Under the watch of party chief, Stephen Harper, Conservatives hope to take more seats from the Liberals. The party's latest policy document outlines the Conservative position on topics from same-sex marriage and health care, to democratic reform and defence.

Based on the official 2006 Conservative Party platform, and also on information posted on the Conservative Party’s website as of January 19, 2006.

Health care

• Harper has promised $260 million over five years to fund the existing Canadian Strategy for Cancer Control -- a network of major cancer stakeholders with a mandate to facilitate collaboration within the cancer-control community
• Harper vows a Tory Government will not initiate or support any legislation to regulate abortion
• Immediately compensate all individuals who contracted hepatitis C from tainted blood
• Allow for a mix of public and private health care delivery
• Improve access to natural and complementary health products and supplements.
• Introduce a National Disability Act to promote access to medical care, medical equipment, education, employment, transportation, and housing for Canadians with disabilities
• Allow the parents of youth under 16 who register their children in programs that promote physical fitness to claim a federal tax credit on spending up to $500 per year per child
• Commit to spending at least one percent of total federal health funding annually on physical activity
• Increase the numbers of, and expand educational programs for doctors, nurses, and other health professionals
• Ensure all Canadians receive essential medical treatment within clinically acceptable waiting times, or can be treated in another jurisdiction, as required by the Supreme Court of Canada’s Chaoulli decision and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
• Push ahead with implementing the September 2004 federal-provincial Health Accord
• Ensure wait time reduction targets are established by end of 2006

Same-sex marriage

• Stephen Harper believes in the traditional definition of marriage
• Harper vows that he would hold a free vote on the definition of same-sex marriage in the next session of Parliament
• If the resolution is passed, the government will introduce legislation to restore the traditional definition of marriage while respecting existing same-sex marriages

Defence

• Make Parliament responsible for exercising oversight over the conduct of Canadian foreign policy and the commitment of Canadian Forces to foreign operations
• Recruit 13,000 additional regular forces and 10,000 additional reserve forces personnel
• Increase spending on the Canadian Forces by $5.3 billion over the next five years
• Expand recruiting and training, reduce rank structure overhead, review civilian and military HQ functions, and increase front-line personnel
• Increase investment in base infrastructure and housing for Canadian troops
• Acquire equipment needed to support a multi-role, combat-capable maritime, land, and air force
• Increase the Canadian Forces’ capacity to protect Canada’s Arctic sovereignty and security
• Restore the regular army presence in British Columbia
• Treat Canada’s veterans with the respect and honour that they deserve, and ensure better responsiveness to veterans with a Veterans’ Bill of Rights and a Veterans’ Ombudsman
• Name a National Security Commissioner with the responsibility of providing recommendations on how to coordinate the work of the RCMP, CSIS, the Canada Border Services Agency, a revitalized Coast Guard, a reinstated Ports Police, and a new Canadian Foreign Intelligence Agency, as well as the security aspects of the Departments of Immigration and Transport
• Create a Canadian Foreign Intelligence Agency to gather intelligence overseas, counter threats, and increase allied intelligence operations
• Establish the Canadian Coast Guard as a stand-alone agency and honour plans to invest $276 million over five years in expanding and updating fleet
• Create a National Security Review Committee to ensure oversight and a greater degree of accountability and transparency regarding Canada’s national security efforts
• Ensure agencies such as CSIS, RCMP, and the Canada Border Services Agency have adequate resources and equipment.
• Provide our border officers with sidearms and the training required for their use
• Ensure there are no “workalone” posts for the safety of these officers
• Reopen RCMP border detachments in Quebec and the West
• Deploy face recognition and other biometric technology at border crossings and ports of entry

Marijuana

• Prevent the decriminalization of marijuana
• End house arrests and ensure mandatory minimum prison sentences and large monetary fines for serious drug offenders, including marijuana grow operators
• Introduce a national drug strategy to dissuade young people from using drugs

