Affordability & Housing
Food prices
NDP's promises
"We will introduce emergency price caps on basic food items—like pasta, frozen vegetables, and infant formula—to keep costs of food down. These items have seen some of the steepest increases since 2020: cooking oil is up 75 per cent, pasta is up 43 per cent, and infant formula—an essential for so many parents—is up 30 per cent and still climbing.
Price regulations are already in place for a number of sectors of Canada’s economy, like electricity, natural gas and certain medicines. And they have been used in other jurisdictions to tackle food price inflation. We would attempt to negotiate this cap but if big grocery chains refuse, we would act by passing the appropriate legislation.
To enforce this cap, we will put in place a mandatory Grocery Code of Conduct."
— ndp.ca, retrieved 2025-04-19
"We will also strengthen the Competition Bureau to act as a grocery price watchdog with the power to impose serious penalties on those who don’t comply. These powers will extend to price gouging, price surging, price fixing and shrinkflation." — ndp.ca, retrieved 2025-04-19
"Our mandatory Grocery Code of Conduct would help level the playing field in the grocery industry." — ndp.ca, retrieved 2025-04-19
"We would establish a National Food Cooperative Strategy aimed at boosting independent small- and medium-sized grocery stores." — ndp.ca, retrieved 2025-04-19
"And we would fix Nutrition North, to make sure the subsidy goes straight to people, and not to corporations." — ndp.ca, retrieved 2025-04-19
Home construction and supply
NDP's promises
"We will replace the expiring Housing Accelerator Fund with a permanent $16 billion national housing strategy made up of the new Canadian Homes Transfer and the Communities First Fund." — ndp.ca, retrieved 2025-04-19
"The Canadian Homes Transfer will reward cities that build quickly, allow more townhomes and apartments, and prioritize homes near transit." — ndp.ca, retrieved 2025-04-19
"The Communities First Fund will support provinces in building the infrastructure needed for growth – like water, transit, and public services." — ndp.ca, retrieved 2025-04-19
Home heating
NDP's promises
"With the cost of living soaring and energy bills eating into household budgets, we will make it more affordable for Canadians to stay warm in the winter and cool in the summer. A major home retrofit program will deliver free energy-saving upgrades to 2.3 million low-income households, and offer grants and low-interest loans to 1 million more. This could include the installation of heat pumps, insulation and other energy efficiency upgrades. It is estimated that in some areas, such upgrades could save a household as much as $4,500 a year." — ndp.ca, retrieved 2025-04-19
"This measure will be entirely financed by eliminating public subsidies for oil and gas companies, saving $18 billion over ten years." — ndp.ca, retrieved 2025-04-19
Home ownership
NDP's promise
"We will also help more people buy their first homes, by unlocking the financial power of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) to offer low-interest public-backed mortgages." — ndp.ca, retrieved 2025-04-19
Homelessness
NDP's promise
"We will also establish a Housing Insecurity Prevention Benefit to help 50,000 people in critical need find homes. This program will be piloted and delivered through existing Reaching Home community entities, ensuring a community-based approach to helping Canadians experiencing chronic homelessness." — ndp.ca, retrieved 2025-04-19
Public and affordable housing
NDP's promises
"The Canadian Homes Transfer will reward cities that build quickly, allow more townhomes and apartments, and prioritize homes near transit. This will help us reach a target of 20 percent non-market housing in every neighbourhood." — ndp.ca, retrieved 2025-04-19
Renting and rental housing
NDP's promises
"We will fight soaring rents by requiring strong tenant protection measures from other levels of government as a condition for accessing federal housing funding. These measures include rent control, as well as prohibitions on practices such as renovictions, demovictions and other predatory landlord practices aimed at pushing people out of their homes and driving up rents." — ndp.ca, retrieved 2025-04-19
"We will ban predatory financial landlords from buying any existing purpose-built rental apartments and any of Canada’s existing 650,000 social housing units. Legitimate private landlords and property managers would not be impacted. This measure is aimed at preventing corporate entities like REITs, Hedge Funds, and private equity funds from purchasing affordable housing. These entities do not function like landlords, instead their function is to either liquidate and redevelop the real estate, maximize revenues through poor maintenance leading to renoviction and increasing rents, and generally financialize these properties as assets." — ndp.ca, retrieved 2025-04-19
"We will also cut off handouts – including low-interest federal loans, preferential tax treatment and mortgage loan insurance – for big corporate landlords who gouge their tenants." — ndp.ca, retrieved 2025-04-19
"And we will boost the Rental Protection Fund by providing an additional $2 billion to help non-profits such as tenant associations and housing co-ops purchase thousands of affordable apartments, to keep them affordable when they come onto the market." — ndp.ca, retrieved 2025-04-19
Tax measures and rebates
NDP's promise
"Last fall, the Liberal government put in place a temporary GST holiday on certain goods, in recognition of the cost of living crisis facing families. The Liberals rejected our proposal that the measure be extended, while the Conservatives opposed it altogether.
