I have not been able to ascertain whether there was a grand plan to keep the agenda secret, or whether they are just the worst at public relations.  Either way, they never talk about this agenda and hence most Canadians don’t know about it or have forgotten about it

Surprisingly the history goes back to the first few days in office for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.  Here goes:

- Middle-class tax cut, one of the first bills passed in 2015, weeks after their first election. 

- Canada Child Benefit which raised millions of Canadian kids out of poverty in 2016.

- National Housing Strategy announced 2017, returned the feds to housing after two decades, with bigger funding in 2020 and beyond, and we still need more.
- Major funding increase to the Canada Pension Plan in concert with all the provinces in 2019.
- Canada Carbon Rebate started in 2019. Ok they only talked about the carbon price (carbon tax) and didn’t start talking about the rebate Canadians received till 2024! Call it a little comms glitch?
- COVID era support programs - massive subsidy programs for people, renters, small and big businesses to keep millions of Canadians in their homes and thousands of businesses afloat, thus avoiding a recession or depression. Included some money printing – not sure why they don’t stand up an own it. It worked!
- Labour Mobility Tax Deduction for Tradespeople.  Originally pushed by the NDP, implemented by the Liberals in 2022. (All parties are planning to expand this now.)
- Grocery rebate, between $200 and $645 in 2023
- National Child Care (first recommended in 1968) was passed in 2024, and recognized as a major affordability and economic policy after Covid.
- Canadian Dental Care plan implemented in 2024, as part of the agreement with NDP.
- Pharmacare implemented in 2024, also as part of the agreement with the NDP, and needs to be expanded to cover more medications
- Canada Disability Benefit was passed in 2023 and implemented in 2024.  Sadly it is being terribly underfunded.  Needs reconsideration.

Interestingly the NDP and Greens voted for most all of these measures, the Bloc for many and the Conservatives against most (except COVID programs, where they supported the Liberal government).  But today it is the Conservatives who wear the mantle of inventing the affordability agenda.  Here’s the thing: to those who communicate, go the spoils! To those with secret agendas, go no credit.  Hence Pierre Poilievre gets to claim the mantle of the defender of affordability.

And there were other agendas, also fairly secret.

There’s the Economic Agenda, which included the big COVID support programs, and a variety of programs for the new economy, both tech and green.  Significant was the renewed free trade agreement with Trump One in 2018, which was arrived at with the utmost patience and skill.  The fact that Trump doesn’t like it now suggests Canada did well.

And then there were the controversial ones: legalizing marijuana, and medical assistance in dying (MAID).  Also bills to help Canadian broadcasters and media as they try to survive the exploding American-owned online media world. 

Another issue that the Liberals get little credit for is the reform of the Senate.  My bias on this issue is obvious – Trudeau appointed me!  But he changed the process to having senators appointed to sit as independents following a process of review by an independent advisory council.  He appointed some senators who sit as independents.  Instead he could have had an upper chamber with some close to 100 card-carrying Liberal senators out of 105.

The Senate now has some 54% women and he maintained a gender-equal cabinet. He also had a feminist approach to foreign policy, which well, some countries didn’t appreciate.

Over the last decade, the Trudeau government was best at making announcements, but did little follow up PR on most initiatives. It’s as if they announced such brilliant policies…..why did they need to talk about them more than once!

I’m not sure why the Liberals don’t talk about their record more.  Canadians don’t make a lot of difference between the Carney Liberals and Trudeau Liberals.  They trust the Liberal brand writ large, and like the change of leadership.  Put differently, if Carney decided to create a new party with him as leader, he would be nowhere as successful as he is today.
The current Liberal iteration would do best to take credit for what their party has done over the last decade (at least to counter Poilievre’s clever allegation of the lost decade), acknowledge those things that did not work out well and talk about how they will do things differently going forward.  They did that on carbon tax and to Poilievre’s understandable chagrin are getting credit for ditching it.

Andrew Cardozo is an independent senator and member of the Progressive Senate Group.