While both the Liberals and Conservatives used Saturday as their “down” day on the campaign, Jagmeet Singh held a discussion in Toronto about precarious work, which essentially was just a repetition of his pharmacare and dental care plans aimed at those who don’t have benefits.

On Sunday, Andrew Scheer was up first in PEI to pledge more support for veterans, aiming to eliminate the backlog of cases within two years and promising a legislated “covenant” between the government and the military. Mind you, the problem with the backlog has been a lack of bodies within the department, and the current government has been on a hiring spree that has only now reached a point where they are able to make a dent in the backlog (as the number of veterans has been on the rise), so anything Scheer is promising there is basically just piggybacking on the work the current government has been doing to undo the cuts of the Harper years. And then there’s the broken trust with the veterans’ community to consider.

Justin Trudeau was in Brampton where he announced two items – one was a proposed increase of the basic personal deduction, which promises to be more progressive than the Conservatives’ “Universal tax cut” (see this thread from economist Kevin Milligan); the other was a plan to reduce mobile phone bills over the next four years through a combination of working with the companies, opening up the market to new entrants (where have we heard that before?) and leveraging the sale of 5G spectrum. (The NDP are grousing that this will be all talk while they have a plan to cap bills, but haven’t spelled out exactly what mechanism they hope to use to do so).

And here's the average change in family disposable incomes under the CPC and LPC income tax changes. LPC is notably larger % change among lower-income families, and both decline at the top but LPC declines faster. #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/bJwRq21Tiv

— Trevor Tombe (@trevortombe) September 22, 2019

Jagmeet Singh was in Gatineau to promise to double government funding to climate change mitigation efforts in the wake of floods and other climate-related natural disasters.

Other election stories:

• While at his town hall in Saskatchewan last week, Trudeau didn’t give a firm answer if he’d respect the CHRT ruling on compensation for First Nations children.
• Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at the NDP campaign on the night of the Blackface revelation.
• Here’s an accounting of the tough road the NDP have to gain votes in Quebec.
• Here are yet more ruminations about misinformation, disinformation, and what elections laws allow when it comes to advertising.

Good reads:

• Here’s a look at Julie Payette’s potential role post-election night, which actually isn’t as big as most people say it is.
• A former Liberal staffer repeats claims of racial insensitivity from when he was working in Chrystia Freeland’s office.
• Constitutional law experts debate whether there are options for the federal government when it comes to challenging Quebec’s Bill 21.
• Heather Scoffield points out that while election promises to new families and seniors may be good politics, they’re necessary to deal with our labour market.
• Susan Delacourt is losing patience with the backroom tactics of the election so far as it’s drowning out the space for voters.

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