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The NDP plan to hike corporate taxes could be a flashpoint in the debate as both the Conservatives and Liberals oppose it, saying it would be bad for the economy. The Conservatives are campaigning on their April budget, which cut taxes and promised balanced budgets and more infrastructure spending over the coming years. The NDP say they would balance the books as well, but would fund new programs with roughly $7-billion a year in tax increases, including raising the corporate tax rate to 17 per cent from 15 per cent.

On taxation, an NDP government led by Mr. Mulcair says it expects $3.7-billion a year from the corporate tax increase, making it the single biggest source of new revenue in the party's costing plan. "The NDP's fiscal plan that we have announced today is balanced and it is progressive," Andrew Thomson, a former Saskatchewan finance minister who is running for the NDP against Conservative candidate Joe Oliver in the Toronto riding of Eglinton-Lawrence, told reporters at an afternoon news conference. Mr. Oliver is the Finance Minister in the Tory government. But questions quickly emerged Wednesday as to whether the corporate-tax estimate may prove optimistic, given that corporations could shift profit to countries with lower rates.

The Liberals are planning to run deficits for three years to fund major investments in infrastructure, but have not released specific spending and revenue figures for each year. The New Democrats are locked in a tight three-way battle with both the Conservatives and the Liberals as the election campaign enters its final month.

In the document, the NDP says it will rely heavily on a twopoint increase to the corporate tax rate on Jan. 1 as a key source of revenue to pay for billions in new spending on health transfers, daycare spaces and new infrastructure. The party says it can do all of this while planning for surpluses of at least $3-billion a year in each year of a fouryear mandate. The NDP says the document is not the party's full platform, as it still plans to make more detailed announcements throughout the campaign. Critics questioned the New Democrats' reliance on the April budget numbers to project surpluses given that forecasts for economic growth have since been lowered substantially, which will lead to less federal revenue.

With the economy at the top of the list of issues on the minds of voters, NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair hopes to persuade Canadians that he is a prudent fiscal manager, and someone who can chart a course to prosperity without driving up debt. The seven-page document released Wednesday in Ottawa includes a chart titled "A balanced plan," but total new spending and total new revenue are not in balance. The chart lists seven sources of new revenue, which add up to $7.2-billion in 2016-17 and increase to $7.5-billion in 2019-20. The chart also lists eight categories of new spending, which add up to $5.8billion in the first year and rise to $11.3-billion in the fourth year.

Over all, the lack of detailed information provided by the New Democrats made it difficult to determine whether their numbers add up. But, it was clear that some of the promises being made by the NDP Leader have had to be modified to meet his commitment of a balanced budget. Since late 2011, NDP politicians have accused the Conservative government of planning to cut $36-billion over 10 years from health care, starting in 2017-18, by replacing the annual 6-percent increases in health transfers to the provinces with increases based on the growth in nominal gross domestic product.

The New Democrats have said they would reverse that decision. And Peggy Nash, the party's industry critic, told reporters on Wednesday that the 6-percent increases to transfers would be restored. But, she said, they would be used to pay for the slate of new health-care initiatives included in the NDP campaign platform such as a mental-health innovation fund, a half-billion dollars over four years for new clinics and to hire doctors and nurses, an Alzheimer's strategy, a seniors-care strategy and whatever other health announcements Mr. Mulcair has yet to make. Ontario Health Minister Eric Hoskins said the Conservative decision to slash the Canada Health Transfer would result in $8-billion less for health care for Ontario over 10 years and accused the New Democrats of making health-care decisions without provincial input. Absent from the NDP document is a major pledge to increase foreign aid. Mr. Mulcair had promised in May to set a multiyear target to increase foreign aid to 0.7 per cent of GDP, a pledge that could cost more than $8-billion a year if fully implemented. The party confirmed Wednesday that the foreign-aid target will not be met during the first mandate of an NDP government.

Canada's federal corporate tax rate had declined to 21 per cent between 2000 and 2007 from 30 per cent in 1980. It has since declined gradually under the Conservatives to 15 per cent as of 2012.

But with interest rates close to zero, Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz is running out of room. The other is to have Ottawa pump money into the economy, either by cutting taxes or spending more. This is not a radical idea. Mainstream economists say that in this low-inflation environment, the government can run deficits without putting the economy at risk. Writing in the Globe and Mail, former deputy minister of finance Kevin Lynch argues Ottawa should borrow money to fund necessary infrastructure projects even if this results in deficits. The NDP has already announced bold spending plans worth billions of dollars, ranging from daycare to health care. Given these commitments, it seems odd that the party would imprison itself in the balanced-budget straitjacket. At least it seems odd until the politics are taken into account.