Child Care

• Offer a child-care allowance of $1,200 a year for each child under six, to be taxable in the hands of the spouse with the lower income
• Another $250 million in annual tax credits to fund a community child-care investment program, which the party says will create 125,000 new child-care spaces over the next five years
• Honour the government’s existing bilateral child care commitments for one year

Crime

• Adopt, in collaboration with the provinces, a national strategy to fight organized crime, including the creation of a joint national task force on security
• Ensure federal corrections officers have the tools and training they require to do their job as peace officers
• Repeal the long-gun registry legislation (Bill C-68)
• Reinvest savings from cancellation of the gun registry program into hiring more front-line enforcement personnel, including filling 1,000 RCMP positions
• Negotiate with the provinces to create a new cost-shared program to put at least 2,500 more police on the beat in our cities and communities
• Invest $100 million per year of new federal money on criminal justice priorities, including working with the provinces and municipalities to hire more police, as well as victim assistance and youth crime prevention programs
• Maintain the existing handgun registry and bans on all currently prohibited weapons
• Introduce mandatory minimum prison sentences with restricted parole eligibility for the criminal use of firearms, trafficking or possession of stolen firearms, or illegal possession contrary to a bail, parole, or firearms prohibition order
• Strict monitoring, including tracking place of residence, of high-risk individuals prohibited from owning firearms, multiple violent or sexual offences
• Replace statutory release with earned parole
• Toughen parole provisions for those convicted of committing a crime while on parole, and eliminate parole for life after the third such conviction
• Prevent courts from giving extra “credit” for pre-trial custody for persons denied bail because of their past criminal record or for violating bail
• Create a reverse onus for bail hearings for anybody charged with an indictable firearms offence
• Work for a constitutional amendment to forbid prisoners in federal institutions from voting in elections
• Ensure anyone 14 years or older who is charged with serious violent or repeat offences is automatically subject to adult sentencing provisions
• Amend the Youth Criminal Justice Act to include deterrence and denunciation as mandatory sentencing principles to be considered
• Establish national Victims’ Ombudsman Office
• Provide $10 million per year for victim assistance
• Adopt a zero tolerance policy for child pornography
• End house arrests and ensure mandatory minimum prison sentences and large monetary fines for serious drug offenders, including marijuana grow operators and producers and dealers of crystal meth and crack
• Prevent the decriminalization of marijuana
• Make precursor chemicals of crystal meth, such as pseudoephedrine, harder to get
• Introduce a national drug strategy to dissuade young people from using drugs
• Expedite deportation of non-citizens convicted of drug trafficking, drug importation, or running grow operations
• Restore the Canada Ports Police
• Support results-oriented, community-based initiatives for addictions treatment, training, and rehabilitation of those in trouble with the law
• Direct $50 million in funding into community-based, educational, sporting, cultural, and vocational opportunities for youth at risk
• Work with provinces, municipalities, police, and community leaders in areas threatened by gun and gang violence to support programs which reach out to young people
• Require the registration of all convicted sex offenders and dangerous offenders, which will include mandatory DNA sampling of all those convicted or currently in custody on such offences
• Rename the Age of Consent to the Age of Protection and raise the age from 14 to 16 years of age
• Prohibit conditional sentences for sex offences committed against children
• Amend s. 810.2 of the Criminal Code to permit the participation of the prosecutors involved in the original trial, as well as the victims of the crime and their families, at the hearing
• Allow judges to impose residency restrictions on offenders, and extend the term of the order
• Reduce the backlog of unexecuted deportation orders and swiftly carry out new ones
• Place top priority on executing existing and new deportation orders against individuals with criminal records, connections to terrorist organizations, or organized crime
• Amend the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, the Criminal Code, and the Corrections and Conditional Release Act to permit sentencing courts to order deportation following conviction on select offences and also to prohibit persons already ordered deported from parole eligibility before deportation

