Northern Exposure

Imminent Canadian federal election unlikely to affect labor law

by Karen Sargeant

Americans are not the only ones going to the polls for a federal election this year. Canadians are on their way, too. Despite a planned federal election for October 2009, the Prime Minister just called a federal election, to take place on October 14, 2008.

So how would this election affect labor laws in Canada? The answer may be “not much.”

Although the parties’ platforms have not yet been announced, the governing Conservative party’s comments in recent months have made little or no mention of labor reform. Instead, the Conservatives have focused on issues such as:

  • criticizing the opposition Liberal party’s climate-change proposals (a $15.3 billion tax on carbon-producing);
  • the Conservative party’s tax reductions;
  • increases they have made to health care spending; and
  • efforts they have made to tackle crime.

Similarly, the Liberal party has steered clear of labor policies. This is especially true since March 2007 when the Liberals initially supported a bill to prevent federally regulated businesses, such as banks, airlines, interprovincial trucking companies, etc., from using replacement workers during a strike. At the end of the day, however, the Liberals voted with the Conservatives and the proposed anti-scab legislation was defeated.

The one party that can be guaranteed to make some noise about labor reform is the New Democratic Party (NDP). The NDP, traditionally labor-focused, proposes:

  • raising minimum wages;
  • loosening the eligibility criteria for employment insurance (EI);
  • banning replacement workers during strikes; and
  • amending bankruptcy laws to give affected employees higher priority to collect unpaid wages.

With a recent poll putting the Conservatives at 37 percent, the Liberals at 29 percent, the NDP at 17 percent, and the Green Party at nine percent, it is unlikely that the NDP’s labor agenda will have any impact in the months to come. (The poll was conducted by the Strategic Counsel. It surveyed 1,000 Canad

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