Platform Crunch: Comparing four parties’ tax cut and cash transfers promises

Tax and cash transfer promises are flying fast and furiously in the first week of Canada’s 45th federal election.

David Macdonald

2025-03-28

Earlier in the week, the Liberals came out with a promise to cut the lowest federal personal income tax rate from 15 per cent to 14 per cent and also cut the value of tax credits to match.

The Conservatives have the exact same plan except they’d drop it to 12.75 per cent (over two years), as well as exempting an additional $10,000 in seniors’ working income from taxation.

The NDP was the third party to join the frenzy. They’re promising to increase the basic personal exemption to $19,500. They’d also target cash transfers by doubling the Canada Disability Benefit to $4,800 and boosting the Guaranteed Income Supplement for low-income seniors. They’d pay for part of this by reinstating fairer taxation for capital gains, which was cancelled just before the election (of an inclusion rate of 66 per cent on capital gains over 250,000).

The Greens are in here too, promising to increase the personal exemption to $40,000, just like the NDP but to a much higher level.

Eby Pledges to Curb Cabinet Power in Controversial Tariff Response Bill

Critics had complained about a lack of legislative oversight

Andrew MacLeod

2025-03-28

The B.C. government is backing off on the part of a tariff response bill that critics said would give cabinet too much power to act without scrutiny from the legislature.

“Across the board people understand the intent of this bill, which is to ensure that we’re able to respond quickly to executive orders from the president that target our economy,” Premier David Eby said this morning. “But what they would like to see is increased ability and increased oversight, safeguards, in relation to the legislative assembly process.”

Attorney General Niki Sharma introduced Bill 7, the Economic Stabilization (Tariff Response) Act, on March 13 saying it was “enabling legislation” that would allow the government to quickly respond to threats from U.S. President Donald Trump.

A section of Bill 7 would have allowed the B.C. cabinet to make regulations for “addressing challenges, or anticipated challenges, to British Columbia arising from the actions of a foreign jurisdiction,” reducing interprovincial trade barriers and supporting the economy of B.C. and Canada.

A Whiplash of Feelings about the Maple Leaf

Canada’s flag has been buffeted by winds of controversy. Then Trump levelled his threats.

Christopher Cheung

2025-03-31

Where have you spotted the Canadian flag in your neighbourhood lately?

It’s become an increasingly common sight in daily routines. Stores from small grocers to the likes of Save-On-Foods have been hanging them over their local products. Some Canadians have been flying them from their cars. Others have draped them over their balconies for all to see.

In the face of Donald Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, the flag is being displayed proudly as a show of Canadian patriotism.

However, just a few years ago, flying the flag would have signalled something very different. Political analysts who study the flag have been tracking its whiplash of meanings.

In 2021 the flag’s use was muted on public flagpoles. The potential unmarked graves of 215 children had just been discovered at the Kamloops Indian Residential School site, and governments did not feel comfortable flying the flag at full-mast, viewing it as a symbol of colonization.

Then in 2022 it was adopted by the convoy movement and protesters of vaccine mandates.

“People on the liberal or progressive end of the spectrum were less inclined to use it,” said Forrest Pass. He is a curator with Library and Archives Canada and a professional vexillologist, someone who studies the history, symbolism and use of flags.

But in 2025 when Trump began threatening Canada, the national flag is being flown in proud defiance.

#Candidates with Extreme Views Welcomed on Poilievre’s Team Disturbing stances, including ties to JD Vance, seem to offer an edge rather than barrier to being selected.

Christopher Holcroft

2025-03-31

After 91-year-old former prime minister Jean Chrétien’s rousing speech to Liberals earlier this month, it can be easy to forget the still-formidable politician was once doubted, even dubbed “yesterday’s man.” That label prompted Chrétien to run his first campaign as Liberal leader in 1993 showcasing a team of star candidates, invoking the slogan “I have the people, I have the plan, we will make a difference.” It worked; Chrétien’s Liberals won the first of three consecutive majority governments.

Featuring accomplished candidates on their team also proved beneficial to Stephen Harper and Justin Trudeau’s election victories, and to Jack Layton’s NDP breakthrough in 2011.

Taking on private equity, preventing American takeovers, and ensuring Canada is ‘Never 51’

A conversation with Jon Shell of Social Capital Partners

Joan Baxter

2025-03-28

(Updated) Private equity firms are suddenly in the news.

As the Halifax Examiner reported here, Canada’s oldest retailer, the iconic Hudson’s Bay Company, recently declared bankruptcy and is now liquidating all but six of its 80 stores across the country.

