THE TRUDEAU LIBERALS WILL BE LOOKING FOR SOME EARLY WINS AS THEY GET USED TO LIFE WITHOUT A MAJORITY. A LOOK AT A FEW ISSUES THAT COULD BE AT THE TOP OF THE THEIR TO-DO LIST WHEN THE HOUSE RECONVENES.
Look for programs aimed at pleasing NDP in minority
A minority Parliament has a way of curbing the exuberance of a governing party, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals will be looking for some early wins as they get used to life without a majority in the House of Commons.
As the party sorts through the Liberal platform, which promises everything from camping subsidies to a revised role for the attorney general and justice minister, they’ll be looking for ideas that will glide through Parliament with little to no angst from the opposition parties that could combine forces and toss them from power.
Here are a few issues that could be at the top of the Liberal to-do list when the House reconvenes.
MIDDLE-CLASS TAX CUT
Trudeau already revealed that the Liberal’s middle-class tax cut will be his first piece of legislation in the new Parliament.
It could be the easiest of wins for Trudeau. The Conservatives were vocally in favour of a middle-class tax cut during the campaign, although their plan was slightly different and it would take a brave opposition party to go on the record against putting money in Canadians’ pockets.
At a post-election press conference on Wednesday, Trudeau said he expects at least the progressive parties in the House to support the bill.
The Liberals expect the tax cut will save the average family about $600 a year and lift about 40,000 Canadians out of poverty. The tax cut means that an additional 700,000 people will pay no federal tax at all.
During the campaign, the Liberals and Conservatives highlighted duelling tax cut plans aimed at the middle class. To save Canadians a few hundred dollars a year, the Conservative plan lowered the first tax bracket, while the Liberals increased the basic personal amount on which no tax is applied.
The two plans amounted to mostly the same thing, but according to analysis from University of British Columbia economist Kevin Milligan, the Liberal plan is slightly more generous to people at the low end of the income scale.
GUN CONTROL
The Liberals have been tossing around ideas for stronger gun control since at least July 2018, when a mass shooting on Toronto’s Danforth Avenue killed two people and wounded 13. A surge in Toronto gun violence over the past year added further urgency and made this a big election issue in a crucial region.
But the Liberals — following a public consultation — decided that a national handgun ban would be too expensive (due to buybacks from current gun owners) and likely ineffective (given handguns are frequently smuggled over the U.S. border).
Instead, the party’s platform promised to give municipalities more power to restrict handguns and it promised a national ban on “all military-style assault rifles,” though defining what exactly counts in that category is easier said than done.
The platform also had vague language on doing more to prevent gender-based violence, strengthen safe-storage laws and bring in new rules on “where and how guns are advertised, marketed, and sold.”
The Conservatives frequently oppose additional gun control measures, arguing they’re unnecessary or overly burdensome on hunters and target shooters. But the Liberals should have no problem getting the NDP and Bloc support for this.
PHARMACARE
In the lead-up to the election, all signs pointed to a public drug insurance program being a major part of the Liberal platform. The Liberals had appointed former Ontario health minister Eric Hoskins to lead an advisory council on creating pharmacare; its report submitted in June estimated the program would cost $15 billion annually when fully implemented.
Yet the platform was curiously empty of any specific promises here. It included only a fuzzy promise to take “the next steps to implement national pharmacare,” and it allocated just $6 billion over four years for this, which is not enough for even a fledgling universal pharmacare program. Furthermore, that money also needs to pay for the platform’s commitment to improve access to family doctors, home care, palliative care and mental health services.
The NDP, however, campaigned on a promise to implement full universal pharmacare as quickly as possible. They may push for a much faster adoption of pharmacare in return for their support on other Liberal bills.
CELLPHONE BILLS
The Liberals know the simplest way to keep their minority government afloat is to win NDP votes and they’ll be looking for easy wins with policy ideas that both parties like.
The Liberals and the NDP made a lot of hay during the campaign about their plans to lower the costs of cellphone bills, and both parties’ platforms point out that Canadian telecom companies enjoy high profits.
The Liberal plan to lower cellphone bills promises to cut the average bill by 25 per cent, saving a family of four about $1,000 per year. The Liberal platform says the “government’s regulatory powers” will be used to ensure the costs are cut.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh touted his party’s plan to lower cellphones bills at almost every campaign stop and he made it one of his “six priorities” for supporting a Liberal minority.
It’s likely the two parties will come together to find common threads in their plans and get moving on what could be a popular piece of legislation with Canadians, if not economists.