -
Working toward sustainable agriculture outcomes that will help reduce input
costs for pesticides, herbicides and fuel, which are largely paid by Canadian
farmers to multinational corporations. -
Ensuring fairer price competition in the Canadian marketplace by working to
develop producer run co-operatives. -
Working with farmers to ensure the right to save and reuse seed. -
Standing behind the right of Canadian farmers to use single-desk marketing
for western wheat, and over-quota tariffs to maintain the health of our domestic
supply management sectors. Adopt a community-based, co-management approach to
maintain fish resources and a sustainable fishing industry that
includes: –
An overall approach based on transparency and locally derived science that
makes the community, industry and DFO accountable for the maintenance of the resource. –
Working with provincial governments to ensure that aquaculture is developed
in a responsible manner that protects adjacent waters and communities to the
highest environmental standards, with an aim in particular of protecting wild
salmon stocks. –
Supporting a moratorium on dragging in international waters and within the
200-mile limit until all sensitive ecological areas are identified with the
assistance of industry and scientists. |
|
|
|
Bloc Québécois |
Conservative Party |
Green Party |
Liberal Party |
New Democratic Party |
|
|
Establish a Francophone Secretariat within the
Department of Canadian Heritage. Ensure that the Preserve the role of the National Film Board, the
Canada Council, and other federal arts and culture agencies. Give Canadians increased access to international
and foreign-language television and radio programming. Maintain the $140 million annual commitment to
amateur sport, which includes a $55 million five-year commitment for high
performance athletes for the Vancouver Winter Olympics. Support the Official Languages Act, ensuring that
English and French have equality of status and equal rights and privileges as
to their use in all institutions of the Parliament and Government of Canada. Work with the provinces to enhance opportunities
for Canadians to learn both official languages and to ensure the viability of
minority language communities within the provinces. |
Increase support for community arts programs and
facilities across Establish
stable base-funding for young artists. Protect Expand support for regional arts festivals that
bring new Canadian art to a wider audience. Share Canadian history by supporting more
educational programming. Provide stable base-funding for the Direct the CRTC to reserve more bandwidth for
independent and non-profit stations. Introduce
a law mandating cinemas and video chains to have 20 per cent Canadian
content. |
Will
double Canada Council for the Arts funding to reach $300 million by 2008. Will
reintroduce legislation to amend the Copyright Act.
to give Canadian creators and their works protection without nullifying the
great public benefits made possible by digital technologies. Will
now work to persuade as many countries as possible to follow Will
unequivocally support investments to enrich and protect our two official
languages. Will renew the Action
Plan for Official Languages in 2008,
and will provide annual funding of $215 million going forward. |
Strengthen the status of – Introducing a system of tax averaging to provide fair and
equitable tax treatment for Canadian artists. – Building on a model in – Protecting children in the arts with minimum standards and
trust fund rules for income earned as performers. Strengthen the arts in – Providing increased funding for the Canada Council for the
support of artists. Strengthen – Directing the CRTC to require clear, binding, monitored and
enforced performance standards for broadcasters, including a significant and
permanent increase in the production and broadcast of Canadian drama. – Reviewing and restructuring the CRTC to avoid the mixed
mandates and conflicts of interest that undermine the role of the commission in
promoting and protecting Canadian cultural industries. – Ensuring that Canadian television networks remain Canadian
owned. – Providing sustained funding for the Canadian Television Fund
and Telefilm – Enhancing federal film incentives to encourage film and
television production. – Establishing a forum with film distributors to agree on
targets and a strategy to screen and distribute domestic films in |
|
|
|
Bloc Québécois |
Conservative Party |
Green Party |
Liberal Party |
New Democratic Party |
|
|
Will
give all families a new $1200 per year Choice in Child Care Allowance for
each child under six, starting in 2006. Establish
a Community Childcare Investment Program worth $250 million a year. This
program will create 125,000 new childcare spaces over the next five years. The above is part of an
overall plan to allocate $10.9 billion to child care over the next five years. Will provide $10,000 in assistance to employers, including
businesses and non-profit institutions, for each new child care space created.
