Liberals release platform in waning days of election campaign

WHITBY — The Liberal party released a late-stage election platform Saturday that pledges billions in new spending and charts a major internal change in priorities from the party’s 2021 platform under former prime minister Justin Trudeau.

Liberal Leader Mark Carney released his platform after the only two debates of the campaign concluded, and a day after advanced voting began.

It lands in the middle of a stop-and-go trade war with the United States, Canada’s largest trading partner.

The plan would add $35.2 billion in new spending over the next year and a total of $129 over the next five.

The 65-page document shows a reversal in the proportion of operating and capital spending within the government as Carney eyes attracting investment to Canada amid the global economic crisis prompted by U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Carney said there is no room for “libertarians” during an economic crisis, because that’s when the private sector retreats and governments must step up.

“Governments must lead and catalyze private sector investments,” he said.

“The past required rebuilding public services after years of cuts and preparing the country for the recovery from COVID,” the platform said. “Now we must build our economic capacity by growing our capital stock.”

The plan would push the deficit up this year from $46.8 billion to $62 billion and factors in $20 billion in revenue from Canada’s counter-tariff response.

Most of the Liberal party’s policy planks have already been announced at this point, but the plan includes new measures such as creating an in vitro fertilization program that offers Canadians up to $20,000 for an IVF treatment cycle. This would cost about $103 million a year.

The plan also adds $30.9 billion to defence spending over the next four years, largely backloaded into the last two years, as Canada aims to meet its NATO target on a faster timeline than the Trudeau government planned.

Canada has fallen under sustained pressure from the U.S. and other NATO allies for lagging behind the pack in defence spending, and Carney has pledged to reach the NATO target of spending the equivalent of 2 per cent of GDP on defence by 2030.

During the Liberal leadership race, Carney pledged a carbon border adjustment — effectively a tariff on imports from major polluters. The platform includes this promise, saying it would help protect Canada’s most trade-exposed sectors.

The plan, released in a federal budget-style media lockup, would push the debt-to-GDP ratio over the next year up from 1.47 to 1.96 per cent — eventually dropping to 1.35 per cent by 2029.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has previously accused the Liberals of employing a “sneaky accounting trick” to hide that adding billions in new spending would balloon the deficit further.

Carney was up late Friday before the release of his platform, going over documents in a hotel lounge in Ajax, Ont., alongside staff and Quebec incumbent MP François-Philippe Champagne, who is also currently the finance minister.

Champagne had two binders and a bottle of water, while Carney drank tea. Carney jumped back and forth from a table in the corner of the lounge where Champagne sat to a larger table where many of his Liberal team were gathered, some drinking beer.

Before going up to bed at around 11 p.m., Carney stopped to take a photo with hotel staff.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 19, 2025.

— Written by Kyle Duggan in Ottawa and Catherine Morrison in Whitby, Ont.