ULTIMATE ISSUE PRIMER CHEAT SHEETCO

NSER

VATI

VES

ISSU

ESLI

BERA

LND

PGR

EEN

ABORIGINAL CHILD CARE CLIMATEHeres a clue to how party strategists sometimes view child care issues: In the 2011 election, 60 per cent of couples with kids under five voted, but only 36 per cent of single parents with children the same age did so.

In Canadian election campaigns, Indigenous peoples issues have a way of mattering more in theory than in fact, but Aboriginal votes could make the difference in a handful of strategic ridings on Oct. 19.

Already pencilled into the next prime ministers calendar: a trip to Paris at the end of November for a major United Nations climate change conference.

Harper apologized for the residential schools in 2008, formalizing $1.9 billion in compensa-tion for those who attended. Since then, his relationship with Aboriginals has been uneven, and it didnt feature much in his campaign.

Mulcair pledged $1.8 billion over four years for First Nations education, promised to create a cabinet committee on Aboriginal issues, and launch an inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.

May has essentially vowed to revive the 2005 deal worked out by the then-Liberal government with the provinces to create various new child care programs. The Green platform includes oering a $1,500 tax credit for every child to employers (or groups of small-business owners) who create daycare in their workplaces.

Not surprisingly, the Greens have an extensive climate change platform, right down to encouraging ecient light bulbs. The party opposes all current pipeline plans and advocates an aggressive reduction in greenhouse gases: 85 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050, on the way to Canada becoming carbon-neutral by 2100.

Trudeau has emphasized the fact that some provinces have already taken the lead on climate change and promised to invite the premiers to Paris as well as meet with them within 90 days to begin creating a Canada-wide framework for combatting climate change. More specifically, he pledges to plow $2 billion into a trust fund that would support projects that cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Trudeau would scrap the Universal Child Care Benefit and other related family supports, replacing them with a new Canada child benefit which would pay even more to parents earning less than $150,000. At the upper range, a low-income family with one child under six would receive $6,400 tax-free. Liberals also promise more flexible parental benefits lasting up to 18 months. They would eliminate income-split-ting for couples with children.

The signature Conservative program is the Universal Child Care Benefit, which pays $160 per month for each child under the age of six and $60 per month for children between the ages of six and 17. (The payments are taxable.) Harpers big new oer is parental leave of up to 18 months in federally regulated sectors.

Last fall, Mulcair promised to create 370,000 new daycare spaces that would cost parents no more than $15 a day, by 2018-19. Ottawa would spend $1.9 billion in that year, but would need the provinces to share the burden. Over two NDP mandates, Mulcair says a million spaces would be created, although that assumes major buy-in from the provinces. Like the Liberals, Mulcair would get rid of the Conservatives income-splitting for couples with kids.

Trudeaus first major promise of the election campaign was that a Liberal government would invest a total of $2.6 billion in First Nations education over four years, supported by another $500 million over three years to improve school infrastructure on reserves. The Liberals also promised to spend $50 million to inject new life into the Aboriginal Skills and Employment Training Strategy, and provide $25 million a year for training facilities.

The Greens are alone in pledging to restore the $5.1-billion funding commitment for First Nations under the 2005 Kelowna Accord, negotiated by the former Liberal government and scrapped by the Harper Conservatives. May also promises to create an independent body to handle land claims and treaty negotiations, and promises to implement the recommendations of the 1996 Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples.

The NDP would introduce a cap-and-trade system that puts a market price on carbon, and Mulcair would end cabinets final say over key energy-sector environmental approvals, particularly for pipelines.

Harper agreed at a G7 summit last June to bring Canadas greenhouse gas emissions down to 70 per cent below 2010 levels by 2050. But how? Weve simply got to find a way to create lower carbon-emitting sources of energy, he said. Hes oered no further detail, beyond pledging to balance whats best for our climate with the needs of our economy.

