Policy Forum: Assessing Party Platforms for Fiscal Credibility in the 2019 Federal Election

Abstract

Party platforms are important. They signal what matters for political parties and with whom parties are engaging. Platforms can be used to predict government behavior and are an important tool to hold a government to account. In the 2019 federal election, all the major parties released platform documents outlining an array of policy positions to address short- and medium-term policy challenges. For the first time, all political parties worked with the parliamentary budget officer and released independent costings of their major proposals. The Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy (IFSD) at the University of Ottawa provided an assessment of whether the fiscal plan — revenues, spending, and balances — and the economic and fiscal assumptions underlying each platform were realistic, responsible, and transparent. This article describes the approach taken by the IFSD to assess the fiscal credibility of party platforms, what was found, and the potential implications for governing in a minority Parliament and future elections.