Gun registry

• Scrap the long gun registry legislation
• Introduce mandatory minimum sentences for criminal use of firearms

Democratic reform

• Create a national process for choosing elected Senators from each province and territory
• Propose further reforms to make the Senate an effective, independent, and democratically elected body that equitably represents all regions
• Restore representation by population for Ontario, British Columbia, and Alberta in the House of Commons while protecting the seat counts of smaller provinces
• Introduce legislation modeled on the BC and Ontario laws requiring fixed election dates every four years, except when a government loses the confidence of the House (in which case an election would be held immediately, and the subsequent election would follow four years later)
• Make all votes in Parliament, except the budget and main estimates, “free votes” for ordinary Members of Parliament
• Increase the power of Parliament and parliamentary committees to review the spending estimates of departments and hold ministers to account
• Ensure that party nomination and leadership races are conducted in a fair, transparent, and democratic manner
• Prevent party leaders from appointing candidates without the democratic consent of local electoral district associations

Government accountability

• Ensure that all officers of Parliament are appointed through consultation with all parties in the House of Commons and confirmed through a secret ballot of all Members of Parliament, not just named by the prime minister
• Establish a Public Appointments Commission to set merit-based requirements for appointments to government boards, commissions, and agencies, to ensure that competitions for posts are widely publicized and fairly conducted
• Prevent ministerial aides and other political appointees receiving favoured treatment when applying for public service positions
• Extend to ten years the period for which Elections Act violations can be investigated and prosecuted
• Limit individual donations to parties or candidates to a maximum of $1,000
• Prohibit all corporate, union, and organization donations to political parties, ridings, and candidates
• Ban cash donations to political parties or candidates of more than $20
• Extend to ten years the period for which Elections Act violations can be investigated and prosecuted
• Extend to five years the period during which former ministers, ministerial staffers, and senior public servants cannot lobby government
• Ban success or contingency fee arrangements
• Require ministers and senior government officials to record their contacts with lobbyists
• Make the Registrar of Lobbyists an independent officer of Parliament
• Give the Registrar of Lobbyists the mandate and resources to investigate violations
• Ensure that all government public opinion research is automatically published within six months of the completion of the project, and prohibit verbal-only reports
• Ensure that an independent review is conducted of government public opinion research practices discussed in Chapter 5 of the auditor general’s November 2003 report to determine whether further action, such as a judicial inquiry, is required
• Open up the bidding process for government advertising and public opinion contracts to prevent insider firms from monopolizing government business
• Review and amend all contracting rules to make the government’s procurement process free from political interference
• Appoint a procurement auditor to ensure that all procurements are fair and transparent, and to address complaints from vendors
• Permit smaller vendors and vendors outside of the National Capital Region to receive due consideration for government contracts
• Ask the auditor general to conduct, on an expedited basis, an audit of all federal grant, contribution, and contracting policies, and commit to following her recommendations
• Increase funding for the Office of the Auditor General to ensure she has the necessary resources to conduct a complete audit of grant and contribution programs and of any such departments, agencies, and Crown corporations as she deems necessary
• Provide a general public interest override for all exemptions
• Ensure all exemptions from the disclosure of government information are justified only on the basis of the harm or injury that would result from disclosure, not blanket exemption rules
• Ensure that the disclosure requirements of the Access to Information Act cannot be circumvented by secrecy provisions in other federal acts, while respecting the confidentiality of national security and the privacy of personal information
• Give the Comptroller General the overall authority for the internal audit function in each government department
• Designate the deputy minister of each government department or agency as the accounting officer for that department. The deputy will be responsible to Parliament for the departmental spending and administrative practices of his or her department
• Require that, in the event of a disagreement between a minister and deputy minister on a matter of administration, the minister must provide written instruction to the deputy minister and notify the auditor general and comptroller general of the disagreement
• Create the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, with the responsibility to conduct prosecutions under federal jurisdiction
• Give the Director of Public Prosecutions the power to make binding and final decisions to prosecute or not unless the Attorney General or Deputy Attorney General instructs the Director to do otherwise by means of public written notice
• Appoint the Director of Public Prosecutions from among qualified candidates recommended by a committee which will include representatives of the opposition parties in Parliament
• Give the Director of Public Prosecutions the mandate to review recent decisions on prosecutions in the sponsorship scandal and other matters which have been the subject of investigation by the Auditor General and the Ethics Counsellor or Commissioner
• Structure the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions in accordance with best practices in other jurisdictions such as British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Australia, and the United Kingdom
• Give the information commissioner the power to order the release of information.
• Expand the coverage of the act to all Crown corporations, officers of Parliament, foundations, and organizations that spend taxpayers’ money or perform public functions
• Subject the exclusion of cabinet confidences to review by the information commissioner
• Oblige public officials to create the records necessary to document their actions and decisions
• Give the ethics commissioner the power to fine violators
• Prevent the prime minister from overruling the ethics commissioner on whether the prime minister, a minister, or an official is in violation of the Conflict of Interest Code
• Enshrine the Conflict of Interest Code into law
• Close the loopholes that allow ministers to vote on matters connected with their business interests
• End trusts that allow ministers to remain informed about their business interests, and require all ministerial assets to be placed in truly blind trusts
• Allow members of the public – not just politicians – to make complaints to the ethics commissioner
• Make part-time or non-remunerated ministerial advisers subject to the Ethics Code
• Create independent Parliamentary Budget Authority to provide objective analysis directly to Parliament about the state of the nation’s finances and trends in the national economy
• Require government departments and agencies to provide accurate, timely information to the Parliamentary Budget Authority
• Ensure government fiscal forecasts are updated quarterly and that they provide complete data for both revenue and spending
• Prohibit nominated candidates or MPs seeking re-election from accepting large personal gifts
• Ban the use of trust funds to finance candidates’ campaigns
• Require that all sitting or elected MPs report the existence of any trust funds or secret accounts, and that such accounts be wound up