9.8%

26.5%

Aboriginals Non- Aboriginals

PER CENT OF POPULATION WITH A UNIVERSITY DEGREE

FIRST NATIONS HAVE PAID A HIGH PRICE FOR

148 YEARS OF LIBERAL AND CONSERVATIVE GOVERNANCE

Manitoba NDP MP Niki Ashton

ELECTION 2015

IN 2012

25% OF EMISSIONS

IN CANADA WERE FROM THE OIL

AND GAS SECTOR

26 O C T O B E R 2 6 , 2 0 1 5

ULTIMATE ISSUE PRIMER CHEAT SHEETEverything you need to know about the 18 issues that defined the election campaign, and where the parties stand on each one. By John Geddes

COALITIONS CRIME DEFENCEConservatives campaign hard on crime, the other parties far less aggressively. Its considered a trump card by Tory strategists, especially among families seeking safe lives in suburban ridings.

They had one recently in Britain. Theres no rule against them. And yet the lingering memory of the 2008 coalition crisis on Parliament Hill continues to make them controversial.

War in Syria and Iraq lent real urgency to the campaign defence debate, but other issuesincluding major questions about how Ottawa handles buying big military hardwarestand apart.

May has said her goal is to elect enough MPs to become the balance of power in a minority government. She hopes for reforms that would greatly increase the possibility of coalition governments in the future. She told a university newspaper that Greens are part of coalition governments around the world, which is extremely doable in Canada. But unless her party stages a startling late surge in the polls, her clout in a coalition, or other minority scenario, wont be a big factor.

Polls put the NDP in third, making Mulcairs stance in a Conservative or Liberal minority scenario a crucial question. He has ruled out propping up Harper, so that leaves letting the Liberals govern under some arrangement. In theory that arrangement might include a coalition, but simply voting in the House on an issue-by-issue basis to give a Trudeau-led minority a chance seems more likely. Mulcair hasnt ruled anything out, stressing his aim is to get rid of Stephen Harper.

The NDP has been broadly critical of the Conservatives tough-on-crime agenda, but Mulcair was careful not to propose a platform vulnerable to being labelled so# on crime. He promises funding to put 2,500 new police ocers on the streets, and more money to the Canada Border Services Agency. He pleged $30 million for crime-prevention and anti-gang programs aimed at youth.

Trudeau wouldnt restore the long-gun registry scrapped by the Tories, but vows to toughen up on transport of restricted weapons, and spend $100 million a year to help police combat guns and gangs.

The string of court rulings against Harper-imposed mandatory minimum sentences continued during the campaign, with an Ontario judge striking down a six-month term for growing marijuana for tracking. Still, Harper promises more of the same, such as two years for fraud over $5,000 with multiple victims. He also pledged $4.5 million more annually for RCMP crack-downs on grow-ops and meth labs, as well as a drug hotline for worried parents.

Defence cuts a#er the 2008-09 recession, and setbacks on procurements, dented the Conservatives pro-military reputation. Last springs budget, however, promised an $11.8-billion, 10-year increase in defence spending. Harper promises to expand Canadas special operations by nearly 35 per cent by 2022.

The NDP promises to increase Canadas contribution to UN peacekeeping until Canada is the top Western contributor. While maintaining Tory budget commit-ments to defence, Mulcair signals a new directionwithout oering many specificsby promising a white paper with a new strategic vision by sometime next year. On Harpers preference for the F-35 fighter jet, Mulcair promises an open process to replace aging CF-18s at the best price.

The Greens call for an independent law-reform commission that would report to Parliament on proposed changes to the Criminal Code, and for a forum for public discussion of contentious legal issues such as assisted suicide, prostitution, and more realistic anti-drug policies, including the legalization and regulation of marijuana.

The Conservative platform mentions coalition only in the context of Canadas military participation in the one confront-ing and disrupting ISIS in the Middle East right now. Harper demonized the 2008 bid by Liberals and the NDP to form a parlia-mentary coalition, with Bloc Qubcois backing, to oust his minority government. He hasnt made the coalition spectre a big theme in this campaign, perhaps because the Bloc isnt a real factor.

