NDP leader Tom Mulcair’s vow to expand mandatory contributions to the Canada Pension Plan is just the beginning of what Canadians can expect from the NDP’s nanny-state agenda if they form government.

The question is, are Canadians ready for it?

Mulcair announced Thursday that if the NDP wins the Oct. 19 election, his party will sit down with the provinces and put a plan together to force working Canadians to pay higher CPP premiums. The move is necessary, according to Mulcair, because it’s part of the federal government’s responsibility to ensure all Canadians can retire “with dignity.”

Good grief.

Mulcair and the NDP want to make it mandatory for all of us to dig deeper into our pockets to pay higher premiums into a government-controlled pension plan instead of allowing us to save (or not save) as we see fit. Apparently we’re so collectively inept and irresponsible with our money that we need government to force us to put more of our earnings into a one-size-fits-all government pension scheme.

If that isn’t nanny state, I don’t know what is.

But get used to it. If Mulcair and the NDP form government, you’re going to see a lot more of that, including a national day care program that would impose price controls on existing provincial child care facilities and cost taxpayers billions more than the NDP is letting on. And it will all be in the name of government taking better care of helpless Canadians who need the nanny state to hold their hands from cradle to grave.

The Canada Pension Plan was never meant to provide people with enough income to retire. It was designed to supplement existing savings and/or workplace retirement plans. It’s supposed to replace up to 25% of average, pre-retirement earnings. That’s it. It was never meant as a pension plan to retire on.

There are reasons it was set up that way. It allows people to save in other areas that are more suited to their individual needs, like in RRSPs and in tax-free savings accounts. Those options give working Canadians greater flexibility to access their money pre- or post-retirement depending on their personal circumstances. Contributions to TFSAs, for example, can be accessed at any time and for any reason. RRSP’s can be used for things like a down payment on a house which in many cases is an important part of a retirement plan.

Money from personal savings is also fully transferable to relatives, including kids, upon death. None of that is the case with CPP beyond limited survivor benefits.

In most cases, too, you can get a better return from personal investments — even in a conservative portfolio — than you would from CPP.

Under the existing system, Canadians have choice. And Mulcair wants to limit that choice because he thinks government knows best.

“We will make sure that Canadians can afford to retire with dignity,” Mulcair said Thursday.

How, by increasing CPP premiums? That’s a belly laugh.

Even if the NDP increased premiums from the existing combined rate of 9.9% to 20%, it would still be nowhere near enough for people to retire on. It would simply reduce Canadians’ savings in other areas, restrict their overall choice on where to put their money, and cost businesses a fortune.

In Tom Mulcair’s world, though, that’s the role of government; to expand the state’s reach into our lives because we’re doing such a lousy job of taking care of ourselves.

Welcome to the nanny state, Canadians. Are you ready for it?