No longer the official Opposition, the NDP still intends to hold the federal government to account.
Party leader Tom Mulcair was at Beban Park social centre on Tuesday, holding his first of two budget consultation town hall meetings on Vancouver Island that day.
“It’s not enough for us to just say who we are, what our plans are, what we would have done differently. That was the campaign,” Mulcair said. “It’s also our obligation now to hold the Liberals to account.”
Alistair MacGregor, NDP MP for Cowichan-Malahat-Langford, said Vancouver Island “put a lot of trust” in the party in the federal election, and holding federal budget consultation on the Island is a way to return the favour.
Mulcair suggested that the budget was an election issue this past fall, and said the NDP’s balanced-budget promise wasn’t intended as a campaign tactic.
“I can assure you that there was not a smoke-filled, dark room where someone emerged with a plan to say we’re going to run on a balanced budget,” he said. “We’ve always done the same thing – Jack [Layton] did the same thing, I did the same thing – which is to say, here’s our platform; here’s how we’re going to pay for it.”
Mulcair said the Liberals’ middle-class tax cuts haven’t helped those who need it most, saying the tax cuts benefit families making $200,000 per year, not those making $45,000. He talked about the importance of raising minimum wage and also lifting seniors out of poverty. He was asked more than once about the Canada Pension Plan and said that the Liberals have backed away from a promise to expand the fund.
“We’ve talked about helping seniors get through their retirements and allowing them to retire with dignity,” he said. “It’s the best place to start, is to increase the CPP … We have to transition it in and we have to start helping people right away. That’s not hard to do if you’ve made it one of your priorities and you actually plan to do it.”
The federal budget will be tabled in three weeks’ time. Mulcair was asked about the NDP’s working relationship with the governing party heading into budget debate and while he said the Liberals have “certainly changed the tone in Parliament,” he said actions speak louder than words.
“I think that’s what Canadians are looking for more than anything else now, is to see whether or not the Liberals are going to start to deliver on their promises,” Mulcair said. “The budget will be a good test of that.”
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