Less than a day after the writ was dropped for a federal election, the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) unveiled its 160-page platform, a document that calls for billions of dollars in new spending to lift Canada out of the pandemic, create new jobs and get spending back under control.
“You’ll probably notice ideas that you haven’t heard from Conservatives like me before. It’s time for Conservatives to take inequality seriously, because that’s becoming more of a problem in our country,” said Erin O’Toole, the CPC leader in the introduction of the party’s new Canada’s Recovery Plan. He told reporters at a news conference on Aug. 16 that the CPC’s plan includes “securing the country” by balancing the federal budget “over the next decade.”
However, the CPC plan was quickly criticized by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) on Aug. 16 for failing to provide a credible plan to balance the books and save money within the federal budget.
“The Conservatives don’t have a credible plan to balance the budget and they’re barely paying lip service to reducing the deficit,” said Franco Terrazzano, federal director with the CTF. “The government is spending $500 billion this year, but instead of going after the low hanging fruit like reversing MP pay raises, the Conservatives are promising to spend billions the government doesn’t have.”
The unveiling of the CPC plan on Aug. 16 followed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s request to Gov. Gen. Mary Simon on Aug. 15 to dissolve Parliament for a federal election on Sept. 20.
The Albertan made attempts to contact CPC Red Deer - Mountain View MP Earl Dreeshen, for comment but messages were not immediately returned before press time. He is running for re-election in the riding.
The CPC’s ambitious multi-billion-dollar plan, which has not yet been costed by the Parliamentary Budget Officer, includes a promise to restore a million lost jobs within one year of the election with four new incentives, including the creation of the Canada Job Surge Plan. This would pay up to 50 per cent of the salary of new employees for six months following the phasing out of the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy.
There is also Canada Investment Accelerator, Rebuild Main Street Tax Credit and Main Street Business Loan business incentives designed with tax credits and loans to help small and median sized businesses, which the CPC insists will create jobs.
The CPC is also promising to help low-income workers by doubling the existing Canada Workers Benefit up to a maximum of $2,800 for individuals and $5,000 for families.
Under a new CPC government, the Tories are plan to provide loans of up to $200,000 to small and medium businesses in the hospitality, retail and tourism sectors, with 25 per cent of them being forgivable.
The CPC is also planning to support restaurants with a one-month plan of providing a 50 per cent rebate for food and non-alcoholic drinks purchased for dining in at restaurants between Monday and Wednesday.
And then there is the GST Holiday proposal. For one month, the CPC will suspend the federal sales tax so that all retailers and consumers can get a boost.
The CPC plan also calls to increase the annual growth rate of the Canada Health Transfer to at least six per cent from its current rate, an expense that could cost taxpayers nearly $60 billion over the next 10 years.
Under the Tories new election document, the Liberal’s $30 billion child-care plan would be scrapped in favour of turning the current Child Care Expense Deduction into a refundable tax credit that would cover up to 75 per cent of the child care cost for lower-income families. The CPC say this approach would bring down the national cost of child care to $10 a day per child within five years.
Area candidates
As for candidates in other political parties running in the Red Deer - Mountain View riding, only the Maverick Party - a sort of Bloc Quebecois for the West, has one selected.
He is Mark Wilcox, a 44-year-old airline pilot who lives in Carstairs with his wife Shannon and their two daughters, age 13 and nine.
The Maverick Party was formerly known as Wexit Canada.
Wilcox says the party’s goal is to obtain a stronger voice for the West, the way the Bloc Quebecois does for Quebec.He says if that doesn’t work, a referendum on separation, involving all of the West, from B.C. to Manitoba, would be a last resort.
Wilcox, formerly from B.C., says he joined the Maverick Party out of frustration over how the West has been treated by federal governments over the years.
"I don’t like the direction Canada is heading under (Prime Minister and Liberal leader Justin) Trudeau. And to be honest, I don’t know that we’d fare any better under a CPC (Conservative Party of Canada) government,” he said during an interview.
“I think it’s time that the West had a strong and united voice, speaking not only from the West but for the West; kind of along the lines of what the Bloc Quebecois does for the province of Quebec.”
“I’m not an immediate separatist,” he said. “We’re running a two-track approach. One side of our track includes constitutional amendments and the other side includes a referendum on creating an independent state; not necessarily separating.
“I'm a cautious optimist that if we can get some Maverick Party MPs into Ottawa, we can fix some of this parity and become more equal with our eastern part of our country.”
Wilcox was asked if he’s concerned that votes for the Maverick Party could split the vote in the West and give the Liberals an even more solid majority in Ottawa.
He said in order to avoid doing that, the Maverick Party is being “very responsible” by only running candidates in ridings with overwhelming CPC support.
Red Deer-Mountain View is considered to be one of those ridings. The current MP, Dreeshen, has won four straight elections, going back to when the riding was configured differently.
“Even if I take half of Earl’s votes, we’re still not in any danger of electing an NDP or Liberal (candidate),” Wilcox said.
“If you look at places where the Maverick Party is running candidates it’s always in a strong Conservative riding, just for that scenario. We don’t want to send an NDP or Liberal to Ottawa because of something we did.”
