Health care has not emerged as a central theme in the 2025 federal election, despite growing concerns from patients and health care workers across the country. From emergency room closures to staff shortages and delayed surgeries, Canadians know there is a crisis in our health care system, but the national conversation is almost exclusively focused on tariffs and Trump, as is evident in health care’s exclusion from the federal leaders’ debate.
To better understand the parties’ positions on key health care issues, the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions (CFNU) sent a survey to the Liberal Party, Conservative Party, New Democratic Party (NDP), and Green Party. As of this writing, responses have been received from the NDP and Green Party. These responses, along with the platforms released, have informed this analysis. Below is an overview of each party’s commitments related to health care. Click on each party to reveal their platform.
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The Liberal Party’s platform builds on major legislative achievements from the previous government, including over $20 billion in bilateral agreements with provinces, the reinstatement of the Chief Nursing Officer, and the passage of both pharmacare and dental care legislation. Since Mark Carney became Prime Minister, two notable health commitments have been introduced: expanding dental care coverage to Canadians aged 18 to 64 and providing targeted support for internationally educated nurses through the Foreign Credential Recognition Program.
The platform makes meaningful progress on the nursing shortage crisis. It echoes a long-standing CFNU recommendation by pledging to streamline credential recognition for internationally trained nurses. It also proposes expanding the Union Training and Innovation Program (UTIP) to include new training spaces, enabling the construction and modernization of health care education infrastructure.
Infrastructure is a cornerstone of the Liberal platform, with a $4 billion investment earmarked to build and renovate hospitals, clinics, and other community health care facilities. While these investments are essential to improving access, the CFNU urges caution. Without sufficient nursing staff to operate them, new facilities risk contributing to more emergency room closures. Retention hinges on improving working conditions for nurses.
The expansion of dental care to cover all low-income Canadians without insurance is a landmark policy win. And regarding pharmacare, the platform says that the Liberal Party is “committed to making sure that Canadians can get the medications they need, no matter where they live or ability to pay.” This is an essential principle but lacks concrete commitments to expand pharmacare to cover other essential medications, which is a key component to saving lives and reducing the burden on emergency rooms.
Finally, while patient safety is not directly mentioned in the platform, it includes adding addition of thousands of new doctors through expanding residency programs and fast-track the arrival of internationally educated doctors which will reduce the strain on emergency rooms and the nursing workforce.
Overall, the Liberal platform reflects a serious effort to address the nursing shortage crisis and extend essential health supports like dental care and the first stage of pharmacare. However, the absence of commitments to nurse-patient ratios, safe hours, and long-term care standards prevents it from earning top marks. Still, the CFNU welcomes the progress reflected in the platform’s health commitments.
The Conservative Party voted against most progressive health care legislation under the previous government. However, their platform includes commitments to maintain existing federal health transfer agreements, preserve the current dental care program, and uphold existing deals with provinces and territories on child care and pharmacare. The CFNU is encouraged by the Conservative pledge not to dismantle dental care or pharmacare—aligning with health care professionals and experts rather than pharmaceutical and insurance industry lobbyists.
Many of the Conservative platform’s strengths lie in what the party pledges not to undo. In addition to continuing support for dental care and pharmacare, they commit to upholding the Canada Health Act and ensuring that abortion access remains unrestricted.The platform also includes a plan to support internationally educated nurses by providing small loans to help with certification costs. This is an important step toward easing the financial burden for newcomers seeking to join Canada’s health workforce. Additionally, the Conservatives propose increasing the number of doctors in Canada by expanding residency positions and recognizing U.S. credentials to recruit American-trained physicians.
However, the platform takes a regressive stance on harm reduction. While it includes the distribution of hundreds of thousands of naloxone kits, it also proposes banning overdose prevention sites (referred to as “drug dens”) near schools, parks, and seniors' homes, ending safe supply programs, and allowing judges to impose mandatory treatment for substance use.
When it comes to nurses, the Conservative platform focuses primarily on increasing supply through internationally educated workers and students, but offers no measures to improve working conditions. Without a plan to address issues like nurse-patient ratios, safe working hours, and other CFNU-recommended strategies, the platform fails to retain the existing nursing workforce—despite the fact that one in four nurses is planning on leaving the profession. For this reason, the Conservatives receive the lowest grade among the parties in this election.
The NDP has a long-standing legacy of advocating for the expansion and improvement of Canada’s public health care system. From Tommy Douglas’s introduction of Medicare to Jagmeet Singh’s supply and confidence agreement that advanced both pharmacare and dental care, the party has consistently championed the needs of Canada’s nurses. In this election, the NDP has made more health care-related announcements than any other party.
Jagmeet Singh’s April 14 nursing announcement is one of the most comprehensive packages of solutions to the nursing shortage and patient safety crisis ever proposed by a Canadian political party. It includes implementing nurse-patient ratios and improving working conditions by linking new federal health transfers to provincial and territorial hiring and retention strategies. In their response to the CFNU survey, the NDP also committed to setting limits on consecutive hours of work for nurses and establishing enforceable, national standards for safe long-term care. Central to the NDP platform is the belief that improving nurses’ working conditions is essential to ensuring patient safety.
Addressing the nursing shortage is a top priority for the NDP. The party has pledged to invest in the Nursing Retention Toolkit, introduce paid preceptorships for nursing students, and eliminate the use of for-profit nursing agencies. They also propose incentivizing provinces to fast-track credential recognition for internationally educated nurses, with a focus on recruiting nurses from the U.S. to help fill nearly 40,000 vacant positions across the country. In addition, the NDP promises a $5,000 Canadian Health Care Workers Tax Credit to support nurse retention.
The NDP’s health care platform is both ambitious and thorough. By addressing the root causes of the nursing crisis—especially working conditions—the party’s proposals aim to retain, recruit, and bring back nurses to the profession. The NDP earns a perfect score for meeting all of CFNU’s recommendations and going further with bold, evidence-based solutions.
The Green Party’s health care platform emphasizes increasing the Canada Health Transfer to provinces and territories, while tying this funding to enforceable standards for patient care and greater accountability. Their plan aims to strengthen the public system by improving regulated care in long-term care settings, hiring more nurses, and enhancing working conditions across the sector.
They strongly support publicly funded education and training pathways, with a particular focus on streamlining the integration of internationally educated health professionals. Notably, they are the only party to explicitly recognize the critical role of Nurse Practitioners in addressing Canada’s growing primary care needs.
The Green Party’s pharmacare proposal centres on universal access through a publicly administered program, with a clear commitment to equity and access to essential medications. They also pledge to expand public coverage to include dental care and mental health care—key pillars of comprehensive health.In another move to address the nursing shortage, they propose free education and hands-on training opportunities for nursing students. While the platform does not include formal commitments to nurse-patient ratios or safe working hours, its emphasis on eliminating profit from health care, expanding the scope of Medicare, and supporting both domestic and internationally trained nurses reflects a genuine commitment to rebuilding and sustaining Canada’s nursing workforce.