Solidarity makes “Canada Strong”
“Canada Strong” is a catchphrase that government communications teams have been inserting into every place that they can over the past year. From the 2026 federal budget, titled Building Canada Strong, for all, to the new sovereign wealth fund being named the “Canada Strong Fund,” all the way down to the “Canada Strong Pass” granting free entrance to federal national parks—it’s a slogan that the government has not yet tired of. And who can blame them? It’s a great piece of marketing, broad and vague enough that it pleases everyone and appeals to the moment of increased patriotism in the face of threats from the U.S., without going into any details. An outfit for all occasions.
But what does it actually mean to be “Canada Strong?” If we’re judging by the federal government’s actions, one might believe that strength comes from fossil fuels, bombs, austerity, and corporate power. The federal government has, since the election of Mark Carney as prime minister, been on a generational rampage against public services and state capacity: slashing federal public sector jobs, abandoning Canada’s climate commitments, shoveling money at new fossil fuel projects, and increasing the military budget to levels not seen since the Second World War. It has abandoned all significant projects to regulate the tech sector (bowing to U.S. pressure), granted major agro-industrial companies the power to use chemical pesticides that Health Canada deems unsafe, and cut taxes on the Canadian billionaire class. The list goes on.
While the federal government may present these choices as natural, inevitable responses to the crisis of U.S. aggression, they are indeed choices—and ones that, in many ways, will create an effect opposite of their stated intentions. Is Canada truly strong if the federal government lacks the capacity to regulate industry? Is Canada stronger when we dismantle Canadian health care and replace it with a U.S.-style user-pay system? Does it make Canada strong when we replace public service workers with AI chatbots? Is Canada stronger when we spend billions of dollars in military spending to transfer money to the U.S. arms industry?
Simply arguing for a strong Canada, without any other criteria, clearly isn’t cutting it. While building a strong country is obviously a good thing—so broad that it effectively appeals to everyone—we need to be specific about what we mean by that catchphrase.
So we propose an addition, another Canadian value that Canadians hold dear: solidarity. Canadians care deeply about solidarity, about ensuring dignity for all people. It’s one of the principal ways that we distinguish ourselves from the United States. It’s why we have universal health care, a social safety net, more affordable education, and active civic life. Canadian solidarity is an inherent part of what makes this country what it is, and must be a part of building anything resembling “Canada Strong.”
This year’s Alternative Federal Budget is an attempt to bring those concepts. It imagines a federal government that was actually ambitious in making a stronger Canada—a Canada made strong by its commitment to solidarity and dignity for all.
The federal government does have the power to accomplish those goals, as the AFB lays out in painstaking detail for every single sector of Canada’s political economy. From building infrastructure that actually serves Canadians, to improving protections for workers, to funding a robust care economy, it acts as a roadmap for what a strong Canada might actually look like—one where that strength is felt by every Canadian and resident of Canada.
As always, this year’s AFB was written in collaboration with a wide range of experts and social movements. This collaborative effort makes the AFB a flagship document for Canadian progressives: a single, unified platform outlining the specific, costed vision that progressives have for the country. The vision that is contained within it draws from the collective experience of innumerable organizations and campaigns across the country.
It is also a benchmark: a realistic, achievable outline of the Canada that we could have, if policymakers chose a route of ambition—a route of strength, but also a route of solidarity.
Recent federal budgets have been something of a wishlist from Canada’s corporate elites. The AFB, this year as ever, is a wishlist from below—of regular, working people and the movements they build. We hope, most of all, that it can be useful.