Trudeau has ruled out supporting Harper or any formal coalition with the NDP. That leaves something short of a coalition, perhaps a minority arrangement involving Liberals and New Democrats.

Greens bemoan the uneven Tory record on military procurement. They say Parliament should have more substantial oversight of defence spending. As well, Mays party opposes the military mission against ISIS.

Trudeaus flat rejection of the cutting-edge F-35 as Canadas next fighter, in favour of some less expensive aircra#, was his signature campaign announcement on the military. On fighting Islamic State, he would continue to help train Iraqs forces, but end Canadian involvement in air strikes. On procurement, the Liberals say they would make shipbuilding the Canadian priority. And, like the NDP, they call for a bigger emphasis on United Nations peacekeeping.

Every time that weve raised the possibility of collaborating

with the Liberals, its Justin Trudeau who slammed

the door shut, personallyTom Mulcair, Oct. 13, 2015

HANDGUNS WERE USED IN

68% OF FIREARM-RELATED

HOMICIDES IN 2013

RIFLES AND SHOTGUNS WERE USED IN

24%

VS.

M A C L E A N S M A G A Z I N E 27

CONS

ERVA

TIVE

SLI

BERA

LND

PGR

EEN

DEMOCRATIC REFORM HEALTH CARE INFRASTRUCTUREEven though health is primarily the provinces responsibility, this issue matters too much to too many voters for federal politicians to ignore the subject.

Remember the Mike Duffy trial? Back in August, it cast a long shadow. Although the trial is on break (it resumes next month), Senate reform remains a simmering issue, heavy with symbolism.

Multi-billion-dollar figures are the norm in this, the costliest of platform categories. Many economists support the basic idea of big spending, but how can voters choose among the grand plans?

ELECTION 2015

The NDP would give municipalities another one cent of the federal gas tax to pay for infrastructure such as roads and bridges, a boost that would climb to $1.5 billion in four years. Mulcair promises to be investing $1.3 billion a year more within four years.

The NDP health care platform is dominated by three relatively big-ticket measures, each costed out by the party over four years: $2.6 billion to move toward a universal drug plan; $1.8 billion to add 41,000 home-care spaces for seniors; and $200 million to hire 7,000 doctors, nurses and other health professionals. As well, the party would open 200 new community health clinics across Canada, including mobile clinics for rural and remote areas.

The NDP has long called for abolishing the Senate, but that would require major consti-tutional negotiations to bring all the prov-inces into agreement. Mulcair promises to get rid of winner-take-all voting in each rid-

ing, bringing in a sys-tem called mixed-mem-

ber proportional representation.

Trudeau vows to almost double planned federal infrastructure spending over the next decade to about $125 billion from $65 billion. But the Liberals define infrastructure broadly, including social infrastructure like daycare centres. So, for 2016-17, they would divide new investment in three equal slices: $1.68 billion each for public transit, social and so-called green infrastructure.

Trudeau promises to hammer out a new health accord with the provinces and work toward cheaper prescription drugs through bulk buying. His party also pledges $3 billion over the four years to improve home care.

Trudeau kicked all Liberal senators, 32 at the time, out of his partys caucus in 2014, and has advocated a non-partisan appointment process. Hes promised this will be the last federal campaign to elect MPs with first-past-the-post voting, vowing to set up an all-party committee to look at alternatives like ranked ballots and proportional representation, and institute reforms within 18 months.

Conservatives says federal infrastructure spending ballooned to more than $5 billion a year from $571 million a decade ago. They focus on priorities like ports and public transit expansions that ease gridlock in big cities.

The Conservatives unilaterally cut the rate of growth of health transfers to the provinces, but point out that massive federal support still increases every year, and is now projected to rise from $32.1 billion in 201415 to $40.9 billion in 201920. On top of that, Harper promised some niche projects during this campaign, including $50 million a year starting in 2017-18 for a not-for-profit organization to fight cancer.

