We are called to …
live with respect in Creation,
to love and serve others,
to seek justice and resist evil.
ELECTION 2008: Introduction
This document is a summary of the longer Federal Election Kit 2008 produced by The United Church of Canada. The entire document can be found at This brochure provides information based on United Church policy.
If you are attending an all candidates meeting or talking to individual candidates, you might find this brochure or the complete Kit helpful in raising specific peace and justice concerns and getting them on the political agenda.
Environment
For Christians, the issue of climate change is important since the impacts will likely be felt by those nations most vulnerable geographically and without resources to adapt and compensate. It is an issue of justice and international concern for the well-being of all.
In the United Church, our stewardship of the land is promised when we recite the creed. We recognize God's call to live in harmony with the total community, to draw on the Earth's sustenance responsibly, and to care for it that all may benefit equitably now and in the future.
In order to achieve this, developed countries, including Canada, must reduce emissions 25 to 40 percent by 2020, and 80 to 95 percent by 2050.
Possible Questions:
- How much will your party’s plan reduce global warming emissions and by when?
- How much will you invest in renewable energies for heat and power, public transit, and energy retrofits for buildings, particularly for low-income housing?
Water
The 39th General Council resolved to call upon the Government of Canada to act, nationally and internationally, to ensure access to clean water for all, now and for future generations, by:
- Supporting publicly or co-operatively controlled water services;
- Opposing measures in federal, bilateral and multilateral agreements and policies that promote the privatization of water services, and
- Protecting and preserving natural sources of water.
Possible Questions:
- How concerned are you about the future of Canada’s water resources in view of the recent reports on the speed at which our icefields are shrinking? If you have concerns, what actions are you willing to support to protect these resources?
- What position do you take on the extra-territorial sale and export of Canada’s fresh water supplies?
Health Care
In the United Church submission to the Romanow Commission on the future of Health Care in Canada (2002), it was noted that the “Church believes that the values of solidarity, community, equity, compassion, and efficiency” should always take precedence over competing values of self-reliance, commercialization, commodification, and globalization.
The Ecumenical Health Care Network has lobbied the federal government to commit to these values and to ensure they are the “guiding principles for policy-makers, health-care managers, and health providers as they work to improve care in this country.”
The United Church encourages members and politicians to reflect critically on who stands to benefit and who stands to lose if the health care system is allowed to be driven by market forces.
Possible Questions:
- To what extent are you and your party committed to not-for-profit health care services over private, for-profit companies?
- Will you and your party support stable, long-term federal funding increases to health care, including home care and drug programs, with measures for accountability negotiated with the provinces and territories?
Housing
Many people, particularly children, are living in temporary shelters or sub-standard and sometimes unsafe housing. Street counts in our cities and towns show dramatic increases in the number of homeless people. For many years The United Church of Canada has been an active partner in a national effort to persuade various levels of government to provide adequate and affordable housing.
Congregations have participated in this challenge with others by offering emergency shelter to the homeless, initiating non-profit housing coalitions, and by actively advocating for better housing conditions with elected officials.
Governments have a fundamental responsibility to improve the health and well-being of all Canadians and to ensure sufficient and suitable funding for housing.
Possible Questions:
- How will you develop and support a full, national, long-term strategy for affordable housing in cooperation with the provinces, municipal governments, and civil society?
- Will you maintain or increase the budget for federal affordable housing programs?
- How will you encourage reinvestment and access to safe, affordable housing in your riding?
Caring for the Vulnerable Globally
Many people within The United Church of Canada are among the quarter-million citizens who have supported the Make Poverty History campaign ( and the United Church is among 1,000 organizations that have endorsed it. As Make Poverty History points out, Canada has pledged to address global poverty, but is failing to implement its promises. Nearly eight years ago, all members of the United Nations committed to the Millennium Development Goals to meet minimum targets to reduce poverty, hunger, illiteracy, discrimination against women, and environmental degradation by 2015.
Currently, Canada devotes less than half the recommended 0.7 percent of its Gross National Income. Five countries—including Sweden, Norway, Luxembourg, Netherlands, and Denmark—have reached their 0.7 percent commitment. Another 11 countries—including UK, France, and Germany—have timelines for doing so before 2015. Canada, despite its relatively robust economy, is not among them.
