National Security in the Liberal Party Platform

Note: Over the course of the week, I am hoping to examine the platforms of the three major parties (Conservative, Liberal and NDP) when it comes to national security. For the purpose of these posts, I will define national security as “the condition achieved when a country is able to protect its social, economic and political stability from internal and external clandestine threats as well as the overt threat of political violence.”

On 19 April 2025, the Liberal Party released its platform for the 2025 election. Most of the content that can be labeled “national security” can be found in the section called “Secure”.

As an overall assessment, the platform is light on national security content given the prominence of an unstable international environment in the overall campaign messaging. There is a relatively large section on national defence, which falls outside of the scope of what I’m aiming to assess.

There are a few themes that stand out:

First, the platform takes a very wide view of societal security. Traditional security issues (defence, foreign policy) are presented with domestic safety issues (crime) and national security (political violence, espionage and foreign interference). However, these are interwoven with concerns about the well-being of the economy, and food and agriculture security. I believe this to be a unique framing for a Liberal platform, but it also speaks to the way that certain issues (especially the economy, but also the information environment) have been securitized over the last ten years, especially given changes in perceived threats from Russia, China and now the United States.

Second, there are few new national security initiatives – the platform commits to continuing prior policies and/or strengthening them. This includes funds to protect communities, strengthening the Investment Canada Act (ICA), and augmenting the RCMP in line with some of the Trudeau government announcements (more on this below).

Third, the platform speaks to three overarching national security themes: combatting hate crimes and gender-based violence, economic security and disinformation.

Combating Hate Crimes/GBV

Within the Secure section of the platform, combating hate crimes and gender-based violence is given the most attention. This includes the following action items:

· Making murder motivated by hate a constructive first-degree offence, including femicide.

· Prevent crime before it starts by extending the Building Safer Communities Fund, and prioritizing approaches to steer youth away from criminal activity. This fund will also support Indigenous-led community safety priorities.

· Introduce legislation to make it a criminal offence to intentionally and willfully obstruct access to any place of worship, schools, and community centres.

· Make it a criminal offence to intentionally and willfully intimidate or threaten those attending services at these locations.

· Protect the safety of 2SLGBTQI+ people by maintaining support for Fierté Canada Pride in administering funding for security needs at Pride festivals across the country.

· Address the rise of hate by implementing Canada’s Action Plan on Combatting Hate.

· Significantly increase the annual budget of the Canada Community Security Program to help protect vulnerable communities and places of worship.

There is also a section on gender-based violence (GBV) under the Protect section:

· Work to end gender-based violence by continuing investments in the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence so that we can support victims and survivors, prevent violence from happening in the first place, and support Indigenous-led approaches that will be prioritized in partnership. Gender-based violence increases in times of uncertainty and racialized women and women in rural and remote communities often see the highest rates of violence. Keeping Canada safe means keeping every Canadian safe, no matter who they are or where they live.

There is a clear link to countering-violent extremism in many of these priorities, even where it might not be immediately clear to the average reader. This includes augmenting the Building Safer Communities Fund (in which some countering violent extremism initiatives are carried out) and the Community Security Program (which provides security infrastructure to institutions at high risk of hate crimes.)

Economic National Security

Protecting the economy is a clear priority in the Liberal platform, and economic well-being is clearly tied to the idea of a strong Canada. From a very narrow national security lens, the main action item involves strengthening the ICA:

· Safeguard our economy and our values and protect Canada from attempts to buy up our businesses, our core public health care, intellectual property, critical minerals and other resources by strengthening the Investment Canada Act.

Somewhat unknown, the ICA was one of the most used national security tools under the previous Liberal government. We saw the Act used during several crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic and most recently the global financial instability caused by Trump’s tariff policies. In both cases the ICA has been used to address concerns that state-owned or state-championed enterprises may try to purchase vulnerable Canadian businesses affected by economic uncertainty. It is not clear in this section how the ICA will be strengthened. The Act was already subject to new strengthening provisions under Bill C-34, that was granted Royal Assent in March 2024.

Disinformation:

Under the Unite section, the platform outlines a brief plan to have the CBC take on a greater role in combatting disinformation:

· Fully equipping [the CBC] to combat disinformation so that Canadians have a news source they know and trust.

It is not clear what such a plan entails. The Liberals have been campaigning on renewing the CBC as a part of building a more resilient Canada. So, it could be just providing more news for Canadians. Alternatively, we see that some national broadcasters in other countries have fact-checking and counter-disinformation services, like BBC Verify. However, without more detail it is hard to know what the Liberal party will do if elected.

National Security Capacity

With the exception of the Department of National Defence and the RCMP (discussed below), the platform does not discuss any national security agency, like the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) or the Communications Security Establishment (CSE). There are two brief action items that can be seen as related to augmenting national security agency capacity:

New Security Partnerships

· Forge a new Canada-Europe Arctic security cooperation agreement that deepens ties in the North in recognition of the rapidly shifting security landscape.

This is under the platform section on defence, but there is clearly room for enhanced intelligence sharing in the Arctic, on top of military cooperation. This would build on previous efforts, especially with Nordic countries like Norway, under the previous Trudeau government. Canada has a comparative advantage on intelligence collection in the Arctic. And given increasing interest in this area by NATO and the European Union (not to mention China and Russia), it is a natural area to further international security cooperation. It also compliments Canada’s most recent defence policy update, with its focus on the north.

RCMP

The one national security institution which is mentioned in terms of augmenting capabilities is the RCMP. There is some discussion about improving its ability to combat gun crime, but there is also a section on recruiting more RCMP officers to manage traditional national security threats:

· End drug and human trafficking in our communities and boost resources to fight modern threats, such as foreign interference, transnational repression, and cybercrime. We will also recruit and train 1000 more RCMP personnel, establish a new RCMP academy within Depot, and increase pay for cadet recruits.

There is not much to interpret here but it is worth noting this plan only partially addresses the vision laid out in the March 2025 White Paper (even if it was dropped on the last day of the Trudeau government) which calls for a complete overhaul of federal policing. That plan (which I hope to write more about soon) calls for four major changes: 1) a refocusing of the federal police on the most serious crimes affecting Canada; 2) New approach to talent which would include new staffing authorities and a Federal Policing Training Academy (as per the above); 3) improving the way federal policing is financed and resourced; 4) and in my view most importantly – backing away from contract policing and helping the provinces establish their own polices forces like the Ontario Provincial Police or the Sûreté de Quebec.

Final observations

My final note here is that the platform seems to be behind Mark Carney’s own statements about national security. When asked about the greatest threat to Canada, Carney replied that it is “China”, noting the threat the country poses to foreign interference, its partnership with Russia in the war against Ukraine, its threat to stability in Asia and Taiwan and the Arctic. That does not contradict what is in the Liberal platform, but I feel that Carney has been more up front in his statements and actions (such as the intelligence sharing agreement with the French during the brief week he served as Prime Minister before the election was called.) Notably, however, these statements were mostly made while he was wearing the Prime Minister hat rather than the Liberal leader campaign hat – and perhaps this just reaffirms that national security (traditionally understood) is still not an election issue for most Canadians, despite the changing times.