OTTAWA, Ontario — Rail projects and the rail industry get little attention in the 30-page policy platform released Tuesday by Canada’s Conservative Party ahead of national elections to be held April 28.
The platform for the Conservatives, led by Pierre Poilievre, highlights a promise of a 15% cut in income taxes, cutting the federal budget deficit, home-building measures, and anti-crime moves. The CBC reports that the platform promises to pay for nearly Ca$106 billion in new measures from cuts to government and through the economic growth it says the measures will generate.
The platform’s single mention of railways comes in a promise to create a “National Energy Corridor” to rapidly approve and build infrastructure, which the document says “will fast-track aprpovals for transmission lines, railways, pipelines, and other critical infrastructure.” It does promise to expand the shipping season from the Port of Churchill, Manitoba — Canada’s only Arctic Sea port — which would likely require support for the Hudson Bay Railway, the only year-round land transportation to the port.
The platform does call for exploring container shipping on the Great Lakes, and also promises to build a roadway into Ontario’s remote but mineral-rich “Ring of Fire” region, where a railway has also been proposed.
The platform makes no mention of the high-speed rail project to which former Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged some Ca$3.9 billion in February. While the Conservatives’ shadow transport minister was critical of the plan at that time, the party has not made a definitive statement on its future under a Conservative government.
The platform released last week by the Liberal Party specifically called for building the high-speed rail project, expanding it to a Windsor-Quebec City route from the previously announced Toronto-Quebec City project [see “As Canada election nears, Liberals’ platform …,” Trains News Wire, April 21, 2025]. Among other planks in that platform was a pass program for Canadians under 18 that would include free travel on VIA Rail Canada with their parents.
The latest polling results reported by the CBC show the Liberal Party, which in January was a distant second in polling, currently leads the Conservatives by a 43.1%-38.4%, slightly narrowing from previous figures. The national broadcaster currently places the chances of the Liberals winning a parliamentary majority at 80% to just 1% for the Conservatives.
