Canada's 2025 Federal Election Primer
- David Thibodeau
- May 8
- 4 min read
If you are not in Canada, you may not know that we are in the midst of a federal election campaign. Who will become Canada’s next Prime Minister and who will form government will be decided on April 28th 2025. And the reason why this episode is coming so late in the election cycle is because some political parties took a long time to release their platforms. So, for this episode we took a look at all of the promises related to sport, physical activity and recreation in each of the five biggest political parties in Canada. Essentially an election primer. The Liberal Party of Canada, the Conservative Party of Canada, the Bloc Québécois, The New Democratic Party (or NDP), and the Green Party of Canada.
Everyone knows who follows this podcast regularly that we have a very broad definition of sport so we looked at promises related to the sport system directly, promises regarding active transport, national parks, and urban agriculture and creating active environments. I also looked in other sections of the platforms to see if sport, physical activity and recreation were mentioned elsewhere to see if parties were thinking of sport in different and unique ways. For example we looked under health policy proposals, youth, seniors, reconciliation with indigenous peoples, infrastructure and others. I have tried to include all promises that I came across during my reading, But I think generally my impression is that the promises were light in the sport, recreation and physical activity sectors. So I will go through each policy area and outline each party’s commitments to those areas, if I do not mention a party it is because they did not have any specific promises for those policy areas.
We of course have linked to all the five party platforms at the bottom of this article.
So, let’s get to it. For Canada’s 2025 General Election here are the party platforms, commitments and promises.
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Sport
Bloc Québécois:
The Bloc Québécois will call for a public and independent commission of inquiry into sports federations, where cases of abuse, discrimination, and mistreatment related to the safe practice of sport have increased.
The Bloc Québécois will campaign for Quebec national sports teams.
Parks:
Green Party of Canada:
Increase annual funding for Parks Canada, ensuring stronger ecological protection, trail maintenance, and Indigenous-led stewardship of national parks and heritage sites.
Invest in urban biodiversity initiatives, expanding tree canopy coverage, pollinator-friendly landscapes, and naturalized green spaces in cities. Require biodiversity action plans for all major cities, integrating urban ecosystems into climate resilience planning.
Liberal Party of Canada:
Make access to National Parks and Historic Sites free this summer for everyone. We will also reduce prices for camping sites in national parks for all Canadians from June to August. Now is the time to rediscover Canada in all its beauty
Protect more nature by advancing the creation of at least 10 new National Parks and Marine Protected Areas; supporting the creation of 15 new urban parks and green spaces in municipalities; halting and reversing nature and biodiversity loss through reinforced efforts to conserve 30% of lands and waters by 2030; and implementing the Global Biodiversity Framework
Active Transport:
Green Party of Canada: (they are the only party with a section specifically on active transport in their platform)
Create a National Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Fund to expand bike lanes, pedestrian infrastructure, and municipal bike-share programs.
Prioritize walking, cycling, and transit in city planning, reducing car dependency.
Introduce fair tax measures to encourage sustainable mobility choices, including public transit use and active transportation.
Urban Agriculture:
Green Party of Canada:
Invest in urban agriculture to increase food production and distribution in high density areas
Bloc Québécois:
It will demand that the federal government fully support any effort by Quebec to stimulate organic farming, greenhouse farming, urban and local agriculture, the local frozen food sector, and more.
Liberal Party of Canada:
Strengthen Canada’s food security by investing in greenhouses, hydroponics, and other controlled environment agriculture that allow us to grow more types of food, here at home. We will work with the private sector to protect Canadian food security.
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So there you have it. Honestly, perhaps a little underwhelming in terms of promises related to sport, recreation, physical activity, or creating active environments.
I did not see any sort of recognition of the fact that our health care systems are being negatively impacted by the physical inactivity pandemic. There was no recognition of the importance of sport for our health in these platforms and that addressing this will help protect and support the ailing health care system.
There was very little in terms of sport specific promises across the board, with most parties not even mentioning physical activity at all in their platforms.
I think this speaks to the fact that sport has been missing in action on this. The sport system keeps asking for more money for the same programs (athlete assistance or funding the NSOs), which, yes, is needed. But why are we not asking for more help to use sport to tackle the climate crisis, to help youth development, to provide opportunities for active aging and seniors. Do we think that we do not have a role in this?
I think the sport system is has a too narrow of view about what it is it responsible for and what it should be responsible for. If we want more funding for those things I mentioned earlier, I think we need to start making the case for why sport actually matters and why we need this funding to make our communities better places to live.
If Canada has a majority government after the election on April 28th, we as a sport sector has four years to get our act together before the next election to actually get on the agenda and present to political parties, Canadians and all other sectors what sport can do to support the national interest. We have a long way to go.
Thank you for joining on this special 2025 election primer. We will talk with you next time.
Green Party of Canada: https://cdn.greenparty.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/GP_Platform_English_Draft.pdf
Bloc Québécois: https://www.blocquebecois.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/blocqcplateforme-2025web.pdf
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