Federal party leaders lay out healthcare, housing plans in last week of campaigning

Federal party leaders laid out their plans to build homes and improve health care in the final week of election campaign as advance polls close Monday.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was in the Greater Toronto Area promising to build 2.3 million homes over the next five years.

The Conservative platform would also tie municipalities’ federal infrastructure funding to their pace of home construction approvals.

“Next, we would build on this increased construction by requiring municipalities permit 15 per cent more homes per year as a condition of getting federal funding,” said Poilievre.

Poilievre has yet to release a fully costed platform, as the Liberal party and the NDP had over the weekend.

He promises that it is coming Tuesday, although today was the last day to cast a ballot at an advance poll.

A record two million Canadians voted on Friday, which was the first day of advance voting.

Waterdown voters say the economy and affordability are at the tops of people’s minds this election.

“We need to get our economy running here, and I’m not in favour of what Trump is doing south of the border,” said one voter.

“In the millennial age demographic, we are looking for affordable housing,” said another voter.

Liberal Leader Mark Carney

Meanwhile in P.E.I., Liberal Leader Mark Carney said a Liberal government would commit $4 billion to provinces to build more hospitals and clinics, and would work to train more family doctors and nurse practitioners in Canada.

“In the U.S., healthcare is a big business,” said Carney. “In Canada, it is a right. We know that hospitals and clinics have been closing, when the needs in the healthcare system are growing, we need to reverse this trend and increase access to team base care.”

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh started his day in B.C. where he promised to cover “essential medicines” by the end of the year in an expansion of pharmacare.

He took shots at Poilievre for voting against pharmacare and dental care legislation in the House of Commons.

“So we fought for and delivered the first steps for universal pharmacare,” said Singh. “We know that Pierre Poilievre has made it very clear that he thinks people don’t deserve pharmacare. He thinks it’s a bad idea – he voted against it and he would cut it.”

Poilievre has said during the campaign that no one currently with access to dental and pharmacare coverage through government programs would lose those benefits under a Conservative government.

Election day is on Monday, April 28.

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