It’s time to make lung health a national priority.
The National Lung Health Alliance (NLHA) and its member organizations urge you to vote for better breathing when Canada goes to the polls on April 28.
As a non-partisan, non-profit group of organizations, we have created the tools below to help inform your decision and help you make the choice that’s right for you. No matter how you vote, breathing belongs on the ballot!
The Lung Health Voter’s Pledge
Send an email to your local election candidates to let them know that lung health is an urgent priority. Your story is powerful; you can customize your letter to include your personal connection to lung health, if you wish.
The Lung Health Platform Guide
To help our communities stay informed, the National Lung Health Alliance has been tracking and monitoring the election platform and promises made by the Liberal Party of Canada, Conservative Party of Canada, Bloc Québécois, New Democratic Party of Canada, Green Party of Canada, and People’s Party of Canada. This resource will be updated frequently as news develops. If there are any updates missing, please let our team know at advocacy@lunghealth.ca.
How to use this tool: We’ve focused on commitments that impact lung health in Canada capturing the promises and commitments that each of Canada’s five largest political parties have communicated. For a full picture of each party’s vision for Canada, we encourage you to explore the party websites and research your local candidates, including those running as independents.
Last update: Apr 15, 2025
Environment
- Removed Consumer Carbon Tax but maintained industrial carbon.
- Commitment to offer incentives to invest in clean energy, including reinstating the zero-emissions vehicle subsidy program.
- Commitment to repeal the entire carbon pricing law for consumers and big industry.
- Commitment to reduce emissions by expanding eligibility for the clean technology and clean manufacturing tax credits and rewarding businesses that make products with emissions lower than the world average.
- Commitment to retrofit 3.3 million homes in Canada. 2.3 million low-income households would get free energy-saving retrofits like heat pumps, air sealing and fresh insulation.
- Commitment to spend $1.5 billion annually over 10 years to complete the upgrades and another $300 million per year to expand the Canada Green Homes Initiative to allow an additional one million households to finance similar retrofits with low-cost loans.
- Commitment to end the consumer carbon tax but keep the industrial carbon tax.
Supportive of Carbon Tax. Both consumer and industrial.
Carbon tax does not apply in Quebec as they have a provincial cap and trade system.
Commitment to abolish all climate change programs.
Healthcare and Healthcare Research
Commitment to provide $52 million in funding for 16 projects across Canada through the Foreign Credential Recognition Program, which would allow internationally trained professionals to get jobs in the health-care network and construction.
No specific commitments made yet. Send any updates to advocacy@lunghealth.ca.
Promise to crack down on “cash-for-care” clinics that charge Canadians for basic services and to ban American firms from buying up Canadian health-care assets. Commitment that provinces that want federal funding would have to fully enforce public health-care standards.
- Commitment to bolster public health care by expanding health insurance coverage, including mental health care. Train and hire more health-care workers to improve wait times and expand home care and community care.
- Commitment to improve access to reproductive health care and protect 2SLGBTQ+ rights and access to gender-affirming health care.
Commitment to a 35% boost to federal health transfers based on total costs.
It would repeal the Canada Health Act and enable provinces and territories to set up mixed private-public universal systems and become fully responsible for health-care funding and management.
Social Programs
- Commitment to waiving the one-week waiting period for employment insurance for Canadians who lose their jobs to U.S. tariffs.
- Passed Canadian Dental Benefit in 2022 which intends to provide support for Canadians to access dental care. Supportive of expanded eligibility for dental care to include coverage for those 18 to 64. Current program.
- Passed Canadian Early Learning and Childcare program in 2023 which intends to establish a national early learning and child care system. Current program.
- Commitment to honouring current agreements to the federal dental and childcare programs.
- Did not support Canadian Dental Benefit in 2022 which intends to provide support for Canadians to access dental care. Commitment that Canadians currently using federal dental care won’t lose it. Current program.
- Passed Canadian Early Learning and Childcare program in 2023 which intends to establish a national early learning and child care system. Current program.
- Commitment to double the amount of the Canada disability benefit and increase the guaranteed income supplement at a combined cost of $3 billion to $4 billion. Open up more $10-a-day child-care spots. Increase the EI replacement rate to two-thirds of insurable earnings, with a minimum weekly benefit of $450; extend EI benefits to 50 weeks nationwide; implement a national 360-hour standard to qualify for benefits; and remove the one-week waiting period.
- Passed Canadian Dental Benefit in 2022 which intends to provide support for Canadians to access dental care. Commitment to expand current dentalcare. Current program.
