Business Beat: Pollsters, Pundits and Prosperity: Where Do You Stand in the 2019 Canadian General Election?

Our recent Canadian Chamber Conference hosted a Pollsters and Pundits panel with our pollster providing an in-depth analysis of the opinion polls and our pundit providing expert political analysis on what is impacting the voting decisions of Canadians.

With increasingly polarized viewpoints, exponential growth in technology, demographic and workforce changes in addition to trade challenges, global uncertainty and declining trust, I think we can all agree that the world is very different than it was four years ago, providing an interesting backdrop for the upcoming election on October 21st.

Canadians increasingly believe that the country is off on the wrong track with a large percentage of people wanting change. However, even considering the need for change, public ratings amongst the leaders is not promising, with most leaders holding a negative net impression amongst voters. We also see that this will be a tight race between two parties and that our country is fairly divided in where their political alignment falls between east and west. The top election issues driving political campaigns are focused on affordability, health care, taxes and climate change.

So how do chambers of commerce weigh into this political landscape? As a non-partisan organization, our focus is on policy positions and our work is focused on having government and political parties adopt policy recommendations and changes that we, as chambers, are asking for across the country.

Chambers play an important role in bringing a common voice to business issues and making sure they are front and center. We also provide a balanced perspective because we understand that in order to have prosperity, our economy as a whole must thrive.  We understand the need for affordability, fair taxes, a balanced health care system, a need for a climate strategy and a regulatory system that works for everyone.

As Canadians, we cannot afford to take our prosperity for granted. Without a thriving business sector, Canada’s economic growth suffers, our prosperity declines and our governments lack the resources to build roads, hospitals and schools and provide social services. In short, for Canada to succeed, our businesses must also be successful.

While business is doing its part to make Canada more prosperous for more people, the federal government has an important role to play, which is why the commitments each of the federal parties make during this fall’s federal election campaign will be critical.

It is also why we are encouraging everyone to engage in the conversation, to talk about the priorities, to make sure that you are well informed about all parties and all policy positions and make sure that you are not voting based on one program or one issue. It is up to each of us to circumvent all the misinformation, attack campaigns and weigh all the campaign promises and ask questions of your candidates.

We encourage you to look at the campaigns to become informed of party policies, to view our Vote Prosperity campaign at www.platformforprosperity.com and attend election forums and candidate events in our communities in order to make an informed vote on October 21.

We are calling on all of the federal parties to support Canada’s job creators by including our Vote Prosperity policy priorities in their election platforms and we encourage you to do the same. Together we can build a brighter, more innovative future for Canadians.

Attend our Chamber federal election forum on October 2 at 6:30 pm at the Medicine Hat College Theatre: https://business.medicinehatchamber.com/events/details/2019-federal-election-forum-23047 and view election information through our website: https://medicinehatchamber.com/pages/vote-prosperity.