Harper has appointed 57 senators, including Mike Duy, Pamela Wallin and Patrick Brazeau, all suspended in the last Senate session. But now he says hes done with naming new senators as vacancies open up (there are now 22 empty seats). A re-elected Harper government would maintain a moratorium on appointments until the Senate is somehow reformed. Harper has suggested the provinces must lead the way.

Pegging Canadas infrastructure deficit at $350 billion, Greens would commit $6.4 billion of GST revenue every year to shrinking that gap. That would include $600 million in 2016-17 for expanding Via Rails passenger service.

May is pledging to be smarter about health care delivery by emphasizing preventive measures and incentivizing healthier lifestyles. The Greens want to include naturopaths as part of their care model, while tightening regulations to prohibit cancer-causing chemicals in our food and consumer products.

May links overhauling the Senate to other democratic reforms, such as proportional representation in voting and even lowering the voting age. The Greens want to hold a referendum on Senate reform to determine how to proceed with changes proposed by a non-partisan commissionpossibly electing senators and changing regional distributionor abolishing the upper chamber outright.

WE HAVE A WEAK AND SHRINKING ECONOMY, AND ITS THE WRONG TIME FOR AUSTERITY MEASURES

Elizabeth May, Macleans National Leaders Debate, Aug. 7

ISSU

ES

NUMBER OF PROVINCES THAT

SUPPORT ABOLITION OF THE SENATE:

2

FEDERAL GAS TAX TRANSFER TO PROVINCES, 2014-15

$745 MILLION

$458 MILLION

B.C.

QUEBEC

ONTARIO

$253 MILLION

IN 2014, TOTAL HEALTH CARE

SPENDING IN THIS COUNTRY WAS ESTIMATED

AT MORE THAN

$215 BILLION

NDP PROJECTED FUNDING FOR EDMONTONS

LIGHT TRANSIT: $2 BILLION OVER

20 YEARS

28 O C T O B E R 2 6 , 2 0 1 5

JOBS MARIJUANA NIQABIs it crime or health policy? Either way, pot polarizes voters. Stances on marijuana tend to signify, for many voters, something beyond policysuggesting cultural dividing lines that can still matter deeply.

Deficits, GDP growth, trade balances, infrastructure spendingthese are the terms that tend to dominate the economic policy debate. For many voters, though, they all boil down to one concern: jobs.

Zunera Ishaq challenged the governments ban on veils during citizenship ceremonies and quickly became an election issue herself. She recently took her oath of citizenship after an appeal court ruled in her favour.

Aiming to occupy the safe middle ground between his two main rivals, Mulcair calls for decriminalization of small amounts, but not full legalization. The NDP says its goal is to remove production and distribution from the control of organized crime. How, exactly, is not so clear.

Mulcair says face coverings make him uncomfortable, but government cant dictate what someone wears. He also accuses Harper of exploiting the issue, saying: You are using it as a weapon of mass distraction.

Mulcair stresses the loss of 400,0000 manufacturing jobs in Canada in the Harper years. (Statistics Canada has said that international trend began before the Tories took power.) Beyond broader economic measures like infrastructure spending, the NDP pledges to create 40,000 jobs, co-op spots and internships for youth trying to break into the employment market. And the NDP promises a new $15 minimum wage for federally regulated workers.

A Liberal video features Trudeau and Toronto MP Adam Vaughan explaining the partys position: Legalization and regulation would make it harder for kids to access pot, they say, while the status quo enriches organized crime. As well, the current laws lock up too many petty criminals. It was one of the first issues Trudeau on which took a bold, distinctive stance as Liberal leader, but he hasnt made it high-profile in this campaign. Tories would like it to be bigger.

Trudeau accuses Harper of being needlessly divisive. He rejects arguments that banning the niqab is a matter of protecting womens rights. At the last leaders debate, Trudeau said to Harper, You have more men in your caucus who are anti-abortion than there are women wearing the niqab in Quebec.