Ultimately, Harper obliged. At the time, New Democrats didn't complain about the massive deficits that the Conservative stimulus plan would entail. Rather, as Mulcair told the Commons in early 2009, the NDP worried that Harper would renege on the billions in spending that he promised. Is Canada in a recession now? Experts differ, but Mulcair seems to think so. At least that was the impression he gave in a televised debate earlier this month. But even if the country is not technically in recession, an ironclad commitment to balanced budgets can be counterproductive. Governments have only two methods to steer a sluggish economy in the right direction. One is to have the central bank cut interest rates. The Bank of Canada has tried this.

Politically, the NDP faces a stereotype problem. Voters tend to believe that New Democrats are overly casual with public money. In fact, NDP provincial governments have pretty much the same fiscal record as those of other parties. They try to nickel and dime public servants in order to keep costs down. They fret about credit ratings. Their finances get whacked when the overall economy turns south. But New Democrats never get any fiscal respect. In Saskatchewan, former premier Allan Blakeney's NDP government regularly balanced the budget. His Conservative successor rarely did. Yet when polled, Saskatchewan voters tended to view Blakeney as the spendthrift. Mulcair's aim is to break the stereotype.

Hence the hard-line position on deficits. The New Democrats are even using lines from Conservative attack ads to bolster their case. Toronto NDP candidate Andrew Thomson, a former Saskatchewan finance minister, has taken to mocking Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau for saying that growth is more important than slavish attention to deficits and that, if the economy grows - and tax revenues grow with it - the budget will balance itself. The odd thing is that, in this instance, Trudeau was right. The odder thing is that the NDP used to take the same position. Thomas Walkom's column appears Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday.

He said an NDP government would also focus its efforts to improve health-service access in communities and neighbourhoods facing doctor shortages. Later in the day, in the southeastern B.C. community of Cranbrook, Mr. Mulcair rolled out a $40-million strategy to deal with Alzheimer's and dementia.

The dementia money would be spent on screening, early diagnosis and treatment to slow the advance of the devastating condition, as well as on helping families access care for afflicted family members. Funding would also go to research. "Stephen Harper has left important health issues like dementia and Alzheimer's disease without resources or leadership, just as the number of Canadians living with the conditions is expected to double," the NDP Leader said in a news release. A year ago, the Conservatives announced a $31.5-million plan to partner with public and private sector groups over five years to tackle dementia.

The Alzheimer Society of Canada says 747,000 Canadians had the disease in 2011 - about 15 per cent of people over 65. The figure is projected to rise to 1.4 million by 2031. Ottawa has been increasing health transfers to the province and territories by six per cent per year since 2004. The Conservative government announced in 2011 that after 2016-17, future increases would be tied to the growth in the nominal gross domestic product - a measure of real GDP plus inflation.

All three main political parties are jostling for position in advance of Thursday's Globe and Mail leaders' debate on economics in Calgary. The NDP will release a full costing of its platform on Wednesday to get out ahead of the debate. But before it rolls out its numbers, the party is announcing key details in its health-care platform - a central theme of NDP campaigns for decades.

And in Vancouver on Sunday, the NDP Leader announced plans to invest $1.8-billion over four years to expand home care for 41,000 seniors, create 5,000 additional nursing beds and improve palliative-care services. Party officials say they intend to focus on health care all week, suggesting there is more to come. Still, questions remain about how or when Mr. Mulcair will make good on a long-standing promise to use a budget surplus to preserve the six-per-cent annual increase in health-care transfers to the provinces. Monday was the second straight day for Mr. Mulcair in British Columbia, where the NDP hopes to double its seat count to at least 24.

All provincial governments would be happy to get their share of the $1.8 billion that Mulcair has earmarked for home care and nursing homes. But few would agree to let Ottawa tell them how to spend this extra cash. If Quebec, say, wants to spend any new nursing-home money on prenatal care, then that's what it will do. Mulcair, a former provincial cabinet minister, must know this.

That anyone is talking at all about health care is welcome. So far neither the Conservatives nor the Liberals have had much to say about something that Canadians say is top of mind. And the areas that Mulcair highlighted this week are ones of real concern: long-term care, mental health, dementia, home care, physician and nursing shortages. Still, it is striking to see how cautious the NDP has become.

The party quite properly takes credit for inventing Canadian universal public health insurance. But unlike medicare's original architects, it no longer talks of expanding this social program to cover dental work and drugs. It doesn't talk of how to deal with those private clinics, in British Columbia and elsewhere, that are trying to get around medicare's rules. It doesn't talk of using the penalties prescribed in the Canada Health Act to deal with extra billing.

