Baylis calls for term limits, Gould lays out housing strategy as next Liberal leadership deadline nears
Liberal leadership candidates Frank Baylis and Karina Gould announced policy plans on Thursday, the eve of a third fundraising deadline.
The remaining leadership candidates, including Mark Carney, Chrystia Freeland and Ruby Dhalla, must pay a $350,000 total entry fee, made over four instalments between Jan. 23 and Feb. 17. A non-refundable amount of $125,000 is due at 5 p.m. on Friday.
In Ottawa, Baylis presented a three-point government reform plan, which would limit terms for senators and MPs to 10 years.
He said that after serving for 10 years, MPs would have to sit out for a "prolonged period" before becoming eligible to run again. The duration of that period would be debated, Baylis said. Senators would be limited to one 10-year term.
Currently, once senators are appointed, they may hold their seat until the mandatory retirement age of 75. There is no restriction to the number of times members may seek re-election.
"What we need is for people to come to Ottawa, use their expertise to contribute to the debate and then move on to leave space for new Canadians to come take their place," he said at a news conference in Ottawa.
"I don't want professional politicians."
Baylis said he wants to introduce a second chamber for debate in the House of Commons to "make the government far more productive." He suggested that main debates could still take place in the House of Commons but that uncontested business such as "petition presentations, members' statements, members' motions and the like would take place in the second chamber."
He said he intends to tackle Parliament gridlock by redistributing "power that has been concentrated in the offices of the leaders of different parties" and return it to the Speaker, members of parliament and by extension, Canadian citizens.
Gould talks housing policy, criticizes fundraising deadline
At a news conference in Toronto, Gould outlined her housing policy, which mainly consists of creating an accord program with provinces and territories to speed up housing initiatives and offering a $2,000 tax credit on the provincial land transfer tax for first-time homebuyers.
"We will partner with municipalities to streamline zoning and build more homes faster with a new round of housing accelerator funding," she said.
Gould said she would offer interest-free loans to first-time homebuyers worth up to 50 per cent of the home's purchase price. Previous iterations of the program had limited the loans to about 10 per cent. The homebuyer would have up to 25 years to repay the federal government, she said.
To meet the NATO defence spending benchmark in 2027, she would immediately appoint a "procurement czar" and increase the salaries of Canadian Armed Forces personnel, she said. Freeland also announced on Thursday that she would hit that benchmark by 2027 if elected leader, while Carney committed to 2030.
WATCH | Gould accuses Liberal Party establishment of keeping people out of leadership race:
Gould accuses Liberal establishment of 'aggressive' leadership rules, says she is in it to win
3 hours ago
Duration 0:54
Canada is aiming to meet NATO's military investment benchmark of two per cent of gross domestic product by 2027 — five years earlier than what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced in July.
Gould also said the Liberals "put forward an extremely aggressive fundraising deadline … to make it as hard as possible" for a wide array of leadership candidates to run.
"My campaign doesn't have some of the deep pockets of some of the other candidates, but it has people power," Gould said, noting that 85 per cent of her donations are sums of $200 or less.
"Despite the efforts of the party establishment to keep people out of this race, I am in it, and I am excited about it."
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