Minimum Wage: Distort the labour market, but necessary, because the alternatives are worse. Raise periodically to keep in line with CoL, and encourage employers to increase wages, benefits etc via incentives.
Abortion: Pro-choice. I'm not personally comfortable with abortion and think more humane alternatives should be supported. But stopping people who want one from getting a legal abortion ain't right.
Birth Control: Supportive.
Same-Sex Marriage: Supportive.
Death Penalty/Sentencing: Not against it on principle, but here in Canada it's been abolished for decades, and I wouldn't support bringing it back.
Marijuana: Keep legal.
Gun Control: Generally pro-gun rights, but I can go either way depending on the specific measure proposed.
Prostitution: The act of prostitution shouldn't be a crime, but brothels and organized prostitutions should be. Again, it depends on the local context. In places where it's already normalized, I'd feel different. But here in Canada it's not a commonplace thing, and I'm good keeping it that way.
Affirmative Action: Generally opposed, but I can see limited circumstances where it makes sense.
Reparations: Opposed.
Police Reform: Way too broad to give a snappy answer on. Very opposed to Defund the Police and other such nonsense, but I acknowledge the need for some reform. Generally though, I tend to think that peace and public order should not be things that we experiment with, so with police reform I support a more gradual approach.
Prisons: They should exist and be used primarily to keep criminals away from society.
Free Speech: Non-negotiable, with exceptions for direct incitement of violence, breaching national security, doxxing private information, "yelling fire in a theater", etc.
PATRIOT Act: I'm not very knowledgable or have strong opinions on that act in particular, so I won't comment on it. In general, I'm against permitting government surveillance of civilians, but it's all about proportionality - sometimes, a crisis is bad enough that trade-offs must be made. From what I know, I don't think the PATRIOT Act was a proportionate or necessary response to 9/11, although a softer approach would have been.
Eminent Domain: Support, but arbitrated negotiation required before invoking eminent domain. And if invoked, must compensate greater than market value.
Immigration: Support legal immigration with a streamlined process, but I think current rates in Canada are too high. Main focus should be on skill-based immigration, support taking refugees from severe crisis areas, oppose illegal immigration and sanctuary cities.
Euthanasia: Yes, but only for terminal illnesses.
Mask Mandates: I mean at this point, opposed. But 2-3 years ago, it was clearly necessary.
Vaccine Mandates: In general, I think individuals should never be made to ingest or inject anything against their will, even if it's for the common good - there are certain boundaries of personal autonomy that should not be crossed. But I think public schools should be able to mandate it for students, and employers should be able to mandate it provided that there is a reason (working with vulnerable people, etc).
COVID-19 Vaccines: Ditto, although I wouldn't mandate it for public school students either, but definitely mandate it for healthcare workers for example.
LGBT: Lol what a broad topic. I support the right of LGBT people to live and express themselves freely and not be discriminated, and I support same-sex marriage and adoption. I don't support physical transition for pre-pubescent minors. I'm also very uncomfortable with the public expression and normalization of sexually explicit aspects embraced by
some people in the LGBT community. I know what people are going to say, no I'm not accusing LGBT people of being perverts or anything like that, or saying "just don't do it in public", because of course people should be able to express themselves. But if your self-expression involves publicizing your fetish in the middle of the street, as it seems to for some people in the community, don't get surprised when people try to shield their kids from that subculture.
Free Trade: Based (but must be reciprocal).
Income/Corporate Taxes: Keep low. Cut income taxes whenever possible, preferably by raising the personal amount (i.e. the amount of income that isn't taxed before income taxes kick in, raising the personal amount would disproportionately help low income people). For corporate taxes, it all depends on the business environment, but it should be kept competitive.
Tax Credits: An imperfect but effective way of providing tax relief (and if we're being realistic, pandering to key voter blocs).
Healthcare: Ensure universal access to public healthcare while allowing more for-profit facilities to operate at the user's expense, as long as public facilities are available, and a certain % of private healthcare profits directly go to the public system. This would alleviate the over-capacity of public healthcare and give customers more options without abolishing the public system.
