Prime Minister Stephen Harper speaks during a campaign event at Novo Plastics Inc., in Markham Ont., on Wednesday, April 6, 2011.
Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Explainer
The Conservative platform
Globe staff
Globe and Mail Update
Published
Last updated
A look at Conservative election promises made so far
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A CF-18 fighter jet undergoes routine inspection before take off at CFB Cold Lake in Alberta on Sept. 28, 2010.
Defence
-Continue with a plan to purchase a fleet of 65 F-35 joint strike fighters. The Harper government says the planes will cost $9-billion to buy, and another $6-billion to service. The Parliamentary Budget Officer says the price of the planes will be closer to $29-billion
-Complete the implementation of the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy
-Establish a new wing at CFB Bagotville and follow through on a committment to station 550 personnel by 2015
-Give the Coast Guard a law-enforcement mandate, and outfit selected Coast Guard vessels with armed capability
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Inmates of the Toronto Jail on Feb. 24, 2011.
Conservative Party of Canada
-Scrap the long gun registry
-Streamline and deport the process for deporting foreign criminals
-Provide enhanced EI benefits to parents of murdered or missing children, and parents of gravely ill children and amend the Criminal Code to double the victim surcharge
-Ensure that federal inmates undergo drug testing at least once a year, and deny parole to those who fail these tests
-End sentence discounts for multiple child sex offences and child pornography offences
-Develop a plan to combat human trafficking
-Strengthen laws against elder abuse
-Re-introduce legislation to clarify self-defence and citizen's arrest
-Bundle together a number of bills related to law-and-order (including Sébastien's Law, cracking down on organized drug crime, and eliminating pardons for serious criminals), and passing them within 100 days
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Canadian dollars
The economy
-No tax raise on families and consumers, and no tax raise for businesses that create jobs for Canadians
-Provide a one-year EI break for 525,000 small businesses
-Aim to complete negotiations on a Canada-EU Free Trade Agreement by 2012 and a Canada-India Free Trade Agreement in 2013
-Extend the 50 per cent straight-line accelerated Capital Cost Allowance rate for manufacturing or processing machinery and equipment by an additional two years
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Education
-Beef up the Canada Student Loan Program to increase the income threshold for loans and grants to part-time students; cut interest rates charged in some cases so Canadians can study part time while working
-Extend support for the Canada Youth Business Foundation
-Establish 30 industrial research chairs at colleges and polytechnics, and support research partnerships between college and university researchers and students
-Create 30 industrial research chairs at polytechnics and colleges to allow college students to interact with leading researchers
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People wait to see a doctor in the Emergency/Trauma Unit waiting area at Toronto's Sunnybrook Hospital on Dec. 5, 2010.
Health
-Forgive a portion of federal student loans for those who agree to practice in under-served rural or remote areas
-A new Adult Fitness Tax Credit, to cover up to $500 in registration fees for adults worth up to $75 for adults.
-Renew the federal-provincial health accord
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Syncrude's oil sands plant at Mildred Lake, north of Fort McMurray, Alta.
The environment
-Provide support to economically-viable clean energy projects that will assist in the replacement of fossil fuel with renewable fuel sources
-Create a hunting and wildlife advisory panel made up of hunters and fishers and conservation groups to offer Ottawa advice on endangered species and wetland protection
-Provide a loan guarantee for Newfoundland and Labrador’s $6.2-billion Lower Churchill River hydroelectric project
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The Guaranteed Income Supplement has been instrumental in reducing rates of poverty among the elderly in Canada over the past 35 years.
Seniors
-Increase the Guaranteed Income Supplement with up to $600 extra per year for single seniors, and up to $840 a year for senior couples
-Prohibit federally-regulated employers from setting a mandatory retirement age
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Idman Shil at her Surrey BC home on October 28th, 2009. The former Somali refugee was told to leave her newborn behind by International Office of Migration staff at the refugee camp she was in in Uganda and and have him brought over at a later date, only to be told by Canadian Immigration officials that he is not eligible to come to Canada.
Immigration
-Provide loans to recent immigrants to help pay for skills training and accreditation
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Families
-Establish income-sharing for couples with dependent children under 18 years of age, giving spouses the choice to share up to $50,000 of their household income for federal income-tax purposes
-Double the children's fitness tax credit by providing up to $1,000 to help cover the costs of registration fees for physical activities
-Establish a children's arts tax credit to cover up to $500 per child in expenses for arts or cultural activities
-Extend the ecoENERGY Retrofit-Homes program, which provides up to $5,000 per unit to offset energy-efficiency improvements, by one year
-Establish a family caregiver tax credit to provide support to those caring for infirm loved ones at home
-Double the amount Canadians can save in their tax-free savings accounts
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Jumbo carrots being harvested at the Visser Brothers Farm.— Peter Power/The Globe and Mail
Food
-Develop a National Farm and Food strategy to guide federal policy
-Revise current approval processes to allow for international equivalencies in certain products
-The creation of an “Agriculture Innovation Initiative, to support local farm-based research and development projects.”
-$100-million over five years to improve capacity in the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
