NDP Reality Check: 100 Days of Missed Opportunities

100 days into a Liberal government and people are still working harder than ever, but can’t get ahead.

Inequality is crying out to be addressed in Canada – yet in the first 100 days, many opportunities have been missed to make real gains, achieve real progress and implement real change.

• The Liberals’ misnamed “middle class” tax cut – which actually benefited those making up to $200,000 the most – was delivered almost immediately.
• Meanwhile, there has been no action to help everybody else – no action on the GIS, the Canada Child Benefit, or on affordable housing, despite Liberal promises to start “immediately” after the election.
• Liberals have now signed Stephen Harper’s job-killing Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal – negotiated in secret – without properly consulting the Canadian public.
• After promising to restore home mail delivery, Liberals are breaking their word and leaving the Conservatives’ cuts in place.
• Liberal climate change targets are still just as weak as Stephen Harper’s.
• Liberal ministers are busy trying to lower expectations about progress being made on climate change when first ministers meet next month.
• Liberals have taken no action to legalize, or even decriminalize, simple possession of marijuana. Instead, Liberals are now talking about the “ravages of marijuana” and only promising a new “federal-provincial-territorial task force.”
• The Board of Internal Economy continues to meet in secret, behind closed doors.
• Parliamentary Secretaries continue to exert influence on House of Commons Committees, despite Liberal promises to end PMO control.
• Liberals are refusing to overhaul Stephen Harper’s spy bill, Bill C-51, which threatens Canadians’ privacy and rights.
• CBC/Radio Canada’s funding cuts have not been reversed – and Liberals now refuse to commit to any of their promised new investments.
• Liberals have refused to stand up and agree to real enforcement of the Canada Health Act.
• The Conservative strategy to delay – and conduct ongoing studies rather than take concrete action on retirement security and the Canada Pension Plan – has been adopted now by the Liberal government.
• Liberals refuse to create an open, transparent and accountable review process for foreign takeovers – and instead seemed poised to take the rubber stamp approach.
• And while government finances take a hit, Liberals refuse to reverse any of Stephen Harper’s radical corporate tax cuts. Just like under the Conservatives, corporations will not be asked to pay their fair share under Justin Trudeau’s Liberals.

While he has spent 100 days telling everyday Canadians they have to wait for help, Justin Trudeau has shown he is very quick to listens to corporate interests on issues like the job-killing TPP trade deal.

In contrast, New Democrats will always stand with Canadians who – along with progressives all over the world – are standing up every day to entrenched corporate interests and fighting tirelessly against inequality.