The Liberals promise a three-year youth employment strategy financed at $300 million, and say they would pump $200 million a year into supporting so-called incubators and accelerators for innovative firms. Another $100 million a year would beef up Ottawas long-stand-ing Industrial Research Assistance Program, which helps innovative small- and medium-sized companies, and is generally thought to have a solid track record.

Harper would try to pass a law banning face coveringsmainly the niqab worn by a small minority of Muslim womenduring the citizenship ceremony. Courts have twice ruled in favour of Ishaq, the niqab-wearing immigrant who fought then citizenship minister Jason Kenneys imposition of the ban by ministerial edict. Harper went further, telling CBC he would follow Quebecs lead by looking at banning the niqab for federal public servants.

When measuring Harpers jobs record, your yardstick matters. He points to 1.3 million net new jobs since the nadir of the 2008-09 recession. His rivals emphasize last months rise in unemployment to 7.1 per cent, the highest rate since February 2014. The Conservatives set the goal of creating another 1.3 million well-paying jobs by 2020, through a mix of low taxes, no more deficits, and trade deals. Can it be done? It amounts more to an aspiration than a plan.

May proposes studying the social and legal issues surrounding marijuana, and other thorny issues, through an independent commission that would produce balanced public reports. May has publicly supported the legalization and regulation of marijuana.

May calls the discussion about face coverings at citizenship ceremonies a false debate, and says Canadians need to understand the facts of the case more clearly. She is also concerned about the amount of money spent fighting the court challenge, and, like Trudeau and Mulcair, says the Greens would end the governments court challenge of Ishaqs case.

Greens would create a tourism depart-ment to stimulate job growth in that sector, and establish a Youth Community and Environment Service Corps, which would support jobs for 160,000 youth over four years.

PART-TIME EMPLOYMENT

ROSE BY

74,000 IN SEPTEMBER

PREVALENCE OF SELF-REPORTED CANNABIS USE AMONG CANADIANS BY AGE CATEGORY

24.4%YOUTH (15-24)

ADULTS (25+) 8%

13.5%

7.1%

YOUTHS, AGES 15-24

OVERALL

UNEMPLOYMENT RATES

Harper opposes any attempt to decriminal-ize or legalize marijuana. Tobacco is a product that does a lot of damage, he said on the campaign trail. Marijuana is infinitely worse and its something that we do not want to encourage.

IN THE 2011 ELECTION,

MORE MUSLIM IMMIGRANTS

VOTED LIBERAL

LIBE

RAL

TORY

NDP

M A C L E A N S M A G A Z I N E 29

CONS

ERVA

TIVE

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BERA

LND

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EEN

PENSIONS REFUGEES TAXESThe heartbreaking photograph of a toddler dead on a Turkish beach disrupted the campaign like no other news event. But will enough voters remember on Oct. 19 for the refugee issue to matter?

Statistics Canada revealed during this campaign that the number of Canadian seniors had outstripped the number of children under the age of 15 for the first time, highlighting the importance of the pension issue.

The Conservatives claim to have cut taxes about 180 times since 2006. But if low taxes define the Tory brand, duelling tax policies have become a defining contrast between Liberals and New Democrats, too.

ELECTION 2015

The NDP would raise the corporate income tax rate by two percentage points, or $3.7 billion a year, and end the tax break for stock options, reaping another $500 million. Mulcair would cut the small-business tax rate two percentage points. Like Trudeau, Mulcair would repeal income-splitting for parents with kids. He would not double, as the Tories would, the allowed contribution to Tax-Free Savings Accounts. Mulcairs combined savings: more than $2 billion every year.

The NDP proposes settling 10,000 Syrian refugees in Canada by the end of this year, and 9,000 per year for each of the next four years. He would appoint a Syrian refugee coordinator to make that happen.

