OTTAWA –The Council of Canadians will be keeping a watchful eye on the newly elected government to ensure that it keeps the promises it made to Canadians during the election campaign. In last-ditch attempt to win back voter confidence, Paul Martin’s campaign strategy increasingly addressed a more progressive agenda.

“Paul Martin seems to have finally clued in to what Canadians want. He has promised that he will maintain Canada’s independent foreign policy, will ensure that health care remains a public, not-for-profit service, and will not put weapons in space,” says John Urquhart, Executive Director of the Council of Canadians. “Now that he’s run on this platform, Martin owes it to Canadians to live up to these promises.”

Canadians values have been remarkably consistent, as recent Ipsos-Reid polls commissioned by the Council of Canadians revealed prior to the election.

• On health care: 64% believe that the health care system should exclude for-profit corporations, and instead rely on non-for-profit health care providers.
• On sovereignty: 91% want Canada to maintain the ability to set its own independent environmental health and safety regulations, even if this might reduce cross-border trade opportunities with the US.
• On Star Wars: 69% disagree that Canada should actively support the Bush administration’s missile defence system even if it may require dedicating military spending to the program or allowing US missile launchers in Canada.
• On military spending: 77% believe that Canada’s limited military spending should be used to enhance our abilities in peacekeeping and conflict resolution rather than trying to maintain multi-purpose forces intended for heavy combat alongside US military forces.

"The Liberal Party is going to be held to these promises not just by the NDP and the Bloc Québécois, but by the entire civil society movement that fought hard to stop the values articulated by the Harper Conservatives," adds Maude Barlow, National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians.

Despite early projections of a Conservative landslide, voters rejected Stephen Harper’s right-wing agenda of tax cuts for the rich made possible by cuts to social programs.

During the election period, the Council of Canadians conducted a nation-wide public awareness campaign that encouraged Canadians to vote for parties that took more progressive stances. The campaign included a national advertising campaign, the distribution of over 100,000 voters’ guides comparing the parties’ platform, and the organization of all-candidates meetings and leafleting in communities across the country, among countless other initiatives.

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