In the waning days of the election campaign, ask candidates how they will protect non-profits’ ability to meet the needs of Canadians with impactful services and to speak out on important issues.
Our current federal election comes at a critical juncture in Canada’s history: our prosperity, our sovereignty, our democratic rights and freedoms are under unprecedented attack. The imposition of sweeping tariffs by the Trump administration has Canadians bracing for significant economic harm. The negative impact that comes with rising costs, closed businesses, and employment losses has a significant ripple effect for charities and non-profits and the communities they serve. We are seeing democratic institutions being shaken to their core in the United States and, unfortunately, our own democracy tested. A disturbing trend has seen political leaders wanting to defund, “de-register,” or shut down registered charities that don’t agree with them. The work of charitable and non-profit organizations includes not only the provision of vital services to Canadians in communities right across the country and around the world, but also speaking out on issues they experience intimately and proposing solutions.
The work of charitable and non-profit organizations includes not only the provision of vital services . . . but also speaking out on issues they experience intimately and proposing solutions.
Vigorous debate and respectful disagreement have been hallmarks of Canadian democracy. For decades, the nation’s charities and non-profits have advocated for changes that we take for granted today – laws related to impaired driving, smoking, protecting the environment, and safer baby formulas, to name but a few. Yet over the last decade, we have seen political leaders increasingly suggesting that the role of charities as community advocates should be curtailed. From political-activity audits to recommendations in government reports to de-register charities that work in reproductive health and the seal hunt, to attacks on organizations taking positions in refugee and immigration policy and the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, we are witnessing a greater politicization of charities. A shift to restrict, shut down, and silence voices that speak out on community issues to advance partisan political interests should be of significant concern to all Canadians.
The quality of life that we have come to both expect and enjoy in this country is a direct result of the interweaving of governments, businesses, and charities and non-profits, along with a healthy and independent media ecosystem. When working in harmony, the contributions of the government in setting an enabling legislative and regulatory environment, the business community in generating wealth and creating prosperity, and the non-profit sector in both aiding those who need additional support and enriching the fabric of communities, create a powerful and uniquely Canadian recipe for good. It is also normal and welcome in a pluralist and democratic society that Canadians consider and shape competing solutions. We are at our best when we can reconcile these points of tension and, when we can not, in always respecting dissent.
The quality of life that we have come to both expect and enjoy in this country is a direct result of the interweaving of governments, businesses, and charities and non-profits, along with a healthy and independent media ecosystem.
From an economic perspective, tariff-induced inflation will have a negative impact on charities’ ability to offer support to those affected by precarity and food insecurity – food banks, organizations supporting the unhoused, charities providing meals for families supporting their seriously ill children, among others. This disastrous impact is not limited to our shores: Canadian organizations engaged in international development and humanitarian aid are seeing significant disruption to their ability to further this essential work with the drastic cuts to the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Canada’s charitable and non-profit sector employs 2.5 million people, engages almost 13 million volunteers annually, and contributes 8.5% of GDP; a weakening of the overall economy will affect not only essential services, but the livelihoods of people in communities everywhere.
Canadians have the opportunity to influence the priorities of our next federal government. When candidates who aspire to lead knock on your door during the waning days of this election campaign to solicit your support, ask them how they will ensure that non-profits’ ability to both meet the needs of Canadians with impactful services and speak out on important issues will be protected so our communities stay strong and free.