Nor does it respond to one of the key recommendations of Roy Romanow's 2002 royal commission - the need for Ottawa to provide at least 25 per cent of the funds going to medicare. Romanow, a former Saskatchewan NDP premier, pointed out that this was necessary if medicare were to remain a truly national program with enforceable national standards. Mulcair says he wants to negotiate a new health accord with the provinces to replace the one that ended last year. But he doesn't say what he wants this new accord to accomplish. Last year, the NDP leader promised he would reverse Prime Minister Stephen Harper's planned cutbacks. He said that, starting next year, he would use any fiscal surplus to ensure that health transfers to the provinces continue to rise by 6 per cent annually.

If provincial arithmetic is correct, this would cost the federal treasury roughly $3.6 billion annually. Where Mulcair stands on this promise now is unclear. The parliamentary budget officer does predict a $600-million budgetary surplus next year. But that prediction assumes the planned Conservative cuts to health transfers will have taken in place. Politically, Mulcair's caution is understandable.

In federal election campaigns, Canadians often list health care as one of their key concerns. But they don't always vote accordingly. In 2000, for instance, then NDP leader Alexa McDonough ran on a platform that focused on health care. It was detailed and comprehensive. It was in sync with everything the polls said voters wanted. And it was a flop. In the election that year, voters fled the NDP. The party ended up losing six of its 19 seats. Those around Mulcair remember that time. They know that it's good politics to remind voters about Tommy Douglas, the former NDP leader known as the father of medicare.

They also know that it's not necessarily good politics to be as bold as Douglas.

However, since then Mulcair has said little about that promise while he's added a number of others - including a $5-billion national childcare program - that would apparently take priority. Pressed on the health transfer issue Thursday during a campaign stop in Toronto, Mulcair said it now appears the budget surpluses on which he based his promise won't materialize.

Still, he said there are two years before the scheduled reduction in transfers start so there's still time. "We had said that any surplus, because Mr. Harper had been promising surpluses, would be dedicated in our case first and foremost to avoiding that (transfer reduction)," Mulcair said at the campaign office of his star candidate Andrew Thomson, a former Saskatchewan finance minister. "Now it looks pretty obvious that there won't be any, but during that two-year period our health minister will have as a top priority to get new health accords."

He added the NDP's health care priorities will include home care and pharmacare. Conservative spokesman Stephen Lecce said their government "significantly increased" health spending. "Under Prime Minister Harper, our government is delivering the highest health transfers in Canadian history - reaching $40 billion annually by the end of the decade," he said. Based on Bank of Canada projections, the parliamentary budget office has said the federal government is likely headed for a $1-billion shortfall in 2015-16, despite a projected surplus in the 2015 budget.

Nevertheless, Mulcair has been adamant this week that his first budget next year would be balanced and he's said he believes subsequent budgets would be balanced too. He has not addressed how or if he would find a surplus to funnel into health transfers while honouring all his other campaign commitments.

Mulcair said Thursday he'll pay for NDP promises by eliminating Harper's $2-billion income-splitting plan, wasteful government advertising, the Senate, subsidies to oil companies and court battles with First Nations.

There were many cries of outrage, but the most powerful came from John Osler, whose family has deep ties to the Progressive Conservatives. His father, Jock Osler, was former prime minister Joe Clark's media boss more than 30 years ago. Osler said the PCs had flat-out broken their promise. The South Campus would not only be a "strip mall" hospital, it wouldn't even be cheaper. All the problems of the Foothills site - including traffic and parking - had been considered and solved, Osler said. On Wednesday, he sat beside the new NDP minister, looking like he'd just won the Foothills Hospital Home Lottery. Osler said Hoffman had called in several stakeholders on Monday. She and officials actually listened - a new experience for him. Dan Holinda, the Alberta executive director for the Canadian Cancer Society, had the same experience. "We've been fighting for this for 10 years, but we had to pound on the doors to get government to listen to us. We had to lobby and write letters and mobilize the community," Holinda said.

These patients aren't just Calgarians. They come from across the south. Then they're shuffled about like pieces in a medical chess game. Edmonton, meanwhile, has long had the superb Cross Cancer Institute, which is close to both the University of Alberta Hospital and the U of A campus itself. That kind of integration is essential for research, teaching and many kinds of secondary medical services that cancer patients need. The PCs promised Calgary the same, recognizing that only the Foothills site can meet all those requirements. Then they promised it again, and again. Just when the project was at last approved, ex-premier Jim Prentice strolled in and canned it, promising instead to build a smaller, cheaper centre at the South Health Campus.