Possible Questions:
- Do you and your party favour a more robust Canadian development assistance program that would bring us closer to ending global poverty?
- Do you support increasing our foreign aid to reach the United Nations target of 0.7% of Gross National Income within 10 years? Will you and your party set a timetable so that we can reach the 0.7 percent target within 10 years?
- Will you and your government support mandatory regulatory measures to ensure the compliance of Canadian companies to international human rights and environmental obligations when they operate overseas?
Ending Poverty Locally
Globally, a vast economic gap divides those living in the North and South. In Canada, too, the gap between rich and poor is widening. Free trade, globalization, and climate change have made these trends worse, not better. In Canada, some groups are feeling the effects more than others.
Single parents, Indigenous peoples, new immigrants, people with disabilities, and older adults experience unacceptably high rates of poverty. 788,000 Canadian children, one in eight, live in poverty (2005), this despite the 1989 House of Commons unanimously-passed resolution stating that: "This House seeks to achieve the goal of elimination poverty among Canadian children by the year 2000.”
At the same time, incomes of senior managers in Canada increased 86 percent between 1993 and 2003, while incomes of people in low-skilled jobs increased by only 13 percent.
Possible Questions:
- How do you propose ending child poverty in Canada? Specifically, will you work towards boosting the Child Tax Benefit to $5,100 per child and ensuring that all low-income children receive full benefit of this program?
- Will you and your party support the consultations for ending poverty in Canada by recommending goals, timelines, and investments in family benefits, affordable housing, early learning and child care, and good jobs at living wages?
Aboriginal Issues
According to the most recent statistics, Indigenous peoples in Canada continue to display all the symptoms of an oppressed and economically marginalized group. They are among the most impoverished. Their unemployment rates are double the rate of the non-Aboriginal population. They are among the unhealthiest. Their rates of incarceration are higher than those of other groups. Their education rates are low. Many of their homes are in need of repair. Many lack easy access to clean water. First Nations suicide rates, especially among youth, are among the world’s highest, five to six times higher than non-Aboriginal youth. There is a life expectancy gap of 15 years between Inuit and other Canadians (Indian and Northern Affairs Canada 2002). The average Canadian gets services from the federal, provincial, and municipal governments at an amount that is almost two-and-a-half times greater than that received by First Nations citizens.
As Christians, we understand ourselves as called to be a covenant people—in right relationship with God and with all creation. Canadians and First Nations peoples are also covenant/treaty peoples. When the covenant or treaty is broken, as it is with Aboriginal peoples in Canada, we have a responsibility and opportunity in encouraging non-Aboriginal communities to help mend and restore it. Apologies from The United Church of Canada and the federal government need to lead now to real actions of justice and reconciliation. This takes time and courage but ultimately helps us all to live more full, rich, and rewarding lives.
Possible Questions:
- How will your party end “assimilation policies [that] have done great damage, leaving a legacy of brokenness affecting Aboriginal individuals, families and communities.” (RCAP) and work collaboratively with Indigenous peoples in Canada to ensure that their rights are protected and enforced?
- What importance do you place on the Truth and Reconciliation process? What particular activities are you prepared to initiate in order to engage constituents in our riding in the Truth and Reconciliation process?
- How will your party address the socio-economic problems facing Indigenous peoples in Canada, and close the current gap in the standard of living of non-Indigenous people?
Peace and Disarmament
In August 2006, the 39th General Council joined more than 20 other Canadian churches and civil society groups in calling on the Canadian government to create a new Department of Peace to:
- create a consistent voice in Cabinet for the non-violent resolution of conflict to counterbalance the voice of the Department of National Defence in matters of peace and security
- move nuclear disarmament and elimination of biological and chemical weapons to the forefront of government action.
- urgently and publicly communicate to all its NATO partners the illegality of the use of nuclear weapons
Possible Questions:
- Will you press the Government of Canada to acknowledge and resolve the inherent contradiction between Canada’s acceptance of NATO’s reliance on nuclear weapons and its Nuclear Proliferation Treaty obligation to achieve a nuclear-weapon-free world?
- Will you press the Government of Canada to take leadership in advocating and working for a ban on nuclear weapons?