The NDP would boost the Guaranteed Income Supplement to li# 200,000 seniors out of poverty, and keep the eligibility for Old Age Security and the GIS at 65. They would expand home care to 41,000 more seniors and provide funding for 5,000 more nursing-home beds. Within 100 days, Mulcair says he would meet with the provinces to discuss expanding the CPP and the Quebec Pension Plan.

Trudeau would cut the middle tax bracket, on income $44,700$89,401, to 20.5 per cent from 22 per cent, and pay for it by hiking taxes on earnings of more than $200,000 a $3-billion shi# in the tax burden.

Trudeau says a Liberal government would sponsor 25,000 Syrian refugees to come to Canada, as well as work with private sponsors to bring in an undetermined additional number. He pledges to spend $250 million to hit that target, including the rapid investment of $100 million by spring 2016. That funding would help speed up processing, and improve services in Canada to settle refugees when they arrive here.

Trudeau pledges to maintain the old-age benefits eligibility year at 65 and not raise it to 67. (The Tory age change would start in 2023 and be phased in over six years.) The big question is what the Liberals might do with the Canada Pension Plan. Trudeau says he would meet with the premiers to talk about enhancing the CPP. Tories warn that his preference for CPP reform amounts to a big, mandatory paycheque deduction.

Harper is promising a home renovation credit worth up to $600 per year, plus raising the limit for tax-free withdrawals from RRSPs for buying a first home to $35,000 from the current $25,000. He also pledges to introduce a tax lock law that would purportedly prohibit sales, income or payroll tax hikes for four years. But his biggest tax message is that he would keep what hes done already, especially income-splitting for parents, which his rivals would scrap.

A#er little Alan Kurdis tragic death, Harper said careful security vetting of migrants remained essential. Still, he proposed taking an additional 10,000 Syrian and Iraqi refugees over the next four years, on top of the 10,000 Syrians they had promised earlier. He denied a newspaper report that his oce intervened to vet and approve refugee applications, although he said security concerns prompted an audit of Syrian refugees earlier this year.

Harper increased the Guaranteed Income Supplement and introduced pension income-splitting. This time, his platform promises a new tax credit for single and widowed seniors and new funds to combat fraud aimed at seniors.

The Greens urge a fundamental overhaul of the tax system, including the elimination of boutique tax credits introduced in recent budgets. May would reduce the small- to medium-sized business tax rate to nine per cent, raise the corporate tax rate, and con-sider an increase to the GSTa measure the mainstream parties view as politically toxic.

May wants Canadian military transports to bring Syrians fleeing their country to Canada by air or water, and calls for special measures like temporary resident permits to speed up the process. May also supported Trudeaus call for an all-party leaders meeting on the crisis.

May joins the other opposition leaders in calling for 65 to remain the age threshold for federal old-age benefits. But her Greens would replace various existing benefits with a guaranteed liveable income, which would not change the CPP, Employment Insurance or child care subsidies.

We have brought in the largest increase to the Guaranteed

Income Supplement for poor income seniors in 25 years

Stephen Harper, Macleans National Leaders Debate, Aug. 7

ISSU

ES

NUMBER OF REGISTERED

SYRIAN REFUGEES WORLDWIDE SINCE 2012:

4.1 MILLION

TAXES MAKE UP

81% OF TOTAL FEDERAL

REVENUES, 2013-14

TURNOUT BY VOTERS, AGES

65-74:

82%

30 O C T O B E R 2 6 , 2 0 1 5

TERRORISM TPP VANISHING CANADAEchoes of the epic 1988 election battle over Canada-U.S. free trade reverberated in this campaign, with the inking of the massive Trans-Pacific Partnership as the race entered its final stage.

Oct. 22, just three days after the election, will mark one year since Cpl. Nathan Cirillo was murdered at the National War Memorial in an attack that shocked Canadians into a new debate about terrorism.

How much, or little, Canadians know about their own country could be one of this elections sleeper issues. We call the related issues vanishing Canadalost federal data and an absence of new information.