But in this situation the minister (Hoffman) reached out to us. She brought us into a meeting this week. And it's the first time where I've had the experience that the government sat and listened." In one way, this was an easy win for the NDP. All they had to do was reverse a colossal PC mistake that symbolized how the old government had come to take Calgary for granted. But now, the real test for the New Democrats is in the doing. Surprisingly, they're still deciding where the new building will be - on the site of parking lot No. 1, which is directly in front of the Foothills entrance, or at parking lot No. 7, in the angle of 16th Avenue N.W. and 29th Street. The Tom Baker will stay in business for elements of cancer care. Some surgeries could be done in the Foothills itself. The new cancer hospital - as yet unnamed - won't be fully onestop, but somewhat scattered around the Foothills campus.

But it's the best option and it's out of the starting gate. We should hope the New Democrats get this hospital finished quickly, before they feel the slightest urge to mimic the government they replaced. Don Braid's column appears regularly in the Herald. dbraid@calgaryherald.com TIMELINE: TWISTS AND TURNS OF THE CANCER CENTRE December 2005: PC health minister Iris Evans announces Calgary could get $600 million to replace the Tom Baker Centre. March 2006: Premier Ralph Klein's government establishes a $500-million fund for screening and research. April 2007: Experts warn of a looming crisis after the proposed $900-million cancer facility left out of provincial budget. September 2007: Alberta Cancer Board expands operations at old Holy Cross Hospital due to a space shortage at Tom Baker. May 2008: Alberta Cancer Board explores private financing to build a proposed $1.1-billion facility.

April 2009: Budget constraints mean there's no money to replace the aging cancer facilities, says the province. March 2010: Premier Ed Stelmach says a new Calgary cancer centre is a priority after AHS says it's not on the government's capital projects list. March 2013: Premier Alison Redford announces plans to build a $1.3-billion cancer centre on the site of the Foothills Medical Centre. December 2014: In light of low oil prices, Premier Jim Prentice confirms construction of the cancer centre will be delayed. February 2015: The PC government explores different options for the centre, and consider South Health Campus as a new location. March 2015: The government announces the centre will move forward, but it may be located on two sites. July 2015: The NDP government announces the new cancer treatment centre will be built at the Foothills Medical Centre campus. Source: Herald archives

Pharmacare is the great idea that never quite gets off the ground. Jean Chrétien's Liberals talked about it but never acted. In 1975, Saskatchewan's NDP government sent up a provincial pharmacare scheme. In 1993, another Saskatchewan NDP government cancelled it in order to pay down the province's deficit. Yet study after study shows that a national universal pharmacare scheme would save money.

A recent study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal calculates that universal pharmacare would cost governments an extra $1 billion a year but would save Canadians, as a whole, $7.3 billion. The savings come from the ability of a national plan to bargain for better prices with the drug giants and pool risk over a large population, as well as the cheaper administration costs that come from replacing multiple private insurers with one single-pay system. To the NDP's credit, the party seems to understand this. Indeed, background material provided to journalists cites the CMAJ study. Still, the proposal announced last Friday seems unusually woolly. Mulcair does talk of bulk-buying as a way to reduce drug prices. And he does pledge to have Ottawa spend $2.6 billion over four years.

But would the NDP plan cover all Canadians or just those who currently don't have private drug insurance? I put those questions to the New Democrats. On the one hand they said their scheme would be universal (that is, it would cover everyone). On the other they said they wouldn't meddle with existing private plans. All of this matters according to Danielle Martin, a Toronto family physician and one of the authors of the CMAJ pharmacare study. She points out that if the plan doesn't cover all Canadians - that is, if it doesn't replace existing private plans - it won't achieve the savings associated with a single-pay system.

Marc-André Gagnon, a Carleton University public policy professor and another co-author of the CMAJ study, says the NDP's language around its proposal seems deliberately fuzzy - perhaps to aid in any future negotiations with the provinces. Certainly, the new fiscally conservative NDP is moving cautiously. It doesn't say whether its plan would require those buying drugs to pay part of the cost out-of-pocket. That, it says, will be decided in negotiations with the province. It suggests that the plan might operate differently in different provinces. That, too, is up for negotiation. Quebec, for instance, requires employers who offer any kind of benefits to their workers to also provide drug coverage. Any Quebecers not covered by these private schemes can get prescription drugs through the province's public drug plan.

The $2.6 billion spent over four years would come from the extra funds the NDP plans to deliver to the provinces by reversing Harper's proposed health-care cuts. That money would be used to get the scheme going and start phasing in better coverage. Annual costs to the federal treasury once the scheme is up and running are estimated at $1.5 billion.