Like so many other retail outlets before it, The Bay succumbed to the private equity buyout-and-bankrupt scourge. The Bay is owned by NRDC, a large U.S. private equity firm owned by real estate mogul Richard Baker, who has “driven a set of coffin nails into The Bay.”

Canada’s new Prime Minister Mark Carney has also been scrutinized for his private equity background. Before becoming leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and then prime minister, Carney spent nearly five years as chair of a private equity firm – Brookfield Assets Management – and there have been criticisms of the way Brookfield operates, and its use of the tax haven of Bermuda for two of its funds.

Many Canadians who are active on the stock market – including Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre – are invested in Brookfield through exchange-traded funds. That’s how pervasive large private equity firms have become.

ArtsVote: Cast a ballot for culture

Also: final day of testimony in Nova Scotia human rights hearing into racial profiling complaint against local store; celebrating Nova Scotia trades and tech through competition; taking on private equity, preventing American takeovers, and ensuring Canada is ‘Never 51’

Philip Moscovitch

2025-03-31

The federal election is in full swing, and there’s been lots of talk about tariffs, housing, Canadian sovereignty, tax cuts, and affordability.

Arts funding? Not so much.

The Canadian Arts Coalition is hoping to change that with their ArtsVote campaign. It encourages the federal parties to commit to at least 1% of the budget going to arts funding, and wants to emphasize the role of the arts in contributing to employment, the economy, and “a shared and unique Canadian identity.”

The workers’ agenda for the federal election

Labour organizations are mobilizing to make sure that the issues that affect workers, like tariffs, job security, and access to healthcare, are on the agenda in this election.

Gabriela Calugay-Casuga

2025-03-27

Labour organizations are calling on workers to widely mobilize for the upcoming federal election, citing it as one of the most important elections in Canada’s recent history. Amidst an escalating trade war triggered by the US, thousands of jobs remain at risk. The issues facing workers stretch beyond tariffs, though, with many families suffering due to a health human resource crisis, stagnating wages and the rising cost of living.

Pierre Poilievre is Trying to Distance Himself From Donald Trump. American Right-Wing Media Keeps Praising Poilievre

American right-wing MAGA personalities are rooting for Pierre Poilievre

Eric Wickham

2025-03-28

Despite Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre’s recent attempts to distance himself from US President Donald Trump, American right-wing MAGA media personalities and influencers have been some of Poilievre’s biggest supporters.

Poilievre has enjoyed several years of sympathetic coverage from right-wing media in the United States. However, as soon as Trump began talking about applying tariffs to Canadian products and making Canada the 51st state, Poilievre’s alignment with Donald Trump has appeared to become a liability for the Conservative Party’s hopes to form government.

The Conservative leader has watched his once seemingly insurmountable lead in the polls disappear over the past few months. According to the Toronto Star, Conservative insiders discussed using MP Jamil Jivani to send backchannel communications to his best friend, Vice President JD Vance, requesting Trump distance himself from Poilievre.

Poilievre has received kind words from Trump in the past. On January 6, 2025, in an interview with right-wing radio host Hugh Hewitt, Trump expressed positive feelings about the opportunity of working with Poilievre as Canada’s prime minister

Is Pierre Poilievre too 'in sync' with Donald Trump?

The Alberta premier thought it was a good thing — a top Conservative strategist begged to differ

Aaron Wherry

2025-03-29T04:00:00-04:00

The most controversial statement of the federal election so far was uttered before the campaign even started — not by a federal politician, but the premier of Alberta.

In an interview taped on March 8 with a right-wing American media outlet, Danielle Smith said that, while there would always be disagreements, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre would be "very much in sync with … the new direction in America" and that Canada and the United States would "have a great relationship" for as long as Poilievre and Donald Trump were in office.

"If we do have Pierre as our prime minister, then I think there's a number of things that we could do together," Smith said. "Pierre believes in development, he believes in low-cost energy, he believes that we need to have low taxes, doesn't believe in any of the woke stuff that we've seen taking over our politics for the last five years."

Charlie Angus🟧 on Bluesky

See you in the Nickel City on Wednesday for the Charlie Angus Resistance Tour.

www.sudbury.com/local-news/c...

The Walrus on Bluesky

Big media isn’t dying—it’s going through a renaissance.

Journalist @jokinen.bsky.social explores how small outlets are quietly rebuilding public trust where big networks have failed: thewalrus.ca/canadian-journal...

Charlottetown NDP🟧 on Bluesky

Today, we celebrate trans joy, resilience, and visibility. Trans lives are valid, beautiful, and deserving of love and respect—today and every day. #TransDayOfVisibility 🏳️‍⚧️💙