Thread by @EmmMacfarlane

OK, I'm gonna live-tweet my skim of the Liberal platform.

First big ticket item is raising the personal income tax exemption to $15K. This one gets an A+ from me, feeding both the fiscal conservative part of my brain and the 'we should help people that need it most' part. 1/n

I'm gonna skip commenting on the comparisons the Liberals are making of themselves to the Conservatives. Some of the comments in the platform are fair, others have the usual partisan skew/spin. 2/n

Next item is the First-Time Home Buyer Incentive. This I don't like. Despite the endless rhetoric about how hard it is for millenials to buy, I don't get targeted subsidies for heated markets, received by people who have to be in a good position to qualify to start with. D-. 3/n

Next is the sweetening of the Canada Child Benefit payments. This builds on what was easily the government's best social policy initiative. It's targeted redistribution. The benefits the party cites re: poverty reductions are legit. B+. 4/n

Making paid leave fair for adoptive families seems like a no-brainer. A.

There's stuff on childcare spaces and reducing costs for after-school programs, but vague on how this works (they're claiming credit for past spaces but this was rebutted earlier in the campaign). C. 5/n

More generous Canada Student Grants! Students have benefited A LOT in the last decade, but this will offset some of the Ford cuts to OSAP in ON. B.

Cutting cell phone bills by 25% in two years. If you read the details on how, this is fantasy. F. 6/n

Tax deductible travel for people in the North. Not sure what to make of this, but it will benefit people and we'll get to significantly worse subsidy ideas when I find the thing about camping. B-. 7/n

A Career Insurance Benefit (kind of an add-on to EI for people in particular situations). Transition aid. Seems like a worth initiative, and I don't have the expertise to know if there are obviously better alternatives. B+. 8/n

There's also a Training benefit but they don't seem to include any details on qualifications or amount. C-.

A new Federal Family Day. A federal min. wage of $15. (These overlap with some provinces I think). C.

Incorporating mental health into occupational health and safety. A.

They'll extend EI sickness leave from 15 to 26 weeks (language makes it sound like this was announced a long time ago). A.

They're gonna try to boost apprenticeships. This has been talked about for year. We'll see if it works. B. 10/n

The health care section starts off weak, suggesting the CPC (which truly poured billions and billions into the system) engaged in "inaction." Libs promise to make sure every Cdn has a family doctor or health team. What? How? They don't say. D. 11/n

They're gonna "take critical next steps" on national pharmacare, and again they don't say how. National standards for mental health care that, again, sound good. All of this, it should be noted, depends a lot of provinces and intergov cooperation. C+. 12/n

Doubling the Child Disability Benefit. A.

$30 mil more for pediatric cancer research. (Who is gonna argue against that?). A.

13/n

They're making benefits for seniors more general.

Old Age Security boost 10%. Fine, but they lose marks for sticking with the 65 age threshold, which the CPC rightly wanted to increase to 67. C+.

Survivors benefit under the CPP goes up 25%. B+. 14/n

Now we're into the 'throwing money around in the hopes of innovation' section. $50K to 'entrepreneurs' to start businesses. Why? Because banks - which the FEDERAL GOVT REGULATE - aren't generous enough. F. 15/n

A whole bunch of carrots to biz-owners. Reducing incorporation fees. C.

Eliminating GST/HST on credit transactions (to the tune of half a bil per year). C.

And just giving $250 to any biz expanding their online services. Why? They don't even say why. F. 16/n

Not sure how to grade the 'lower corporate taxes for biz making green stuff.' Maybe it's one way to incentivizing lower carbon things. But it also is yet another complication to the tax code. C. 17/n

There's a section on infrastructure that's largely repeated past work by the government. A $3B increase to the total for public transit is good. Maybe do something about the bloody inter-city train service in Southern Ontario please. B+. 18/n

Section on helping farmers filled with usual stuff. Notable thing includes reform/enhancement of various agencies into a Farm Credit Canada superagency. Then the section reminds me the Libs support supply management, so D. 19/n

A pledge on internal free trade, and to actively assert federal authority. I'll believe that when I see it. An A+ for the promise, a C- for the lack of details. 20/n

Now to the environment section. They're pledging net-zero emissions by 2050. Others (@andrew_leach) will no doubt comment on this, but it seems clear they need to do more than is in the platform to achieve this. C+. 21/n

@andrew_leach 2 billion trees planted is a viable thing. Not sure how this accounts for trees lost in fires, etc., but since the fires are gonna happen regardless we best get planting. B. 22/n

@andrew_leach Free energy audits, loans for retrofits, etc. (these have been in platforms for years now, no?). B.

