(The following article is from the October 16-31, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)
People's Voice Editorial, Oct. 16-31, 2007
Appearances can be very deceiving. This newspaper, for example, is dated October 16-31, but due to the vagaries of the calendar and printshop operations, it was printed on Oct. 9 - one day before the Ontario provincial election and the referendum on mixed-member proportional representation.
As we went to press, pollsters predicted that the far-right forces in Ontario would fall short of their goal to elect the Tory Tories. That would be a welcome result. But the re-election of Liberal premier Dalton McGuinty would be small comfort to Ontario working people, the main victims of his "Harris Lite" policies. This campaign certainly emphasized the need to strengthen the left and democratic movements outside Queen's Park as the key factor in shifting the balance of forces inside the Ontario legislature.
Across the country, all eyes will be on the PR referendum, which has been downplayed by the corporate media and the big parties in Ontario. Why? Because victory for PR will signal rejection of the "old boy's club" which characterizes Canadian electoral politics, and a powerful public demand for more democratic and open government. Whether or not the referendum achieves the artificially-set minimum of 60% support to pass, this issue will not disappear. Canadians are tired of being spoon-fed a narrow range of policy options by the same parties which benefit from the "first-past-the-post" system. It's time for PR, time for fair allocation of broadcast and print coverage for all parties, time to lower the voting age to 16, time to scrap ridiculous rules that give millions of taxpayer dollars to some parties and zero to others. In short, it's time for radical electoral change, time for more democracy!