Taxes

• During the 2006 election campaign, the Conservatives confirmed they would reverse Liberal personal income tax cuts that took effect Jan. 1
• They would allow Canadians to get their rebate for 2005 before raising the rate on the lowest tax bracket back to 16 per cent in their first budget and reducing the basic personal exemption by $400
• The Tories vow to make good on the business tax relief the Liberals promised in the 2005 budget and fiscal update, which will cut the tax rate from 21 per cent to 19 per cent in 2010, and which will eliminate the business surtax on January 1, 2008
• Stephen Harper vows his party would reduce the GST by one per cent immediately. Then, another one per cent would be shaved off in the following four years -- ultimately bringing the GST down to five per cent
• Conservatives vow to remove the capital gains tax on stock donations
• During the 2006 election campaign, Harper said that people who buy monthly transit passes would be awarded with a 16 per cent tax credit on the purchase
• On the campaign trail, Harper announced that a Conservative government would immediately slash the $975 immigration landing fee in half, and would work to reduce it to $100 in its first mandate.
• Harper has also pledged to cut the small business tax rate from 12 to 11 per cent over five years 
• Also raise the threshold for the small business tax rate from $300,000 to $400,000
• Double the amount of pension money that can be sheltered from income tax
• Allow parents who register their kids (under 16 years of age) in organizations that promote physical fitness to claim a federal tax credit on registration fees to a maximum of $500 per year per child
• Another $250 million in annual tax credits to fund a community child-care investment program, which the party says will create 125,000 new child-care spaces over the next five years
• The Tories also vow to maintain the current regulations governing insurance marketing by the chartered banks
• Pay down the national debt by a minimum of $3 billion each year.
• Implement a $1,000 Apprenticeship Incentive Grant to help new apprentices cover the cost of tools, boots, and work accessories
• Implement a Tools Tax Deduction of up to $500 for existing tradespeople self-employed and provides tax fairness for the employed
• Implement an Apprenticeship Job Creation Tax Credit of 10 per cent of an apprentice’s wages for two years to a maximum of $2,000 to support businesses that establish apprenticeship positions to create more jobs
• Develop tax incentives to encourage private-sector builders to build or refurbish affordable rental units
• Give public transit riders a federal tax credit to cover the cost of their monthly transit passes. Parents will also be able to receive this credit for their dependent children
• Raise the pension income tax amount that is eligible for a federal tax credit from $1,000 to $2,000 per year in 2006, and to $2,500 in five years

