Joe & Jagmeet on AFFORDABILITY

Hard to imagine a news broadcast without the words “Trump” and “tariff” isn’t it? That’s what the media — and a lot of Liberal and Conservative campaign rhetoric — is full of. And yet the evidence is that the number-one, most real issue on most Canadians’ minds is actually affordability.

How, we’re all saying, am I supposed to feed my family and pay the rent or mortgage? How will I pay for that eye exam for my child? Why does every item I pick up in the grocery store seem to be priced at over ten dollars?

“We know,” Joe Byrne says, “that the NDP has been the party which has been most concerned to find ways to help ordinary Canadians cope with the costs of essential living.” The party that created Medicare is the party which has now forced the Liberal government to give Canadians affordable dental care and a foundation for affordable medications. “New Democrats have proven their effectiveness at helping ordinary people cope,” Joe says.

What about food costs? Last Saturday, party Leader Jagmeet Singh announced that an NDP government would implement emergency price caps on essential grocery items to help protect against the effects of tariffs. The NDP also commits to enforce a mandatory Grocery Code of Conduct that would regulate pricing practices, fully empower the Competition Bureau to act as a grocery price watchdog and tax the windfall profits of major retailers like Loblaws, Walmart, Costco and Empire Foods (Sobeys).

For Joe, though, the best thing that can happen to help achieve affordability for all Canadians is BIG. Big in impact, yes, but we’re talking about Basic Income Guarantee — the plan to provide, according to need, a payment based on standard costs for monthly living, as a sort of essential base to under-pin whatever other income a person or family might have.

Joe and New Democrats have long been staunch supporters of the work of PEI’s Working Group for a Liveable Income. This was the effort which, through a national coalition, produced the proposal for a federal-provincial project to establish a guaranteed annual income program here on Prince Edward Island. It was championed by public servants, politicians, and advocates across the country as a realistic and feasible way to overcome poverty.

“What our public hospital and medical programs did for health care,” says Joe, “BIG can do for income justice for all.”