But families are still facing rising prices – and Donald Trump’s trade war is driving prices even higher. That’s why we would permanently remove the GST from the essentials that every family needs. This includes grocery store meals, diapers and strollers, and monthly cell, internet and home heating bills. We estimate this measure will save a family of four $448 per year." — ndp.ca, retrieved 2025-04-19
Trades
NDP's promise
"To deliver on this [housing] plan, we will train over 100,000 skilled workers, including newcomers and those affected by Donald Trump’s reckless trade war." — ndp.ca, retrieved 2025-04-19
Climate Change & the Environment
Public transit
NDP's promise
"The Communities First Fund will support provinces in building the infrastructure needed for growth – like water, transit, and public services." — ndp.ca, retrieved 2025-04-19
Health & Healthcare
Addiction and the poisoned drug supply
NDP's promise
Health funding
NDP's promises
"To help tackle the doctor shortage, we’ll boost Canada Health Transfers by an additional 1% for provinces that commit to action and publicly report on their progress. This incentive will support real partnerships to train, recruit, and retain the health workers Canadians need." — ndp.ca, retrieved 2025-04-19
"Implementing a pan-Canadian licensure, to help medical professionals practice where they are needed across the country" — ndp.ca, retrieved 2025-04-19
"Working with territorial governments to provide housing and facilities for family doctors and primary care teams to keep healthcare providers in the North" — ndp.ca, retrieved 2025-04-19
"And we will put in place a $5,000 tax credit to help boost pay for more than 780,000 nurses and Personal Support Workers." — ndp.ca, retrieved 2025-04-19
Health privatisation
NDP's promises
Mental health
NDP's promises
"As a tangible step to expanding mental health coverage, we will ensure that all Canadians can access services like psychotherapy and counselling by launching a new plan to cover these services for those who are currently not covered by work plans." — ndp.ca, retrieved 2025-04-19
Pharmacare
NDP's promise
"We will get the job done, putting in place a universal program within four years. Mark Carney’s proposed cuts would stop pharmacare in its tracks. During the first year of the next Parliament, we will get deals with every province to cover diabetes medications and birth control. And we will expand that first step by covering essential medicines by the end of the first year, building to full coverage by the end of four years." — ndp.ca, retrieved 2025-04-19
Jobs, Businesses, & Labour
Trades
NDP's promise
"To deliver on this [housing] plan, we will train over 100,000 skilled workers, including newcomers and those affected by Donald Trump’s reckless trade war." — ndp.ca, retrieved 2025-04-19
Post-Secondary Education & Jobs Training
Trades
NDP's promise
"To deliver on this [housing] plan, we will train over 100,000 skilled workers, including newcomers and those affected by Donald Trump’s reckless trade war." — ndp.ca, retrieved 2025-04-19
Transit, Transportation, & Infrastructure
Municipal infrastructure
NDP's promise
"The Communities First Fund will support provinces in building the infrastructure needed for growth – like water, transit, and public services." — ndp.ca, retrieved 2025-04-19
Public transit
NDP's promise
"The Communities First Fund will support provinces in building the infrastructure needed for growth – like water, transit, and public services." — ndp.ca, retrieved 2025-04-19
Biography
Joanna Clark is your NDP candidate for Cape Breton-Canso-Antigonish. A teacher and mother of two, she is a dedicated advocate for youth, social justice, and rural communities.
She got her start in organizing as a student. Joanna was president of her student council at the Université Sainte-Anne’s and became a member of the provincial executive for the Canadian Federation of Students, where she advocated for lower tuition fees, equitable healthcare access, and improved internet access.
In her role on the local daycare board in Little Judique, she worked on building a much-needed daycare centre from the ground up. She believes that equitable and accessible childcare is vital to any community.
Over the past five years she has fought for accessible and equitable post-secondary education, affordable childcare, and improvements on sexual violence prevention in her community.
She is passionate about women’s healthcare, rural access to services, affordability, and housing. Joanna is here to represent Cape Breton-Canso-Antigonish in Ottawa and fight for a better future for everyone.
She lives with her young family in Little Judique and currently teaches grades 9-10.
In the meantime, you can learn more about them on their website.
joannaclark.ndp.ca joannaclark.ndp.ca