On April 1, we wrote to the leaders of the main federal parties — the Liberal Party of Canada, the Conservative Party of Canada, Canada’s New Democratic Party, the Bloc Québécois, and the Green Party of Canada — to ask them to commit to safeguarding Canada’s labour rights and protections, including:
- Collective bargaining rights for all Canadian unionized workers.
- The right to unionize for all Canadian workers.
- The Rand formula — the foundation of modern Canadian labour relations and collective bargaining.
- Public sector pensions — ensuring that the defined benefit pensions federal public service workers have been working toward remain intact.
We have now started to receive responses from the different parties, and we are sharing them here to help our members have all the information they need to make an informed choice when it comes to these important union and labour-related issues. We will be adding new responses as they come in.
Bloc Québécois — Received 2025-04-04
The Bloc Québécois was the first party to respond to our letter, answering each key points clearly and directly by taking a strong stance in favour of protecting collective bargaining rights, the right to unionize, the Rand formula, and public sector pensions.
Highlights:
- “The Bloc Québécois has always been receptive to the demands of the Customs and Immigration Union, supporting a number of measures put forward by the union, such as increasing staffing levels and allowing CBSA officers to patrol outside border crossings.”
- “[…] we have systematically opposed any special measure aimed at legislating unionised workers back to work. We believe that job action by employees is important in order to reach a balance of power across the table, otherwise the playing field would be tilted steeply in favour of the employer.”
- “The right to unionize is a fundamental right […] We will stand against any attempt to interfere with this right.”
- “[…] the Bloc Québécois has always advocated for the Rand formula. As all workers benefit from the gains made by unions, we believe it is only appropriate that everyone pay union dues. We are aware that a number of Conservative groups would like the Rand formula to be abolished, resulting in an erosion of union bargaining power. But we will continue to oppose any attempt to restrict it.”
- “[…] we will go on supporting defined benefit pension plans for public sector workers, and consequently, for your members.”
Read the full response here (translated from the original French).
Liberal Party — Response to come
Conservative Party — Response to come
NDP — Response to come
