I recently commented in an email exchange that the Liberal government in Ottawa had taken a hard tack to the political right. I was asked what I meant by that.
My rejoinder was to do a thought experiment and think of the Conservative Party releasing its own social policy agenda aimed at the next election with the following promises:
1. We will not implement the Canada Disability Benefit (CDB) beyond the June 2025 legislation already in place or soon to be in regulations.
2. We will annul the government’s poverty reduction strategy
3. We will continue the First past the post system of deciding elections
4. We will continue current housing policies and we will not pursue policies that would enshrine housing as a right
5. We will not pursue extraordinary policies to improve pay for firefighters or to bring equity to their pay grid
6. We will annul GBA+ as a policy framework.
7. We will continue to restrict international student arrivals
8. We will not promise to improve water supplies on land-based First Nations
9. We will continue to enforce vigorous collection of CERB /CRB overpayments with no end date.
10. We will not reform EI. It will remain as it is.
Now the question (drum roll) ….. what would be different from what is happening now under the current federal government?