A national dental care program was one of the keystones of the now-ended supply-and-confidence agreement between the Liberals and NDP, inked in 2022. It involves plans to roll out coverage especially for children, seniors, and low-income Canadians, and with remaining eligible Canadians slated to gain access in 2025.
When pressed by Kapelos on the statistic that nearly 650,000 Canadians have already accessed care, Scheer again would not directly say whether his party would scrap the program, if elected.
It took 4-8 years of US rural voters not caring about things until it affected them before they even started considering that Trump doesn’t care for any American besides himself. In the UK I don’t even know how they lasted in that trance for so long.
My cynical take is that people are going to recognize the destructive effects of a Conservative government only after 5-10 years at the least. If the political blocs don’t change, then we’ll get milquetoast Liberals again. Conservative media will continue to repeat “Liberals bad” enough for people to believe it again.
I have no experience in political strategy, but the only few ways I see of breaking out of this cycle is to
A: adopt a fairer voting system
B: Link the Canadian Conservative Party to the US Republican party, Project 2025 etc.
C: Announce progressive action so bold with near-immediate effects that it makes a difference to their electoral prospects, without appearing like an electoral bribe/promise.
I have heard little interest in A from government, grits and NDP might be waiting until November to do B so they don’t slander people they may be forced to work with, and C is nigh impossible, at least I can’t think of any realistic policy example that could achieve that. A proper UBI might be close.