What do the federal campaign platforms say about democracy and governance?

In a time of serious global democratic decline, and especially with the United States falling from the ranks of true democracies and posing a very real threat to Canada, it is crucial that the next federal government do what it can to strengthen governance and protect democracy.

Below is a brief exploration what each of the main federal political parties are promising in terms of governance, democracy, and rights. (For analyses on other areas, see Stephanie Carvin on national security, University Affairs on post-sec ed, and follow people like Kevin Milligan and Jennifer Robson on economic, tax, and social policy.)

Conservative Party of Canada

The Conservative platform is extremely heavy on tax cuts, promoting the oil and gas sector and other resource development, building infrastructure and housing (including funding for First Nations and “Indigenous-led housing solutions”), and implementing ‘tough on crime’ policies.

Several of the Conservatives’ policy promises, including those to bring in new mandatory minimum sentences, eliminate bail for certain offenders, and force treatment on people with addiction, almost certainly violate the Charter of Rights.

One of the few sections of the CPC platform devoted specifically to governance is a promise to strengthen the Accountability Act, and while there are some interesting/legitimate ideas in there (including a rule on tax transparency, requiring anyone running for public office to disclose where they paid taxes in the last seven years), most of the promises are not so much thoughtful policy as an explicit attack on Mark Carney. The Conservatives would eliminate the option for blind trusts for cabinet ministers and instead require divestment and disclosure, ban ‘shadow lobbyists’ from serving unpaid advisory roles and require anyone who stands to gain financially from advice to register as a lobbyist (this conflation of policy advisor and lobbyist arguably muddies the ethical waters, and seems ill-advised - there might be a better way to achieve the same result in the context of Canada’s conflict of interest rules), and somehow to “Ban politicians from making decisions that benefit themselves or their families disproportionately” - something our conflict of interest rules already contemplate. All of these ideas stem from (weak) accusations by the Conservatives that Carney has leveraged his personal financial interests.

Interestingly, the platform also endorses a “Nation-to-Nation” relationship with Indigenous peoples, promising infrastructure development, tax credits, a consultation process for major legislation and projects, and funding for housing programs. This is basically a diluted version of Liberal promises circa 2015.

In a section on ‘media freedom’, the Conservatives promise a $25 million fund for local journalism, to “restore news on Meta and other platforms” by repealing (the legitimately misguided, awful) legislation passed by the Liberal government that sought to impose a link tax on Facebook, support for Indigenous language media, and defunding the English-language CBC (while retaining Radio-Canada services). The promise to defund the CBC should be viewed as nothing short of a direct assault on democracy. The media environment had been decimated, misinformation and disinformation dominates the social media landscape, and as one of the few things that hold governments to account, losing the news capacity offered by the public broadcaster would only further erode quality, mainstream journalism in this country.

Bizarrely, the Conservatives also promise to add the following language to the citizenship oath: “I pledge gratitude to those who worked, sacrificed, and gave their lives to defend the freedom I now enjoy and to build the country of Canada I now call home. Like them, I pledge to fulfil my duties as a Canadian citizen.” This is ideological and silly.

The Conservatives also promise to “Protect Free Speech on Campus” by requiring universities to defend free expression under section 2 of the Charter as a condition for federal funding. As I have explained in the past, this actually undermines free expression, because the effect is to punish the expressive freedom of individual professors for the bureaucratic failures of their university administrators.

There’s also a “Quebec Platform” section that basically outlines the Harper approach called ‘open federalism’ (but now referred to as “responsible federalism” for some reason), along with promises to make Quebec happy.

Finally, although I could not find reference to it in the platform, Pierre Poilievre has also promised to eliminate “woke ideology” from university research, a grave threat to academic freedom and free expression that mirrors the destructive attack Donald Trump is making against US universities.

Overall, as Steve Saideman might put it, this is very weak sauce. As with any platform, it is a mixed bag, but there are some deeply dangerous and damaging promises in here if you care about rights and democratic norms.

Liberal Party of Canada

The Liberal Party platform places a big emphasis on infrastructure and housing, tax cuts, and affordability, although in this context it emphasizes advancing Indigenous participation as rights holders in “major projects”.

In contrast to the CPC platform, the Liberals promise to “reinforce” and protect the CBC with statutory funding, a funding boost, a renewed mandate to improve accountability, and a promise to strengthen local news, among other matters.

Where the Conservatives had an initiative to fight hate crime, the Liberals promise to implement an “Action Plan” (drink!) to combat hate - although there’s not much detail here, and to maintain support for funding directed at security needs relating to Pride festivals across the country.

Much of the rights-based discussion is aimed at the promotion of human rights internationally. But domestically the Liberals promise to expand the Court Challenges Program (funding litigation to pursue Charter claims against governments of all levels), address systemic barriers facing BIPOC people (although there are no details here), and ensuring funds for 2SLGBTQI+, and people with disabilities. There’s also a section on Women’s rights, primarily focused on reproductive health initiatives.

Similarly, a section on reconciliation that seems to match past Liberal promises, including on consultation, moving forward on implementing the TRC Calls to Action, etc. and a series of funding initiatives on infrastructure, Indigenous languages, and economic development.

Overall, this is somewhat thin gruel. While the Liberals are not actively threatening to infringe rights the way elements of the Conservative platform do, few of these ‘governance and democracy’-related items do much but reflect past promises. There is no apparent interest in more challenging issues relating to institutional reform, improving government oversight, parliamentary accountability, or ensuring the Charter plays a more prominent role in the legislative process. Nor does the theme of protecting rights of vulnerable communities emerge very strongly (for example, the section on Canada’s addiction crisis, while not introducing dangerous ideas like forced treatment, say nothing about protecting and expanding harm reduction policies like safe consumption sites or safe supply).

New Democratic Party

The NDP platform also hypes tax cuts, housing, and affordability.

The platform includes a section on Reconciliation, including to uphold UNDRIP, implement all 94 TRC Calls to Action, and funding initiatives.

Unlike the CPC and Liberal platform, there is a section on democratic reform that includes a promise to enact electoral reform (replacing the Single-Member Plurality system with a Mixed-Member proportional one), lowering the voting age to 16, and restoring Ministries dedicated to Women and Gender Equality, people with disabilities, and diversity.

Concluding thoughts

Overall, promises relating directly to good governance and democracy are very thin. This is particularly depressing because Canada is not immune to the threat of weak checks on executive power, mis-and-disinformation, and right-wing populism. None of the major parties’ platforms speak to Canada’s horrible record on government transparency, or to more robustly protecting rights. Only the NDP speak to weak parliamentary accountability and oversight, although even this is relegated to the issue of electoral reform. It’s not as if there aren’t a lot of excellent policy ideas available for the parties to draw from (including in my recent book with Janet Hiebert and Anna Drake).

Although some might think this lack of focus is understandable given a prevailing focus on the threats from the Trump regime, the economy, and affordability. But the importance of good governance is central to these issues, especially as each of the parties seek to spend massively in certain key areas. Instead, in the area of democracy, governance, and rights, the platforms range from generally weak (Liberal and NDP) to dangerous (Conservative).

Fortunately, nothing is stopping the next government from nonetheless pursuing needed reforms and better governance approaches. They just need to be pushed to do it.