There are two reasons why your dental expenses might get picked up by the Canadian government.
Those being the NDP’s apparent commitment to follow through on campaign promises made in the last election, and the Liberal’s tentative position as governing party of Canada.
The NDP and Liberals have reached an agreement whereby the NDP will support the Liberal government and the Liberal government will agree to implement NDP party policies.
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The NDP wants dental fees paid for by the state for anyone who makes under $70,000 a year. It would be a game changer for a lot of people who struggle with dental issues.
The NDP has also stated it wants to expand free or supported access to medication.
If all goes according to the NDP’s and the Liberals plan, lower-income Canadian citizens will have dental coverage by 2025 and in return the NDP will support the Liberals when they need to pass laws.
Last election the NDP campaigned heavily on the issues of free medication and an expansion of state funded medical services. They lost to the Liberals by a lot.
The Liberals won the election but they didn’t win the majority of seats in parliament. They have a “Minority government.” They won the most seats of all the parties, but the majority of the house is made up of all the Conservatives, NDP, Blocs and Greens.
If the Liberals want to pass a law, they need at least some of the other parties to support them. If all the other parties don’t want the Liberals to pass a law, they could gang up and prevent that from happening.
If the party that controls the parliament, in this case the Liberals, cannot implement laws because of a failure of support, a vote of non confidence can be called. Essentially the Liberals could be voted out of power.
The NDP has very few seats, but by joining with the Liberals, they can affect major policy decisions as long as they uphold their end of the bargain by supporting the Liberals when they want to change laws or implement policy.
So the dental plan is not set in stone.
If the Liberal party wanted support for a law, but the NDP party decided they would not support it, the dental plan could be called off.
The Conservative party leader is upset, and called this merger of power and potential dental plan a deception.
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