The importance of maintaining and improving Canada’s health care system is widely acknowledged and supported. So too is the underlying vision of a universal Medicare system. Time and again, public opinion polls find that Canadians are proud of our health care system, but more work needs to be done to…
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The Liberal Party recently announced it would, if it forms the next federal government, introduce a nationwide 1% annual speculation tax on residential real estate owned by non-resident non-Canadians (the party’s backgrounder is available here). One of the policy’s stated goals is to cool off hot housing markets, especially in…
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The announcements are coming fast and furious now. The latest today from the Conservatives promised to “review” the mortgage stress test and lengthen amortization periods for mortgage loan insurance for first-time buyers. It seems that the NDP might also be in favour of 30-year amortizations, based on a statement from…
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In a vain attempt to keep pace with the avalanche of policy announcements, I’m wading into the NDP’s proposal of a wealth tax of 1% to be applied annually to all Canadians whose net worth exceeds $20 million. A wealth tax fundamentally differs from how most taxation in Canada presently…
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This weekend’s announcement of a plan for a “Universal Tax Cut” by the Conservative party signalled the first major tax discussion of Election 43. The basic premise of this plan is to reduce the rate in the lowest federal income tax bracket from 15% to 13.75% gradually over a three…
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The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) is one of Canada’s largest law enforcement agencies, employing 12,000 officers who enforce customs and immigration rules. These workers monitored the over 85 million people who travelled in and out of Canada in 2017-18. They screen travellers at land crossings and at airports for…
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Canadian elections can be staid affairs. For all the talk of big change, campaigns tend to gravitate toward which party can be trusted to “manage the economy.” Trusted by whom? The coveted “middle class” voter, of course. Those at the higher-income end of that group are more likely to vote…
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Anti-immigrant racism underpins much of the conversation about immigration policy in this country. We must be able to identify the obvious and subtle ways in which it is being mobilized to divide and distract us. Three interconnected ideas circulating in the media have underlying racist motivations that even us progressives…
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This blog post is the third in our series of election primers. It looks at three key issues—child care, housing and employment insurance—and what’s at stake in Election 2019. View the story Federal election primer: Investing in public services edition By Katherine Scott Election 2019 is shaping up to be…
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Interest is building in Canada around a number of bold, progressive policy ideas – everything from implementing universal single-payer pharmacare (as recommended recently by the Hoskins commission) to a rapid and just transition away from fossil fuels and towards a new green economy. But how can we afford to make…
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