[whispering] please read this, it’s the NDP’s policy book.
Highlights of their goals should they be elected as government (for me at least):
Working with the provinces and territories to recognize foreign diploma and professional credentials
Creating an effective inspection mechanism to ensure that temporary foreign workers are not being exploited and subjected to poor and illegal working conditions.
Stopping the militarising of development aid.
Allowing temporary foreign workers to bring immediate family members to Canada.
Supporting social and cooperative housing, in cooperation with all levels of government.
Ensuring accessibility standards for all forms of disability are met in social housing.
Adopting specific strategies to address homelessness, with special attention to the needs of Aboriginal peoples.
Launching a national strategy to eliminate poverty in Canada, including: • A focus on the core priorities of income security, housing and social inclusion; • A clear definition and measurement of poverty; • Specific responses to urban and rural poverty; • An analytic framework which takes into account various factors that put some at greater risk of living in poverty, such as gender, Aboriginal status, child rearing and/or single parenthood, low wages, immigration or refugee status, low education, and/or prolonged illness and disability; • Leadership by the entire government, with health and income security ministers taking the lead; • The appointment of a Poverty Elimination Commissioner to monitor and hold the government accountable; and • Ensuring that each province and territory has a fully portable designation for persons with disabilities.
Fighting the privatization of public health care services, including through the use of existing mechanisms within the Canada Health Act (which ... MIGHT mean they’ll expand it to include mental health care??? maybe I’m hoping too much but).
Working towards the establishment of a national healthcare council to ensure that the Canada Health Act is enforced and the range of services extended to include home care, palliative care and prescription drugs. (remember, this used to exist but Harper actually abolished it in one of his cuts to fund our military)
Working with First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples to address their specific health care challenges.
Protecting the health and safety of sex-trade workers.
Reforming Canada’s electoral system through mixed member proportional representation (!!!!!!!)
Assisting under-represented and marginalized groups to participate fully in the political process.
Protecting the right to vote by ensuring that regulations on voter identity do not unduly restrict a citizen from casting a ballot. (glaring at the Harper government here)
Abolishing the unelected and unnecessary Senate
Honestly I could go on but they seem like SUCH a better choice than everything Harper and his party have been doing so far