It's not clear what the provinces would have to pony up. But they would not be expected to spend more on drugs than they already do. In short, the devilish details remain vague. Still, it's worth noting that neither Justin Trudeau's Liberals nor Harper's Conservatives had come up with anything at all on this front. "It's the most comprehensive kick at the can we've seen," says Martin. "I'm thrilled they're bringing it to the table." Thomas Walkom's column appears Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Socialist Action participated in the NL Rising! rally on May 5 at the Confederation Building. The event was organized by the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Labour and was attended by public and private sector unions, social justice groups, women and youth rights groups, and all those affected by the cuts to services, axed jobs and unfair tax measures. There were about 2,500 in attendance and a Socialist Action member held an SA banner on the main stage with the help of a member of Anonymous.

udget about creating jobs, eradicating poverty, improving literacy, providing opportunities for young Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, enhancing life in rural communities and for seniors, eliminating the gender wage gap, and improving mental health programs.

Socialist Action is also involved in starting a local NDP socialist caucus within the ranks of the provincial NDP modelled after the socialist caucus in the federal NDP. The finance minister has made some of her money thanks to temporary foreign workers working at her fast-food restaurants. She was previously the biggest cheerleader for the Muskrat Falls project when sitting on the board of directors for Nalcor, the provincial utility and energy company. Now she says she has to implement this budget because of the cost overruns on the dam project. It is a project lacking transparency and accountability, and making a lot of people from outside Newfoundland and Labrador wealthier, including foreign construction companies that have never done jobs like this in Canada, a Canadian engineering company that was involved in a bribery scandal with Libya when Moammar Gadhafi was still in power, and foreign banks, bond holders and credit rating agencies. Her goal seems to be to obey the credit rating agencies and please them.

Newfoundland and Labrador is in a more precarious position now than in 1933, when Newfoundland was bankrupt and Canada and Britain were worried about their own credit ratings. The British and Canadian governments appointed a Commission of Government which was controlled by two private bankers. This was the start of a 15-year political breach which eventually led to the Crown selling off Newfoundland and Labrador to the Canadian bourgeois wolves to pay off their war debt in 1949.

Socialist Action NL has unanswered questions about Don Dunphy, an injured worker who was seemingly killed for a tweet when an RNC officer on the then premier's security detail showed up at his home on an Easter Sunday. What is happening to the pensions of iron ore miners from Labrador who have provided raw material to Hamilton Steel Mills for years? We still have foreign multinational corporations willing to exploit our fishery resources. Those corporations and the provincial government are stomping on indigenous peoples' rights in Labrador.

Socialist Action is on the ground in Newfoundland and Labrador, active in the labour movement, social justice, international solidarity, feminist and environmental campaigns. We will continue to make the socialist caucus visible in the NDP provincial party, to be at the table at the N.L. independence debate, to actively support indigenous peoples' struggles, as well as in anti-war, anti-poverty and the human rights movements. Socialist Action NL is in solidarity with the Fourth International worldwide. Chris Gosse St. John's

NDP MP and health critic Libby Davies said the problem is a lack of health-care resources aimed at wellness, disease prevention and assistance for caregivers, she said. “All of the resources are aimed at the acute care system but we know that there’s so many gaps and holes that create really enormous difficulties for people,” said Davies.

The NDP is proposing a Pan-Canadian Health Human Resources Strategy whereby federal, provincial and territorial governments coordinate training and working opportunities for doctors and other health professionals, reducing wait times in the process. The United Kingdom and Australia currently use a national approach to coordinate human resources in their health care systems. “Once again the Conservatives have failed Canadians. In their 2012 budget they short-changed the provinces by $31-billion and Canadians are paying the price,” said NDP deputy Health critic Dany Morin (Chicoutimi – Le Fjord).

The clinics are staffed with nurse practitioners and registered nurses who can diagnose and treat minor illnesses like colds, flus or sprains. The clinics are meant to take pressure off of busy emergency rooms. "The QuickCare Clinics are a very reasonable price," Selinger said. "It's an extremely reasonable and cost effective approach to providing timely accessible quality health care."

The additional midwives would be about a 50% increase from the 57 currently working in Manitoba and be hired within one term of being re-elected, Selinger said. The NDP leader believes a new collective agreement offering higher pay and benefits to midwives will help attract candidates within and beyond Manitoba, which has proven a persistent challenge so far. Kelly Moist, president of CUPE Manitoba, was among the union and health-care workers who met with Selinger prior to the announcement. Moist said she expects the 25 new midwives would improve use of the Winnipeg Birth Centre, which opened to serve as a site for midwife-led births in November 2011.