The Globe and Mail - 19.10.2019

SATURDAY,OCTOBER19,2019 | THEGLOBEANDMAILO NEWS | A

Quebec’sBill

LIBERALSThis past spring, Quebec’sgovernment enacted legislation barring

certain public servants, including teachers, from wearing religious garments

such as turbans, hijabs and niqabs. Premier François Legault argued it wasa

step forward for official secularism, but to Mr. Trudeau, it was a step backward

that enshrined religious discrimination into law. Bill 21 is being challenged in a

Quebec court, but the federalgovernment has not intervened, although Mr.

Trudeau hasn’t ruled out doing so in the future.

CONSERVATIVESMr. Scheer also opposes Bill 21, but says its legality should be

tested in court, and a Conservativegovernment would not intervene against it.

NDPMr. Singh – whose election ads in Quebec have played up his status as a

turban-wearing Sikh with a message of inclusion – thinks Bill 21 is discrimi-

natory, but also says anNDP government would stay out of the court chal-

lenge.

GREENSMs. May condemned Bill 21 when it was introduced, but hasn’t in-

structed Green candidates to do likewise. That’s not uncommon with the

Green Party, which is more decentralized than other parties and allows candi-

dates to oppose official policies. The Greens did, however, ask before the elec-

tion that candidates use caution when talking about the issue.

GRAHAMHUGHES/THECANADIANPRESS

LIBERALSMr. Trudeau, who ran in 2015 on promises
of reconciliation, but met resistance from many First
Nations over his support for oil pipelines, is doubling
down in this election by vowing to hold Canada’s
laws to standards set in the UN Declaration on the
Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). The Liberals
have pledged to eliminate all long-term drinking-wa-
ter advisories on reserve, of which there are currently
more than 50. At the sametime, thegovernment says
it will appeal a Canadian Human Rights Tribunal de-
cision urging compensation for Indigenous children
unnecessarily brought into the child-welfare system.

CONSERVATIVESSimilar to the 2015 platform of his
predecessor, Stephen Harper – whose environmental
policies triggered the Idle No More movement of
2012-13 – Mr. Scheer’s platform focuses on Indigenous
economic prosperity, arguing that bureaucracy and
outdated Indigenousgovernance are obstacles to
that. Mr. Scheer would also create a dedicated cabinet
job for consulting with Indigenous people on major
natural-resources projects and “increase support for

organizations that facilitate engagement between In-

digenous groups and resource development compa-

nies.” Like Mr. Trudeau, Mr. Scheer supports Ottawa’s

challenge of the human-rights tribunal ruling on In-

digenous child welfare.

NDPThe New Democrats would set up a “National

Council for Reconciliation” to oversee a planned

overhaul of natural-resources policy, the child-wel-

fare system, education, infrastructure and health

care. The NDP would fully implement UNDRIP. Mr.

Singh would also spend $1.8-billion to bring clean wa-

ter to every Indigenous community.

GREENSMs. May wants to give Indigenous nations a

process to opt out of the Indian Act, thelaw govern-

ing most federal-Indigenous relations. The Greens

would also set up an independent land-claims arbi-

trator and implement UNDRIP, the recommenda-

tions of a 1996 royal commission on Indigenous is-

sues and the calls to action of the Truth and Reconcil-

iation report.

Indigenouspolicies

MARKBLINCH/REUTERS

Taxes

LIBERALSThe Liberals’ broadest tax proposal is to
raise the basic personal tax-free amount, currently
$12,069, to $15,000 by 2023. New revenue would
come from a luxury-items tax, eliminating tax
breaks for high-income earners and increasing taxes
for large companies. The Parliamentary Budget Of-
fice review has expressed doubts about whether this
will produce as much revenue as the Liberals ex-
pect. The Liberal plan wouldalso leavethe govern-
ment in deficit with no timeline for balanced bud-
gets.

CONSERVATIVESA proposed “universal tax cut,”
costing slightly more than the Liberals’ plan, would
cut the tax rate to 13.75 per cent from 15 per cent on
annual income between $12,069 and $47,630. The
Conservatives also want to restore Harper-era tax
breaks that the Liberals deemed too costly and

eliminated, such as the credits for public transit, arts

and sports education programs for children. Over

all, the Conservatives say they would run balanced

budgets in five years.

NDPThe party’s “new deal for tax fairness” would

raise the corporate tax rate to 18 per cent from the

current 15 per cent, tax wealth greater than $20-

million by 1 per cent and avoid broad tax cuts, such

as those the Liberals and Conservatives propose.

GREENSThe Green platform’s corporate-tax hike is

three percentage points higher than the NDP’s, and

it proposes the same tax on wealth greater than

$20-million. No changes are proposed to personal

tax rates. A PBO analysis says it’s highly uncertain

how much revenue would be raised by the Greens’

tax increases.

Foreignpolicy

LIBERALSMr. Trudeau famously said in 2015

that “Canada is back” after the Harper gov-

ernment frayed ties to many international

institutions. But he came under criticism

from the Organization for Economic Co-op-

eration and Development for falling short of

restoring Canada’s foreign-aid budget to lev-

els under the Harpergovernment. In this

election, the Liberals are reaffirming their

feminist foreign-assistance policy and in-

creasing aid spending annually toward 2030.

CONSERVATIVESThe Tories want to focus

foreign-aid efforts on poor countries such as

Haiti, Afghanistan or the countries of sub-

Saharan Africa, but slash the current $6-bil-

lion foreign-aid budget by $1.5-billion, a 25-

per-cent reduction. Mr. Scheer, who has said

he is personally anti-abortion, says those

cuts wouldn’t affect Canada’s global pro-

choice initiatives.

NDPThe New Democrats want to rededicate

Canada to global peacekeeping and raise for-

eign aid to 0.7 per cent of gross national

income. They would spend more on health

initiatives such as the Global Fund to Fight

AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and, similar

to the Liberals, they say they would make

the rights of women and girls a cornerstone

of their foreign-policy agenda.

GREENSThe foreign-policy section of the

Greens’ platform mentions no foreign-aid

priorities and is much more focused on do-

mestic military affairs. It calls for more re-

sources and training for the military to de-

fend the North as Arctic ice melts, and to

“normalize the deployment of military per-

sonnel to protect civilians and communities

from extreme forest fires, flooding and

storms caused by climate change.”

ELECTION,A