Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre introduced his platform on April 22 as one that would “restore” Canada’s promise by lowering costs and crime while increasing the country’s per capita GDP. Poilievre said his government would cut spending on bureaucracy, consultants, and foreign aid, while boosting economic growth through expanded resource production.
Reducing the Deficit by 70 Percent, With an Asterisk
Poilievre, who has long criticized increasing government debt, has attempted to put fiscal responsibility at the core of his costed platform. The Conservatives say under their plan, Canada’s deficit would drop from the Parliamentary Budget Office’s projected $46.8 billion deficit in 2025 to $14 billion by 2028—a decline of 70 percent.The Tories do not provide a plan for when they would balance the budget. The Conservatives’ plan would also still run a $100 billion deficit over the next four years, but this is smaller than Mark Carney’s projected $130 billion deficit over that time period.
The Conservatives say their key measures will boost production and thus increase government revenue in taxes to offset expenses. The party says this includes $12.8 billion generated from the additional homes its plan would see built, $11.2 billion from the auto sector after the Liberal government’s electric vehicle mandate is removed, $5 billion from the oil and gas sector after scrapping the emissions cap, and $2 billion after removing the Clean Fuel Regulations.
Carney said that the Conservatives’ platform is using “phantom numbers” to make its accounting look better than it actually is. Carney also told reporters that if his party used the same assumptions in its budget, then Ottawa would have a fiscal surplus by 2030.
Axing of Taxes
Poilievre had previously made “Axe The Tax” a prominent political slogan, in reference to his party’s commitment to get rid of the Liberal government’s carbon tax, thereby decreasing the cost of food, fuel, and heating. But they stopped using the slogan after Carney reduced the consumer carbon tax rate to zero as his first act as prime minister.Poilievre’s platform still says a Conservative government would axe the carbon tax “in full,” which includes the federal industrial carbon tax backstop that Carney has kept. But his party plans to take a hatchet to other taxes as well.
As previously announced, the Conservatives would cut the lowest personal income tax rate from 15 percent to 12.75 percent, while also getting rid of the capital gains tax hike and taxes on reinvestment in Canada. These three measures would cost a combined $55.5 billion over the next four years. Liberals have also pledged to bring down taxes for the lowest income bracket by 1 percent and to cancel the capital gains tax hike.
Also on the chopping block would be the GST on all new homes that cost less than $1.3 million. The Liberals have also said they would remove the GST for homes up to $1 million for first-time homebuyers.
In an effort to woo Canadians concerned with ever-increasing taxes, the Conservatives would also introduce the Taxpayer Protection Act. This would ban the introduction of new or higher federal taxes without Canadians first voting in favour of them in a referendum.
More Energy Production and Building Infrastructure
Poilievre’s platform argues that over the last 10 years, Canada’s economy has been “strangled” by government red tape, particularly when it comes to energy projects like pipelines and liquid natural gas terminals. Poilievre has also said Liberal policies have sent billions of dollars of investment to the United State.The platform says the Conservatives would get rid of the Impact Assessment Act, which puts additional federal regulatory requirements on major projects such as pipelines and which Tories say in effect makes new major projects impossible for investors. Carney has said he would keep the legislation but streamline approval of major projects. The Tories also say they would remove the ban on oil tankers from operating off the coast of B.C., to allow more markets for Canadian oil and gas resources.
The Conservatives have also promised to create a National Energy Corridor to rapidly approve and build critical infrastructure. The party says this would fast-track approvals for projects like transmission lines, pipelines, and railways.
The Conservatives would also get rid of the Liberals’ cap on oil and gas production, plan to double oil production in Newfoundland and Labrador, fast-track B.C.’s LNG Canada Phase 2 and the GNL Quebec LNG projects, and expand the Port of Churchill in northern Manitoba to extend the shipping season.