- Passed Canadian Early Learning and Childcare program in 2023 which intends to establish a national early learning and child care system. Current program.
- Passed Canadian Dental Benefit in 2022 which intends to provide support for Canadians to access dental care. Current program.
- Passed Canadian Early Learning and Childcare program in 2023 which intends to establish a national early learning and child care system. Current program.
- Commitment to create a guaranteed livable income. The party plans to expand paid leave to elder care, miscarriage and other family needs.
- Did not support Canadian Dental Benefit in 2022 which intends to provide support for Canadians to access dental care. Current program. Is advocating for Quebec to have autonomy over the dental care program.
- Passed Canadian Early Learning and Childcare program in 2023 which intends to establish a national early learning and child care system. Current program.
Commitment to abolish new spending programs by the Trudeau government, such as day care, pharmacare and dental care programs. It would eliminate all other programs that duplicate provincial programs or intrude on provincial jurisdictions.
Pharmacare
- Passed Pharmacare Act in 2024 which sets out the principles towards implementing a national universal pharmacare. Current coverage and agreements.
- Committed to “keeping what is in place,” such as ensuring coverage for diabetes medication and contraception. It announced $52 million in funding for 16 projects across Canada through the Foreign Credential Recognition Program, which would allow internationally trained professionals to get jobs in the health-care network and construction.
- Commitment to maintain existing federal pharmacare program agreements. Did not support Pharmacare Pharmacare Act in 2024 which sets out the principles towards implementing a national universal pharmacare. Current coverage and agreements.
- Commitment to abolish supervised consumption sites and promote recovery and rehab.
- Supported Pharmacare Act in 2024 which sets out the principles towards implementing a national universal pharmacare. Current coverage and agreements.
- Commitment to delivering full public pharmacare within four years, starting with 100 of the most prescribed medications, such as pain medication, antibiotics and antipsychotics at estimated cost of $3.5 billion.
- Supportive of national universal pharmacare. Critical of Pharmacare Act. Current coverage and agreements.
- Commitment to make “medication free for everyone” through universal health care.
Did not support Pharmacare Act in 2024 which sets out the principles towards implementing a national universal pharmacare. Current coverage and agreements.
Does not support national universal pharmacare.
National Lung Health Alliance member organizations are currently working together to advance specific asks at the federal level: the need for a national lung disease strategy; the importance of pharmacare; the need to expand it to support people living with lung disease; and policies for healthier homes free from radon.
During the 2025 election, we have come together to elevate one incredibly important federal ask on the campaign trail.
Through letters to all federal leaders, we are calling on all parties to commit to ending commercial tobacco and nicotine product sales—excluding nicotine replacement therapies and traditional tobacco—by implementing a policy that prohibits the sale of these products to individuals born after a specific date.
This forward-looking measure would ensure that future generations are not given the opportunity to start or continue smoking or vaping, helping to eliminate nicotine addiction among youth over time.
A common-sense solution: There is NO “safe age” to start using nicotine products. If put in place now, such a ban would open doors to a nicotine-free generation.
While ending the sale of commercial tobacco and nicotine products can help the next generation of Canadians to avoid vaping, smoking, and nicotine addiction, it’s not the only action that our elected officials can take.
We can boost these cost-saving and life-saving measures by assisting those who are facing nicotine addiction right now, by investing more in mental health services and cessation supports.
If you or someone you love needs help quitting now, help is available and the National Lung Health Alliance is cheering you on!
Accessible voting options
Living with a lung condition can bring many challenges. For some in our community, that includes challenges with mobility.
- If you’re concerned about your lung condition holding you back from the polls on April 28, you can breathe a sigh of relief. You have until April 22 to register to vote by mail.
- Electors who live in hospitals and facilities that provide long-term care may have the extra option of voting at a mobile polling station in their residence, and Elections Canada offers mobile polling stations in some residences and hospital wards.
Breathing belongs on the ballot – and your vote matters.
Helpful Links
- Elections Canada: Find your polling station, register to vote by mail, view a list of candidates, and make sure you’re ready for the polls.
- NLHA member organizations: BC Lung Foundation, Alberta Lung, Lung Saskatchewan, Association Pulmonaire du Quebec, NB Lung, LungNSPEI, Lung Cancer Canada, Asthma Canada and COPD Canada.
- The Canadian Public Health Association’s election headquarters: Advocacy tips and fact sheets on issues like health inequities, chronic disease, and immunization.