Did the Liberals or Conservatives Win the Last Election? The NDP Definitely Lost, and so did Canadians.

Written July 15, 2025

By: newb Anarchist

#CanadianPolitics

Someone pinch me! I can't believe the bank crony who helped craft an austerity state in the UK is now, as newly elected PM, sending Canada down a similar path.

Not.

Pinch me again if the Conservatives recognize that these cuts are almost identical to what the CPC pledged to do themselves had they won the election. You might be surprised to learn that conservatives actually found a way to be mad at the Liberals for this. I imagine it is pure envy, for what other reason would they have to begrudge the Liberals for cutting government services by potentially 30%? This has been a conservative wet dream going back to before Stephen Harper was made in his daddy's sack.

Canadian voters were left with a choice between a never-had-a-job, career politician who promoted 20th-century ideas like returning single-use plastics, or a lifetime banker who, it seems, knows nothing besides a system where profits must prevail over a person's quality of life. Not exactly top-tier options from parties that, together, typically represent ~2/3 of the Canadian population.

There was a third option, one that only got worse though. The NDP, once an opposition force to be reckoned with, no longer serves a functional purpose in government—or the same purpose as the Greens. While it is true they offered some progressive policy ideas in their platform leading up to the election, how do we rationally rectify the fact that their leader and so many in their upper echelon treat themselves to SUVs costing six figures, all while espousing 'tax the wealthy' sentiment?

It seems progressive Canadian voters will resoundingly choose Liberals if their options are reduced to Big-Money Red or Big-Money Orange.

I for one don't blame them. What is the difference in the end if both parties are working to appeal to an upper-middle class over the real working class? The NDP spent far too many hours convincing voters they're the best at "rainbowing"—proving they're the most queer & trans friendly—instead of spending every effort connecting with the poor and lower-middle classes on the cost of living. More importantly, they should have spent time giving people a sense it is possible to improve everyone's wealth/quality of life by insisting there is a better, more progressive way to run an economy; one that doesn't defer everything to the business class.

Inevitably, in trying to compete with the Liberals at what the Liberals are best at, the NDP secured its annihilation, leaving progressive voters in a state of abstention or begrudgingly voting Liberal just to keep Conservatives out of power. Again, I for one don't blame them; if I had to eat shit, I'd much rather it be a better-quality source of shit.

In the NDP's defense, we have to recognize the fact that our political system is such that big money is meant to prevail. Canadians are unabashedly capitalist, which means those who serve capitalist interests first tend to win elections. We won't dive into this reality here today, but it should be locked in the back of our minds.

Still, given the state of affairs—the blatant profiteering happening across the entire economy and right in front of our eyes—there was ample opportunity to draw out a truly progressive option. One that offers bold solutions to address recurring problems, instead of just offering more of the same, with a hue of orange instead of red, as the NDP were doing.

For example, given there is clear evidence Canadian grocer corporations have both fixed prices on base commodities and profiteered to contribute to record inflation, would it have been crazy to propose launching a government-owned retailer to compete with entities like Loblaws or Walmart, or to consider incentivizing provinces to do so? If these corporations can turn record profits while Canadians eat record inflation, why couldn't the government successfully operate competitive grocery chains if it truly wanted to, but with an emphasis on bringing costs down?

I can already hear the capitalist rhetoric in response, and I'm not interested in working through the minutiae of why it could be done. And to be clear, no one is suggesting a centralized takeover. Just some good old fashion, added competition in a market that behaves too much like a monopoly.

I won't spend time on more examples on account of the minutiae required to counter the counter-rhetoric. I want only to say there was room to carve out a truly progressive opposition, if that opposition is laser-focused on bottom-up, progressive solutions..

In the end, when progressives are left out of the equation, what we get is competing conservatives. At this point, Canada's Liberals are only liberal in name. Carney has declared that Canada will walk the path of austerity, to the tune of 30% in some cases. They've also decided to give themselves near-absolute authority to approve "projects" they like. They haven't cut corporate taxes yet, but at this rate, I won't need a pinch if the Liberals decide to cancel their ban on single-use plastics, such are their similarities to the CPC.

Ultimately, this is to Canada's loss. Despite a parliamentary system and a minority government in power, in effect, we have a single party running a neoliberal doctrine. If the Conservatives decide to keep to ideology and the Liberals choose power over prioritizing Canadians (hard to imagine that scenario, right?!), we can expect to see 4 full years of austerity, business-friendly legislation, simping to the US & Israel, strike busting, and so forth. And why not? With everyone else in the government so toothless, why wouldn't the 2 parties most heavily influenced by big money seek to inevitably favor their donor class?

To be fair, it is early days for the new government, and some arguments for cutting spending are viable. It would be dumb to presume that everything taxpayers spend money on is done so optimally. If we're lucky, some of the wishful thinking behind austerity governance might actually create prosperity for the masses. If we're less lucky, as are the UK, France, Germany, and Greece, to name a few participants of Europe's austerity project, then we'll cut our services to appease the business class but get little in return.

Thanks for reading!

Please forgive us! This website is still under construction. We're working to make content like this regularly available, but aren't quite there yet. Check back soon!