The first-ever federal supply and support agreement has received mixed opinions from Canadians.

The NDP/Liberal agreement guarantees the support from the NDP for the Liberals in major matters of confidence in exchange for certain policy agreements.

Dr. Howard Leeson is a Politics and International Studies professor at the University of Regina, and he says this is the first federal agreement of its kind.

"Ontario and B.C. are the only historical provincial agreements I can recall. B.C. is the latest one and that happened about six years ago."

Candace Bergen, interim leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, has referred to this agreement as a coalition.

 

 

Leeson disagreed, saying this agreement does not have the same qualities as a coalition.

"Only one time have we had a coalition at the federal level, and that was during WWI when the Liberal Party and Conservative Party got together. This is where the party will enter into an agreement and the smaller party will be given certain cabinet positions, generally, the leader of the smaller party becomes Deputy Prime Minister."

Many of us are wondering what changes this agreement will bring and how it will affect us. Leeson says lots of the changes that are expected are already spelled out in the agreement.

"We don't have a comprehensive dental care program in Canada and it looks like over several years this will be brought in, and I expect this will be of great importance to younger families with children, as dental care costs are extremely high for some procedures."

Dental Care and Pharmacare are two of the major policies this agreement is riding on. Both policies can seem completely out of the question in reality, but Leeson says it's possible.

"If you look at it, all of us are paying for it already, we are just paying for it privately. Unfortunately for those that can't afford it, they wind up rationing their care in a way that they think they can cope with it. These programs are of more use to lower-income people in Canada."

He did say, however, funding the program on an ongoing basis will take commitment from the federal government.

This agreement could end at any time if Prime Minister Justin Trudeau or NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh decided it no longer benefits their party or the terms of the agreement are not met.

Written by Hayley Shirkey