Federal Election: Conservative Party Platform

Conservative Platform Emphasizes Tax Cuts and Reduced Regulation to Boost Economy

Conservatives hoping for an additional $72.6B in revenues from unleashed growth

Today, the Conservative Party unveiled its full election platform—an ambitious plan that promises deep tax cuts, sweeping deregulation, and sharp reductions in federal spending. With just days to go before the April 28 vote, and trailing in the polls, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is betting that a bold, pro-growth agenda will resonate with Canadians concerned about inflation, affordability, and rising deficits.  

The platform - with $34 billion in new spending and $75 billion in tax cuts over the next four years - outlines a dramatic shift in fiscal policy, aimed at reviving private-sector investment, accelerating homebuilding, and unlocking Canada’s natural resources, all while cutting the federal deficit by 70% to $14.1 billion in four years.

The most intriguing element of the platform is that the Conservative costing plan counts tax revenues from the economic growth that is projected to arise from their policy measures. This leads to a much lower deficit number than would otherwise be the case, and there is a degree of uncertainty associated with such calculations. However, many governments in the EU and the US use “dynamic scoring” to estimate the economic impacts from policy measures. The conservatives also have external experts helping with the estimates.

Why so late?

The Liberals released their platform on the Saturday during the Easter long weekend, while the Conservatives published theirs just six days before the election and after the advanced polls had closed. Normally parties are keen to trumpet their platforms and promises, but not as much this time for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, the positive promises are best communicated as stand-alone announcements (on housing or tax cuts or energy corridors), not buried in a platform among 63 other promises. Many of the major commitments were announced over the course of the campaign.

More importantly, the platform shows the costing which is generally bad news for the major parties because there is no way to avoid eye-watering deficits. Start with a baseline deficit in the $30 billion range over the next three years because of the Trudeau government’s spending. Then add a few basics that all parties agree to: Increasing defence spending to 2% of GDP is an additional $30 billion per year (or slightly less because funding is already set aside in the fiscal framework); and cancelling the increase in the capital gains inclusion rate which is $4.5 billion per year. Cuts to personal income taxes cost $6 billion for the Liberal version and $13 billion for the more generous Conservative plan. Add $5 billion for housing and infrastructure, several billion to support Canadians impacted by Trump’s tariffs and we quickly get to deficits in the $60 billion range. In the current moment, deficits are all but impossible to avoid.

The Liberals include an undefined “savings from increased government productivity” of $6 billion next year, rising to $13 billion by 2028-29. As a result, their deficit would eventually fall to $48 billion in 2028-29. But without those undefined and unexplained revenues, the 2028 deficit would remain over $61 billion.

Read our expert breakdown of the key economic and business takeaways here.