Social Security: Again, not American, not very familiar with the specifics.
National Debt: Limit deficits and pay down debt as much as practicable.
Campaign Finance Reform: Individuals should be allowed to donate up to a certain limit. Ban direct corporate and union donations, PACs should be permitted.
Unions: Support in the private sector, oppose in the public sector (but can make peace with).
Tariffs: Only reciprocal tariffs.
UBI: Opposed.
Welfare: Should be limited as much as possible, able-bodied people shouldn't rely on the state for their livelihood, although people with disabilities or other circumstances out of their control that make it hard for them to get work should get enough support to live on. Better to focus on skill development than provide welfare.
Foreign Policy: Support our allies in NATO, Ukraine, Israel, Japan, Korea, etc, and stay the f- away from China. Generally maintain warm relations with countries wherever possible, but also understand that geopolitics can be very brutal and unforgiving, so don't be naive.
Colleges: Shouldn't be free, but government should intervene to cut tuition costs, especially in state and community colleges. More importantly, I think governments should put a halt on the policy of getting as many students as possible into 4-year university degrees, and instead promote trades and associate degrees focused on professional development - nothing against academia, but the social expectation of needing a 4-year bachelor's degree (particularly arts and general business programs that aren't very useful anyway) is unhealthy and forces a lot of young people into financial and time commitments that really aren't necessary to be a useful member of society.
Education: What I said above for post-secondary, and the idea of applying more practical education in the secondary level also applies. I know very little about primary education policy though, so I won't say anything. I do think school choice and charter schools are a good thing, but public education is also important.
Afghanistan: What's done is done. Don't recognize the Taliban and give into their extremism, but we're well past the point of them being the de facto government.
China: Again, avoid getting entangled with China any more than necessary. I think the west has slowly learned the hard way (I'm thinking about Canada in particular, but it applies everywhere) that economic liberalization does NOT mean that China is going to become a trustworthy power.
Middle East: No particular opinion, but building ties with Middle Eastern countries without undermining NATO obligations is the best way to go for Canada.
Cuba: As a Canadian, Cuba is more a cheap vacation destination (and the birthplace of our Prime Minister of course
) than a real geopolitical question.
Military Spending: Work towards meeting the 2% NATO target by beefing up our presence in the Arctic.
NSA Spying: What I said above about the PATRIOT Act.
Palestine/Israel: Status quo for Canadian policy, support our allies in Israel but don't get any more involved than we need to. Against BDS and such things, but there's no reason for us to pick fights with the Palestinians either. Peace in the region would be nice, but not our job.
Ukraine-Russia War: Support Ukraine.
Mexico: Again, as a Canadian, I don't feel any kind of way about Mexico politically. I'd like to travel there though, I've done the typical Cancun thing but I'd like to see more of the country.
Climate Change: Important to tackle, but we have to be realistic about what we can actually achieve on this file. I don't support hamstringing our energy sector only to let that demand be fulfilled by others. Strongly supportive of renewable and nuclear energy.
Carbon Tax: A good idea in theory, but I question its effectiveness in the way it's been applied.
Keystone Pipeline: Support.
Energy independence: Supportive.
Big Lie: Biden won the election.
Voter ID: Support, as long as ID is easy enough to attain (or better yet, any official government ID like a license, passport, health card, etc).
Audits: Audits? Yeah, audits need to be done regularly as a matter of good business practice. I'm not sure what this is referring to lol.
Term Limits: Nah, doesn't really make sense in a parliamentary system.
DC/PR statehood: Don't care.
SCOTUS: No strong opinions.
Alcohol: End the government monopoly on liquor sales (this is a very Ontario specific thing though). I'm not a big drinker, but I don't think government intervention on alcohol consumption is necessary or advisable.
Porn: Banning it won't work, but it's a genuine public health issue. Focus on awareness, and clamp down on sketchy practices in the porn industry.
Religion in Schools: I have no problem with school prayer, and parents should be able to send their kids to religious schools. That said, public schools shouldn't promote or oppose any religion.
