GLOBE AND MAIL, 2025 FEBRUARY 3, THE EDITORIAL BOARD
If all goes as expected, Canada will face important back-to-back general elections in
the coming months.
Ontario’s is already in motion, thanks to the snap vote called last week by Premier
Doug Ford, with ballot day set for Feb. 27. At the federal level, all signs point to a
confidence vote the minute Parliament returns in late March that will bring down the
Trudeau government and kick off a general election, with voting in April or May. If
that scenario doesn’t come to pass, there still has to be a federal election no later
than Oct. 20.
There are also scheduled elections in Nunavut, Yukon and Newfoundland and
Labrador this fall. It will be a busy year but also a highly unusual one, because the
stakes in every vote will be at a historical high.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs have made the political landscape
unrecognizable. All bets about our biggest trading partner are off, and any politician
who goes into an election this year talking about anything else has to be suspect in
voters’ eyes.
Here are the issues that politicians at the federal, provincial or territorial level must
address if they want to be taken seriously in 2025 and beyond:
Acknowledging a changed world. Our old assumptions are dead. We are heading
into an era of protectionism, led by a U.S. President who believes his country can only
win if others lose. Campaigning as if this weren’t the case would not only be wrong, it
would be weird.
Eliminating interprovincial trade barriers. Any politician who cannot commit to
something so obviously overdue and urgent will be wasting Canadians’ precious
time.
Building adult federal-provincial relations. Fighting America’s economic
aggression requires a respectful working relationship between all levels of
government that rises above silly partisanship. Among other things, federal
politicians should pledge not to creep into provincial jurisdictions; their provincial
counterparts, in turn, need to stop blaming their problems on Ottawa.
Rescuing Canada’s productivity. Politicians at all levels need to pledge to invest in
infrastructure, cut red tape and reform their respective tax systems in order to free up
capital and promote foreign and domestic investment. Any party that doesn’t offer a
workable plan to immediately increase Canada’s lagging productivity and ease the
way for capital investment cannot be considered a serious option.
Balancing budgets. Enough with vowing to balance provincial and federal budgets
some time down the road. Candidates and their parties should pledge to do it by the
end of their first term, and then live up to that.
Investing in defence. Canada needs a properly funded and manned military,
period. We must be able to protect our interests, meet our NATO commitments and
make a meaningful contribution to continental defence. It will require hard choices
(that will likely impact the provinces) when it comes to federal spending. Hard choices
require leadership; voters should insist on it.
Fixing health care. Politicians need to get past the tired debate about preserving
the government monopoly on health care and focus on the only thing that matters:
timely access to care regardless of income. Timely doesn’t mean equal; it just means
timely. There are too many jurisdictions around the world that have far better
outcomes than Canada does with a mix of public and private care for any party to
beat the drum for the status quo.
Battling climate change. The federal fossil fuel charge (carbon tax to many) appears
to be doomed. The serious candidate has to have a politically durable and
economically realistic alternative that doesn’t insult Canadians’ intelligence by telling
them it will be pain-free. Politicians also need to invest in mitigation plans to prevent
forest fires and flooding.
Repairing immigration. Canada’s points-based immigration system was once the
envy of the world. It took the Trudeau government just a few years to ruin it. It’s on the
mend now, but a serious candidate needs a plan to fully restore it.
Not all of these things are easy to do or sell. But the moment is here for Canada, as
we said last month, to finally become a mature, independent nation that can compete
in a changed world. Electoral candidates who get beyond simple slogans and old
battles, and who are prepared to do the difficult things required of the times, are the
only ones who deserve voters’ attention.