Foreign policy

• Advance Canada’s interests through foreign aid, while at the same time holding those agencies involved in this area accountable for its distribution and results
• Increase spending on Overseas Development Assistance beyond the currently projected level and move towards the OECD average level
• Make Parliament responsible for exercising oversight over the conduct of Canadian foreign policy and the commitment of Canadian Forces to foreign operations
• Place international treaties before Parliament for ratification

Immigration

• Cut the $975 immigration landing fee in half and work to reduce it to $100
• Support Canadian parents who adopt foreign-born children by extending automatic citizenship to these children once the adoption is final
• Create the Canadian Agency for Assessment and Recognition of Credentials -- dedicated to ensure that foreign-trained professionals meet Canadian standards and get into the workforce quickly
• Reduce the backlog of unexecuted deportation orders and swiftly carry out new ones
• Place top priority on executing existing and new deportation orders against individuals with criminal records, connections to terrorist organizations, or organized crime
• Amend the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, the Criminal Code, and the Corrections and Conditional Release Act to permit sentencing courts to order deportation following conviction on select offences and also to prohibit persons already ordered deported from parole eligibility before deportation

Environment

• During the 2006 election campaign, Stephen Harper said he would stretch the 200-mile limit to fisheries in international waters. Under his plan, Canadian control would be extended to the following areas: the edge of the Continental Shelf; the nose and tail areas of Newfoundland's Grand Banks; and the Flemish Cap in the North Atlantic.
• Introduce a Clean Air act which will reduce smog days by taking decisive action to legislate caps on smog-causing pollutants
• Ensure water quality by addressing environmental issues such as the need for aquifer mapping, protection of the Great Lakes Basin, banning interbasin water transfers, imposing substantial penalties for illegal bilge oil dumping, and ensuring adequate watershed management and methods to ensure water quality and quantity
• Clean up federal contaminated sites and encourage the private sector to clean up brownfields
• Require 5 per cent average renewable content in Canadian gasoline and diesel fuel, such as ethanol and biodiesel, by 2010
• Maintain the existing federal infrastructure agreements that have been entered into between the federal government, the provinces, and municipalities
• Support the development of the Pacific Gateway Initiative and designate at least $591 million to the Initiative, but give greater freedom to British Columbia and the other partners

Aboriginals

• Implement recommendations of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development in its fourth report on Resolving Indian Residential School Claims, to expedite the settlement of claims and save money
• Redress 60 years of Aboriginal inequity by implementing the resolution of the House of Commons to acknowledge the historic inequality of treatment
• Provide compensation for First Nations, Metis, and Inuit war veterans
• Accept the targets agreed upon at the recent Meeting of First Ministers and National Aboriginal Leaders, and work with first ministers and national aboriginal leaders on achieving these targets
• Support development of individual property ownership on reserves
• Let Aboriginal parents choose the schooling they want for their children, with funding following the students
• Replace the Indian Act (and related legislation) with a modern legislative framework which provides for the transfer of full legal and democratic responsibility to Aboriginal Canadians for their own affairs
• Pursue settlement of all outstanding “comprehensive claims” that balances the rights of aboriginal claimants with those of Canada
• Adopt measures to resolve the existing backlog of “specific” claims so as to provide justice for aboriginal claimants