They're gonna install electric vehicle chargers across the Trans-Canada Highway. 5,000 of them. Okie-doke. B. 23/m

@andrew_leach The camping travel bursary. Yeah yeah, call me privileged, but this is bananas. Why is camping specifically being incentivized? What else can that $2K per pop go to instead, including to the same low-income recipients? F. 24/n

@andrew_leach The ban on single use plastics is mostly symbolism rather than something that makes a difference. Plus many 'single use' plastics are in fact multiple-use, or useful to people with disabilities, etc. F. 25/n

@andrew_leach Oooh, criminal justice policy. Cracking down on certain types of guns. All good, I suppose, though it's unclear what impact these measures will have. B+.

Free legal aid for survivors of sexual assault. Support for the Ambrose bill (judicial education). A+ 26/n

@andrew_leach They're gonna put more money into support for addiction. Resources to expand hours at Insite and other consumption facilities. A.

A Digital Charter to protect privacy. Some interesting things in here, wonder how difficult enforcement will be. B+ 27/n

@andrew_leach Much of the stuff on Veterans, on Diversity/Equality, seem to just be repeated past initiatives. (This is true of other parts of the platform as well, of course). 28/n

@andrew_leach The whole section on Sexual Reproductive Health seems like it was included just to remind you that EVIL ANDREW SCHEER SOMETHING ABORTION SOMETHING (Scheer has pledged, like Harper, not to touch abortion). 29/n

@andrew_leach Some of the other things in the crim justice section (ending the blood ban, prohibiting conversion therapy) are obviously good but are reminders the gov't could have EASILY taken care of this in the last four years. C. 30/n

@andrew_leach The pledge to regulate social media, require all platforms to remove 'hate speech' within 24 hours, etc. is a bloody implementation minefield that will almost certainly constitute either a nothingburger that does little good or a disaster we can all look forward to. D. 31/n

@andrew_leach Oh look, they're giving every 12 year-old $200 to do art and culture things. Again, the opportunity costs, the bizarre government interventionism on this stuff... F. 32/n

@andrew_leach The 'strengthening/reforming Parliament' section is surprisingly modest and light, consisting of many things we've already been promised. C. 33/n

@andrew_leach Indigenous policy. End water advisories by 2021. Finally a within-the-likely-life-of-the-government promise. We'll see! B.

Promises on Indigenous health, languages, infrastructure we've heard 100 times. NOTHING suggesting new money, much remains chronically underfunded. D-.

@andrew_leach Defence and foreign policy seems like a lot about 'vision' and 'values'... Very little substantive in it. (@smsaideman will let you know what I missed). D.

@andrew_leach @smsaideman Nothing new apparent in immigration. Moving forward on Municipal Nominee program. Generally good stuff. B+. 35/n

@andrew_leach @smsaideman All said and done, the Liberal platform is nowhere near as ambitious as their 2015 effort. Not a big surprise for a re-elect campaign. But there's some issue avoidance, esp. in criminal law: no major justice reforms, nothing on sex work and the risible Harper-era law, etc. 37/n

@andrew_leach @smsaideman Nothing to improve the party's foreign policy/defence bonafides. A tad surprising there's no *new* big-ticket social policy item, like a robust detailed pharmacare plan. 38/n

@andrew_leach @smsaideman And this country desperately needs to pour billions more into addressing Indigenous poverty, social ills, infrastructure, services, all a legacy of colonialism. For a hiccup it looked like the Liberals would try. Apparently not enough of a priority for them. 39/n

@andrew_leach @smsaideman Setting aside those big holes, there's nothing terrible in there either. The items I gave poor grades to are generally the more minor or less expensive things. I'd give it something like a C+ overall. Fin. 40/40