This translated article is appearing here as part of an Election 2025 collaboration between Le Devoir and Canada’s National Observer, to share news across the language divide.
The Green Party of Canada promises to reduce personal income taxes and invest more in social programs, even if it means dealing with issues that are primarily the responsibility of the Quebec government, admits its co-leader.
“I think Quebecers want healthcare that works. They want schools that work, cities that are better equipped to meet their needs. This is not the case at the moment. Of course we will do what we can to help them,” said Jonathan Pedneault, who is running for office in the Outremont riding in Montreal.
Le Devoir welcomed him to its offices on Berri Street for an editorial roundtable on Friday. At 34, the former humanitarian worker is the youngest of the main federal party leaders. Pedneault wants to get the message across that his party is as committed to social justice as it is to the environmental cause.
“I spent 15 years of my life in conflict zones. I know very well that Canada is ill-prepared to deal with the crises to come, whether they be climatic or geopolitical,” Pedneault said.
After celebrating the New Year from Syria, where he was on a mission, he returned to his duties alongside Elizabeth May, his co-leader of the Green Party, following a brief withdrawal from politics in 2024 for health reasons. He is motivated by his distaste for US President Donald Trump, whom he bluntly describes as a “fascist”.
“They are in the process of building a regime in the United States that doesn't give a damn about the laws and the Constitution, that has almost monarchical pretensions. [Donald Trump] worships a form of white supremacy. [...] If we can't call it fascism, what is it?”
He wants to make his contribution to Team Canada from the benches of the Green Party, the fifth and smallest party represented in the House of Commons, with two members elected in 2021. Standing up to Mr. Trump is a team effort, he says. “And no one, not even a state, can handle it alone.”
Even less tax
The Green Party boasts of being “the only party that is not asking people to tighten their belts”. It proposes to increase federal spending on electrification projects, health transfers, dental care, housing, childcare and higher education, which it wants to make free, among other promises.
The party has also said it will eliminate the federal tax on incomes less than $40,000 for the majority of the population. “What we are proposing is that the government not go after the last pennies of those who have trouble paying their rent at the end of the month,” Pedneault said.
These tax cuts, even more ambitious than those proposed by the Liberal and Conservative parties, would cause the government to forgo revenues ranging between $50 and $60 billion, according to his estimate. His plan is to raise taxes on large corporations and create a new tax on financial transactions.
During the conversation, he makes it clear that he is “not in politics to represent companies”, and describes the Canadian economy as “fundamentally colonial.” He believes that companies will not relocate south of the border, since “Europeans and Asians will look at American products and say to themselves, ‘I don't want any of that, because it comes from a country that does not respect human rights.’”
A self-identified ‘federalist’
Pedneault willingly accepts the label of “federalist”, although he is less so than in his youth, when he says he was an ardent supporter of former prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau. “[My perspective has] evolved on this. […] I believe not only that an independent Quebec is absolutely liveable, [but also] that it is an absolutely legitimate option,” he qualifies.
If the opportunity arose, he would approve a change to the Canadian Constitution to give more power to the municipalities, in particular. Currently, cities fall under provincial jurisdiction.
According to the frequent traveler, Canada, despite its flaws, “is an example to many countries of what collaboration” between its peoples, including indigenous nations, looks like. The Green politician dreams that the country will adopt a system that would allow coalitions between political parties, as is the custom in Norway, a country he lived in for seven years.
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