Mulcair slammed the TPP as jeopardizing 20,000 auto parts sector jobs and threaten-ing family farms. In a late campaign charge, he said an NDP government wouldnt be bound by the agreement. He compared Trudeaus tentative approval of the deal during the campaign with the Liberal partys vote for Harpers Anti-Terrorism Act last spring. The NDP hopes for a breakthrough in southwestern Ontario, where the TPP worries some farmers and auto workers.

The NDP promises to reinstate the mandatory long-form census starting in 2016, while making more government data freely available by default. Mulcair would set up a parliamentary science ocer. He would update the Access to Information Act by giving the information commissioner new power to order the release of information.

By staunchly opposing Bill C-51, Mulcair set himself apart from Trudeau, likely helping fuel the NDPs climb in the polls back in the spring and summer. If he wins on Oct. 19, Mulcair promises to repeal C-51 within 100 days.

When asked about the TPP, Trudeau stresses that the Liberal party is a pro-trade party, but stops just short of full support, saying he needs to see the final text. Liberals will take a responsible approach to thoroughly examining the Trans-Pacific Partnership, he said. The Harper Conservatives have failed to be transparent through the entirety of the negotiations, especially in regards to what Canada is conceding in order to be accepted into this partnership.

Liberals would bring back the long-form census, make Access to Information virtually free, give Statistics Canada independence, consolidate federal science in a central portal, and create a chief science ocer.

Trudeau promises to repeal only parts of C-51. He approves of some elements, like sharing information among federal agencies and tightening up the no-fly list. Among a ra# of changes he proposes is the creation of an all-party committee of MPs to provide oversight of national security agencies. He would also require a statutory review of the Anti-Terrorism Act a#er three years, meaning it could be overhauled or even ended then.

Harper calls the 12-nation TPP a tremendous deal for Canada and pledges $4.3 billion to minimize the eects on the dairy, poultry and egg industry, plus $1 billion over 10 years to help auto parts makers.

Five years ago, the Harper government eliminated the mandatory long-form census questionnaire, moving to a shorter, voluntary one. The response rate dropped from 94 per cent in 2006 to 69 per cent, which makes the data far less reliable. The Conservatives deleted reams of federal reports from government websites and gutted departmental libraries. The Tories havent run on any new ideas on the census or information gathering.

Harper touts Bill C-51, the Anti-Terrorism Act passed earlier this year, as bolstering Ottawas ability to combat terrorism. Critics say it threatens civil liberties. In the cam-paign, his Conservatives propose banning

most travel from Can-ada to certain conflict zones where terrorist groups are active.

May opposes the TPP because she said it threatens supply management in the dairy sector and Crown corporations, including the CBC. She also expresses concern that the pact would include provisions favourable to global pharmaceutical industries.

The Green platform on science and information includes a pledge to bring back the mandatory long-form census, and promises to overhaul Access to Information and privacy laws.

May opposed C-51, but her campaign pitch to voters on security is mostly concerned with natural disasters. She pledges a national strategy for disaster preparedness that would include an emergency response system designed to support, for example, West Coast residents in the event of a major earthquake.

THE TOP LEGAL EXPERTS IN THE COUNTRY ALL CONCUR THAT BILL C-51 REPRESENTS A REAL THREAT TO OUR RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS

WITH NOTHING IN RETURNTom Mulcair, Macleans National

Leaders Debate, Aug. 7

WE WILL RESTORE THE LONG-FORM

CENSUS!Justin Trudeau at a

rally in an Ottawa

FOR MORE ISSUE PRIMERS, CHECK

OUT MACLEANS.CA OR OUR TABLET

EDITION

NUMBER OF PARTIES THAT

VOTED FOR C-51:

2

CANADIAN AGRICULTURAL

EXPORTS TO TPP NATIONS, 2014:

$34.1 BILLION

AUTO SECTOR EMPLOYMENT:

105,673

M A C L E A N S M A G A Z I N E 3 1