McLeod Group blog by Stephen Brown, April 23, 2025
The recent turmoil in Washington has reshaped Canada’s 2025 election campaign, driving fundamental discussions on how Canada should position itself in the world. With election day looming, what are the contenders saying about foreign aid?
The Liberals, the current frontrunners, have not raised the topic much, other than leader Mark Carney’s promise that he “would not cut foreign aid or development financing”. The only thing he added during the leaders’ debates was a mention that – unlike the Conservatives – he would continue to fund UNRWA, the UN agency that provides assistance to Palestinian refugees, including in Gaza.
Released a few days after the debates, the Liberal party platform committed additional funds to FinDev Canada ($50 million per year, starting in 2026), a controversial government institution that engages in “blended finance”, a widely criticized form of providing development assistance via private corporations. It also allocated an extra $2 million per year in support to LGBTQI+ organizations in the Global South, which is not much money but sorely needed to advance human rights and fight the growing backlash in many countries.
Otherwise, the status quo seems to reign: “maintaining our international humanitarian assistance budget”, “protecting funding for sexual and reproductive health care and rights” and “continue our international climate finance program” (albeit with more focus on private capital). The status quo sounds quite appealing when compared to the Conservative position (discussed below). But for how long would it last if the Liberals win?
The Liberal platform promises a “new, full foreign policy review”, which would include development policy. The 2017 Feminist International Assistance Policy, which is not mentioned in the platform, may well be jettisoned. In fact, the Liberal platform has completely dropped any reference to feminism. The feminist foreign policy that the Liberals touted for years, but never formally spelled out, is probably dead, as commentator Lauren Dobson-Hughes noted on social media. Presumably also to be rethought are the 2022 Indo-Pacific Strategy and newly minted Africa Strategy, barely one month old. Back to the drawing board.
If the Conservatives win the election, changes would be more quickly felt. The party’s electoral platform promises to cut $9.4 billion over the next four years from foreign aid that goes to “hostile regimes and global bureaucracies”. Leader Pierre Poilievre has stated that they will divert these aid funds, destined to reduce poverty abroad, to domestic spending on things like building a permanent military base in Iqaluit and reducing capital gains taxes for wealthier Canadians.
The platform does not specify which “hostile regimes” the Conservatives intend to defund, singling out by name only Russia, Iran and Venezuela. All three are under Canadian sanctions, however, and their governments currently do not receive Canadian aid. As for “global bureaucracies” to defund, the platform names only UNRWA, to which Canada contributes about $25 million per year, and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, with which Canada suspended cooperation two years ago. Where the Conservatives would apply the remaining $9.3 billion in cuts remains unclear.
The party most likely to hold the balance of power after the elections in case of a minority government is the Bloc Québécois. Its position contrasts starkly with the Conservative one. The Bloc’s platform supports increasing Canadian aid to meet the international target of 0.7% of gross national income, roughly double the current amount. It wants to prioritize education, health, climate change adaptation and poverty reduction, and help make up for the shortfalls caused by the US’s defunding of multilateral organizations, such as WHO and UNESCO.
The NDP similarly pledged to meet the 0.7% aid budget target. Its campaign commitments, however, provide little other information on foreign aid. Moreover, the costing of its commitments outline annual increases rising from $350 million this coming year to $900 million in 2028/2029. Those amounts add up to $2.4 billion over four years, which is substantially more than the Liberals’ promise of $158 million in additional funding over the same time period. But it is nowhere near the increase of $40 billion or so during those four years that are required to reach the UN target that the NDP has embraced.
The Green Party likewise committed to the 0.7% target in the past, but its 2025 platform makes no mention of it. In fact, it says little about foreign aid, vaguely promising to spend more on “humanitarian efforts” and “prioritize contributions to international climate finance”. Its commitments on foreign policy focus instead on diplomatic tools.
The People’s Party of Canada, for its part, is not expected to win any seats. It has not released a consolidated platform for the 2025 election, but its various policies are outlined on its website. The party’s foreign policy document proposes to “save billions of dollars by phasing out development aid, and focus Canadian international assistance exclusively on emergency humanitarian action in cases such as health crises, major conflicts and natural disasters”. Like the Conservatives, the People’s Party advocates massive cuts, but it takes a more isolationist approach, including withdrawing from “all UN commitments”.
Although the topic has not received much attention, this election will be very consequential for foreign aid. If the Liberals win, we should expect more of the same for the next couple of years, albeit probably without a feminist approach, followed by a major foreign policy review with uncertain results. Under a minority Liberal government, the Bloc or the NDP might push for a more significant strengthening of the Canadian aid program – although the NDP did not do so while working with the minority Liberal government under Justin Trudeau. If the Conservatives form the next government, the impact will be larger and more immediate. Radical cuts are likely to come quickly, though perhaps not under a Conservative minority. If a minority government of either stripe is elected next week, the party that holds the balance of power will have an important role to play in the future of Canadian foreign aid.
Stephen Brown is a professor of political science at the University of Ottawa, with a longstanding interest in foreign aid. Image: NDTV.