Struggling worker skeptical Trudeau will follow through on campaign promises

On September 20, Canadian citizens re-elected a Liberal minority government. While this came as a surprise to some, Tasin Ibrahim, a restaurant worker in downtown Toronto, said it was something he expected, but he has a lot of questions about what is to come next and how the government will work to help those dealing with the financial burdens the pandemic caused.

As part of their re-election campaign, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Liberals laid out a detailed pitch vowing to spend $78 billion over the next five years to provide necessary changes for Canadians.

But Ibrahim has a lot of questions about where this funding will go and if the pandemic aid provided by the Liberals in 2020 will continue supporting Canadians like him dealing with financial struggles.

Ibrahim said that this question has been a major point of discussion among his coworkers at the restaurant.

“As I said before the election, the pandemic set me back, and so many other people. Instead of dedicating that money for an election to get the same result, why not continue with an aid program?” he said.

Ibrahim liked some of the big ideas being talked about by political parties during the campaign. While the Liberals raised the federal minimum wage to $15 during the pandemic, the New Democratic Party had promised to raise it to $20 if they were elected. Some parties were even discussing a universal basic income to provide a basic, fair wage for all Canadians, but the Liberals and Conservatives were not on board with this idea.

Ibrahim said he is no longer hopeful in a bright future, at least not when it comes to the goals and timeline he had said in place for himself. “This election was a joke, I would really need to see some sort of action plan to help citizens in order to have faith again.”