NDP proposes reviving war-era Victory Bonds to raise money for trade fight with U.S.

Peter Zimonjic · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 03, 2025 9:17 AM EDT | Last Updated: 11 minutes ago

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says a authorities led by him volition contented "Victory Bonds" to rise the wealth needed to fortify the Canadian system done the commercialized warfare with the United States. 

The program would spot the national authorities connection five- and 10-year bonds that Canadians tin bargain done a payroll deduction. 

The NDP is promising that nary of the wealth raised done the program volition spell into wide gross oregon programme spending.

"Money from Victory Bonds volition beryllium dedicated wholly to getting Canadians to enactment gathering nationalist infrastructure like: roads, rail, housing, waterworks, ports, that we volition ain for generations," the enactment said successful a statement. 

"We are successful a commercialized war, and conscionable similar different wars, we volition usage triumph bonds to enactment the commercialized warfare effort." 

During some satellite wars, Canada sold Victory Bonds to individuals, companies and different organizations successful bid to rise the wealth needed to combat the conflicts. The NDP backgrounder explaining the programme says its Victory Bonds would beryllium targeted toward individuals.

The bonds sold during the satellite wars served arsenic a indebtedness to the national authorities that could beryllium cashed successful aft a fixed word of five, 10 oregon 20 years. 

The Ontario Archives says that implicit the 5 years of the Second World War, the Victory Bond programme raised $12 cardinal for the warfare effort. That magnitude is important erstwhile compared against the national government's full taxation gross of $562 cardinal successful the archetypal twelvemonth of the war.

The NDP plan 

The enactment says its Victory Bonds programme would wage an involvement complaint that is 0.25 per cent higher than an mean five-year bank-issued guaranteed concern certificate (GIC).

Bonds issued contiguous would wage compounding involvement of 3.5 per cent, the backgrounder from the enactment explains. 

The dividend from those bonds would beryllium tax-free arsenic agelong arsenic they are held to maturity. 

The enactment says $1 cardinal raised done the enslaved programme would outgo $10 cardinal much than the aforesaid magnitude would outgo if it was raised connected the unfastened market. 

The estimated administrative costs of the programme could beryllium arsenic precocious arsenic $80 million.