Canada’s prime minister Mark Carney on Saturday unveiled the Liberal Party’s “platform” (election manifesto) for the federal election scheduled for April 28.
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“In a crisis, you need a plan. Here’s mine,” he posted on social media platform X.
The Liberals, who have been in power since 2015, and its political rivals have been making large spending and tax-cut announcements throughout the campaign. However, Carney, who succeeded Justin Trudeau in March, and leaders of rival parties went into the leaders’ debates before releasing platforms which would explain how their promises would be funded.
The Liberals’ election document comes a day after advance voting opened for the federal election. Early voting will be held till Monday.
Liberal Party’s election platform
According to The Globe And Mail, the Liberal election platform includes some items for which spending had not been announced. However, most of the pledges were mentioned during the campaign.
The platform outlines nearly $130 billion in new spending over four years; defence and housing, along with tax cuts, are among the largest items.
Another $28 would be spent on “undefined” sources, as per the document.
While the document says the deficit to GDP ratio will decline to 1.36 per cent in 2028-29, it does not make any adjustments to account for trade impacts. However, the $20-billion in expected revenue for the current fiscal year from Canadian-imposed counter-tariffs, which were slapped on the United States. have been included. The party has said the revenue from new tariffs will be used to support affected workers and businesses.
The platform also breaks down spending into two categories – operating and capital – and, for the current fiscal year, it shows a $9.2 billion deficit in operating spending, which it said would become a small surplus by the 2028-29 fiscal year.
Among the newly-announced promises is a pledge to create an in vitro fertilization (IVF) scheme to provide up to $20,000 for a single standard cycle of IVF treatment.
There is also a promise to reach a target of spending 2 per cent of GDP on defence by the 2029-30 fiscal year.
