Break up the Monopolies
There was a time when working Canadians could afford to provide for ourselves and our families. Over the last forty years, the average cost of food and housing has more than tripled, while average wages rose by less than forty per cent. A handful of corporations have bought out their competition and carved up our economy between them. At every stage of production, these robber barons drive down wages, drive up the cost of essential goods and services, and hollow out the middle class.
The wealth concentrating at the top buys campaigns, finances leadership races, and sends MPs through the revolving door of lobbying firms that keep them working for these corporations as soon as they leave office. These corporations have had governments that serve them for decades. The way to end it is to take away their power to gouge us, to buy our politicians, and to rig the rules in their favour; the way to end it is to break them up.
Break Up The Monopolies With Antitrust Reform
Canada's Competition Act is toothless against the scale of corporate concentration we face today. Mission—Matsqui's New Democrats are fighting for real antitrust reform, extending limitation periods, enabling private enforcement, and raising penalties for anti-competitive conduct. But most importantly, we are demanding mandatory divestiture thresholds: if a corporation controls a market share of 10 per cent or more in a market with a five-firm concentration ratio of 50 per cent or greater, it would be brought before the Competition Bureau, and required to divest its assets down to a 10 per cent market share. Divestitures would be ordered over two years for regional concentrations and five years for larger national ones, with temporary price caps pegged to inflation in all affected sectors to protect working families during the transition. No more wrist-slap fines. No more rubber-stamped mergers. Real consequences for corporations that rig markets against working people.
Public Grocery Stores
When the market fails to put food on the table at prices working families can afford, government needs to step in. New Democrats are fighting for a national network of publicly owned, non-profit grocery stores, staffed by unionized workers, supplied by local and regional food producers, and offering food at prices working families can actually afford. And right here in the Fraser Valley, where corporate grocery chains have consolidated control of what we eat and what we pay for it, a public option could make an immediate and concrete difference. While antitrust would eliminate corporations ability to gouge Canadians, the fact of the matter is for folks living in the north, in food deserts, or in rural areas, so often have to pay more for the same foods, not just because of corporate concentration, but because of the cost of transporting goods to these areas. To ensure working Canadians can afford to put food on the table, and that prices remain stable, especially in places like the Fraser Valley, New Democrats are fighting for publicly owned grocery stores. These grocery stores would offer foods at 30 and up to 45 per cent below what their competitors offer.
A Public Pharmaceutical Manufacturer
Canada once had a world-renowned publicly owned pharmaceutical company, Connaught Labs, that developed vaccines for Canadians. The Conservatives privatized it. The Liberals refused to bring it back. New Democrats are fighting to rebuild it. A re-established connaught will restore domestic vaccine production capacity, reduce our dependence on multinational pharma and foreign supply chains, invest in next-generation vaccines and share technology and production capacity with lower-income countries. Affordable, reliable medicine can no longer depend on whether it's profitable enough for multinational corporations.
A Public Telecom Network
Canadians pay some of the highest cell phone and internet prices in the world because Rogers, Bell, and Telus have divided the market between them and face no real competition, except in Saskatchewan, which is consistently ranked among the most affordable provinces for cell and internet service because of SaskTel, its publicly owned telecommunications crown corporation. New Democrats are fighting for a national public telecommunications corporation modelled on SaskTel. guaranteeing universal, affordable, high-speed connectivity across the country, including in rural communities like Harrison and Kent that corporate providers chronically underserve and overcharge. Public networks reinvest revenues into infrastructure and service rather than shareholder dividends.
Postal Banking
Today, more than 90 per cent of chequing accounts are held by Canada's six largest banks, corporations that raked in over $70 billion in profits in 2025, while more than a million Canadians still don't have a basic chequing account. New Democrats are fighting to bring postal banking back to Canada, putting Canada Post's more than 6,000 outlets, including in rural, remote, and Indigenous communities across our riding and across the country, to work providing affordable chequing accounts and financial services. Postal banking injects real competition into a sector that has been a private club for far too long, while giving Canada Post the revenue stream it needs to survive and serve Canadians.