About Good for Canada

What is Good for Canada?

On October 19, Canadians will go to the polls to determine who will form the next federal government.

What if this election featured a comprehensive platform that could make the federal government a force for good in everyone’s lives by creating a more resilient, healthier, safer, more equal Canada?

The Good for Canada platform highlights the high cost of income inequality in our country by telling the personal stories of real Canadians—and gives us a way to move forward.

Our 4-plank platform outlines a set of practical progressive policy solutions and the means to pay for them. Good jobs, a strong social safety net, and robust public programs are the key to ending income inequality.

Read our platform to end income inequality and see how the party platforms measure up. This October, we hope you’ll cast a vote that’s good for Canada.

Why income inequality?

The Good for Canada platform offers a solution to one of the biggest challenges of our time: worsening income and wealth inequality in Canada.

Canada’s income gap between the rich and the rest of us used to narrow during good economic times and widen during recessions. That trend has shifted. Post-war, Canada became more equal with the rise of the middle class, but by 2007, the richest 1% reversed equality trends, amassing incomes gains reminiscent of the 1920s. Canadian households now find they’re working longer and harder just to keep financially afloat. Many are falling behind. It’s time to reset the balance.

The research to date has been clear: governments have a strong role to play in implementing policies that help keep a lid on growing inequality, to make sure Canada’s economy works for everyone, not just a privileged few.

Who’s behind Good for Canada?

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives is Canada’s leading progressive policy think tank and a trailblazer on income and wealth inequality analysis. The CCPA is committed to a socially, economically, and environmentally just Canada. We deliver original, independent, peer-reviewed, non-partisan research and analysis that equips Canadians with the information they need to make informed decisions and press for social change.

Since 2006, CCPA’s Growing Gap project has been studying the problems of worsening income and wealth inequality in Canada. Our team of economists and researchers has been tracking household income, wealth, spending and credit data, unearthing a troubling phenomenon.

The Good for Canada platform is largely based on the research and policy solutions in CCPA’s Alternative Federal Budget (AFB). The AFB is an alternative federal budgeting exercise coordinated by the CCPA with the participation and support of researchers, activists and leadership from a broad spectrum of civil society organizations representing millions of Canadians. Read the 2015 Alternative Federal Budget.

Read more about the CCPA’s work at www.policyalternatives.ca.