Cutting Consultants, Foreign Aid
Liberals have often accused Poilievre of wanting to perform deep cuts to social programs as he seeks to reduce the deficit. On the campaign trail, the Tory leader said he wouldn’t touch programs such as dental care and pharmacare, which were born of the alliance between the minority Liberals and the NDP during the last session of Parliament.The Tory platform does not mention cuts in these areas, but a number of Liberal initiatives would be halted in order to reduce government spending. For example, the Tories plan to cancel the Liberal gun buyback program set to impact individuals this spring. They say this would provide $547 million in savings. It is currently unknown how much exactly Ottawa will need to spend to confiscate previously legal firearms that have now been designated as prohibited.
The biggest saving would come from bringing the number of external consultants in the public service back to 2015 levels, the platform suggests.
Conservatives say cutting back on consultants would provide a saving of $23.5 billion over four years.
Another sizeable reduction in government expenditures would come by reducing foreign aid, the party says. Poilievre has often said Canada should not be sending taxpayer dollars to global bureaucracies, “terrorists,” and “dictators.”
In the French-language debate, he specifically mentioned his government would cut back funding to United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the U.N.’s aid agency for Palestinians, given that some of its members were affiliated with the terrorist group Hamas and took part in the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre in Israel. Other party leaders like Carney and the NDP’s Jagmeet Singh say UNRWA provides essential aid to Palestinians, while Poilievre says he would focus on eliminating Hamas and relying on non-governmental organization to deliver aid to Palestinians.
Cutting back on foreign aid would provide $9.4 billion in savings over years, according to the Conservatives’ platform.
The Liberal platform has pledged to maintain foreign assistance at $800 million annually.
Some cutbacks would also be done around the housing file, which has been a core issue for Poilievre since the time he began his run for party leader in 2022. The platform says Tories would bring funding to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation back to 2015 levels, generating savings of $669 million over four years.
Poilievre also wants to end the Housing Accelerator Fund, a key housing policy of former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The fund provided money to municipalities changing local policies to speed up development. This would save $2.6 billion, the party says.
Defunding CBC but Still Supporting Some Media
Poilievre has long promised he would defund the public broadcaster CBC, accusing it of “pro-Liberal” bias.The costed platform doesn’t say by exactly how much CBC’s budget would be cut. Poilievre’s intention to retain the CBC’s French-language service Radio-Canada across the country is possibly complicating accounting.
In the costed platform, the Tories say that $1 billion per year would be saved from scaling back on Crown Corporations, including the CBC. The public broadcaster has been funded by Ottawa to the tune of $1.38 billion. It is also funded by ad revenue, which Poilievre says is not fair competition for private media outlets.
The platform says the CBC should be a “Canadian-owned, self-sufficient media organization that is a not-for-profit and supported by listeners, donations, sponsorships, ad revenue, and licensing revenue.”
Carney has made protecting the CBC a key plank of his platform, framing it as a means to defend Canada’s identity against the United States. He said he would increase the public broadcaster’s budget by an initial $150 million per year.
Poilievre’s media plan is not related to only the CBC, and it is also framed as a way to protect “our shared Canadian identity.”
The costed platform says that $100 million will be spent every year for “supporting media freedom,” without further details. Some concrete measures include increasing funding to the Local Journalism Initiative by $25 million and providing $25 million to support indigenous media.
Promises around media seek to “restore free speech, protect personal liberties, honour our shared story, and promote Canadian culture and history.”
Along those lines, Poilievre has promised to introduce the “Freedom of Speech Act” to repeal unspecified Liberal laws and restore Canadian news content on Meta’s platforms. This is likely a reference to the Online News Act (formerly known as Bill C-18), which compels platforms to compensate media outlets for the display of news links. Meta has complied by stopping to display links instead of paying Canadian outlets.
Conservatives have also opposed the Online Streaming Act (previously known as Bill C-11), which provided the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission more regulatory power over the Internet and imposed Canadian content rules on media companies operating on the web.
Another media pledge by the Tories involves limiting domestic government advertising to Canadian platforms.