Will make it easier for working people to juggle child care and
work responsibilities. Will help employers create child care spaces in the workplace by
allocating $250 million a year to employers who cover the full cost of
creating spaces. Will design the program to ensure that small business and rural
communities will be able to access it as well as larger employers and cities. Honour the
government’s existing bilateral child care commitments for one year. |
Real-life solutions to the country's
child-care needs, such as the Brampton Co-operative Daycare initiative. Under
the Create tax incentives for businesses to implement
flexible schedules and on-site childcare. Support a nation-wide healthy lunch and snacks
program from Kindergarten through to Grade 12. Boost funding for early childhood education and work
with other governments to link local childcare and education centres into a
national network. |
Will
invest at least an additional $6 billion to finance the early learning and
childcare program through to 2015. (this means after the initial five-year funding
agreement concludes, ongoing funding of $1.2 billion per year will be
provided to provinces and territories) To
provide further assistance for the capital cost of early learning and child
care facilities, a Liberal government will make “not-for-profit” facilities
eligible for the next funding phase of the Canada Strategic Infrastructure
Fund and the Municipal Rural Infrastructure Fund. A
National Quality Framework will
be developed as the basis for guidelines and evidence-based benchmarks for
future programming. |
To
improve child care with a Child Care Act to ensure that federal funding for
child care is targeted at licensed, high quality, non-profit child care. Will
invest $1.8 billion in child care next year with annual increases of $250
million for the next 3 years. This would create 200,000 additional spaces in
the first year, with another 25,000 spaces annually after that. Will
increase the federal child tax credit of $1000 phased in over 4 years in
order to help lower-income families cover child-care costs and meet other
essential expenses. |
|
|
|
Bloc Québécois |
Conservative Party |
Green Party |
Liberal Party |
New Democratic Party |
|
Policing |
Ensuring
that any legislative measure pertaining to terrorism respects a balance
between security and freedom. |
Will
stand up for tougher sentences and close legal loopholes. Strengthening
border security and cracking down on crime by non-citizens. Higher
fines for drug dealers and producers, based on street value of drugs. Filling more than 1,000 unfilled RCMP positions and working with
provinces and municipalities to hire at least 2,500 more police officers
across the country. Measures to crack down on firearms smuggling and toughen
security at Introduce mandatory minimum prison sentences for
designated drug trafficking offences, weapons offences, crimes committed
while on parole, and repeat offenders to ensure that serious crime results in
real punishment. End conditional sentences (“house arrest”) for
serious crimes, including designated violent and sexual offences, weapons
offences, major drug offences, crimes committed against children, and
impaired driving causing death or serious injury. Create presumption-of-dangerous-offender
designation for anyone convicted and sentenced to federal custody for three
violent or sexual offences. Repeal section 745.6 of the Criminal Code – the
so-called “Faint Hope Clause” – that allows a criminal serving a life
sentence to apply for early parole. Create mandatory consecutive sentences (instead of
concurrent sentences, as is usually the case) for select multiple violent or
sexual offences. Replace statutory release (the law entitling a
prisoner to parole after serving two-thirds of his sentence) with earned
parole. Toughen parole provisions once you have been
convicted of committing a crime while on parole, and eliminate parole for
life after the third such conviction. Prevent courts from giving extra “credit” for
pre-trial custody for persons denied bail because of their past criminal
record or for violating bail. Create a reverse onus for bail hearings for
anybody charged with an indictable firearms offence. Work for a constitutional amendment to forbid
prisoners in federal institutions from voting in elections. Review the operations of Correctional Service
Canada with a view to enhancing public safety. Ensure federal corrections officers have the tools
and training they require to do their job as peace officers. Adopt, in collaboration with the provinces, a
national strategy to fight organized crime, including the creation of a joint
national task force on security. Increase the financial resources allocated to the
RCMP to help them combat organized crime in all regions of the country. Reinvest savings from cancellation of the
ineffective long-gun registry program into hiring more front-line enforcement
personnel, including filling 1,000 RCMP positions. Negotiate with the provinces to create a new
cost-shared program jointly with provincial and municipal governments, to put
at least 2,500 more police on the beat in our cities and communities. Invest $100 million per year of new federal money
on criminal justice priorities, including working with the provinces and
municipalities to hire more police, as well as victim assistance and youth
crime prevention programs. Repeal the wasteful long-gun registry legislation
(Bill C-68). Reinvest savings from scrapping C-68 into hiring
front-line law enforcement officers and assisting victims of crime. Maintain the existing handgun registry and bans on
all currently prohibited weapons. Work with the provinces on effective gun control
programs designed to keep guns out of the hands of criminals while respecting
the rights of law-abiding Canadians to own and use firearms responsibly. Measures
will include: …..Mandatory minimum prison sentences with
restricted parole eligibility for the criminal use of firearms, trafficking
or possession of stolen firearms or illegal possession contrary to a bail,
parole, or firearms prohibition order. …..Strict monitoring, including tracking place of
residence, of high-risk individuals prohibited from owning firearms. …..Tighter restrictions on individuals on bail or
parole for firearms offences, including the use of electronic monitoring. …..Cracking down on gun smuggling. …..Safe storage laws. …..Firearms safety training. …..A certification system requiring a background
check and safety training for all those wishing to acquire and use firearms
legally. |