02) NDP WINS SEAT, ONTARIO LIBERALS DENIED MAJORITY

PV Ontario Bureau

     In a "stunning upset", the NDP won the September 6 by‑election in Kitchener Waterloo. Newly elected MPP Catharine Fife was Chair of the Ontario Public School Boards Association when the by‑election was called, and also the well-known Chair of the Kitchener Waterloo board. So the upset wasn't as stunning as pundits suggest.

     The by‑election was bought and paid for by Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty (or so he thought), who offered Tory MPP Elizabeth Witmer (a former Cabinet Minister in the Mike Harris government) a patronage appointment as head of the WSIB. At $188,000 a year, it was a deal Witmer couldn't refuse. Witmer did not endorse the Tory candidate who hoped to capture the riding she had held since 1990.

     Government polling showed that the Liberals could win the seat, gaining the majority that voters denied McGuinty last fall. But the 2012 provincial "austerity budget" proposed massive cuts to public services and jobs, the sale of public assets, and a warning that legislation would be drafted if public sector unions did not voluntarily agree to wage and benefit cuts.

War on the unions

     Early on, the government declared war on the unions representing teachers and educational workers. The move sidelined locally elected School Boards - the employers who bargain with the unions representing School Board employees. 

     Discussions between the unions and the province were characterized as "bargaining" by the Liberals, though the talks had no legal basis. The Catholic teachers' union, OECTA, and a smaller union representing French language teachers caved in and agreed to terms dictated by the province. Catholic teachers in several cities demanded ratification votes in their Locals, and threatened to take their union to court.

     The Elementary teachers were vociferous in rejecting the government's "parameters", while OSSTF President Ken Coran suggested that his union was prepared to accept the two-year wage freeze, but not changes to the grid or cuts to sick days.

     Emboldened, the government fabricated the story that the unions were planning strikes and lockouts (sic) on the first day of school. The issue, the Liberals said, was stopping the unions from disrupting the school year and the roll-out of full‑day kindergarten across the province, and from reducing Ontario's $15 billion deficit.

     The Liberals prepared legislation to suspend free collective bargaining, ban strikes, freeze wages, change the grid, and reduce sick days. Bill 115 was to be imposed effective September 1, days before the new school year.

     The Tories went further, demanding legislation to freeze all public sector wages, and to bring in US right‑to‑work legislation to break the back of the trade union movement.

     In response, 15,000 teachers and education workers and their supporters demonstrated against Bill 115 in late August. Their spirited show of opposition impacted public opinion across the province, and helped turn the tide against the Liberals in Kitchener‑Waterloo.  

 "A useful crisis"

     Voters, and especially teachers and educational workers, had heard the Liberal line before. John Snobelen, the first Tory Education Minister under Harris, had been caught on tape extolling the virtues of "creating a useful crisis" in order to introduce massive cuts and privatization.

     Same plan, different government. Or maybe there wasn't much difference between the Liberals and Tories when it came to attacking quality public education, driving down wages and living standards, or nullifying trade union rights. But on the other hand, if the Liberals are bad, the Tories are even worse.

     When pressed, the usual comment from Catharine Fife was that the NDP opposed the Liberals' manufactured crisis and legislation.  In nuanced terms, she spoke about "a conversation about a wage freeze", suggesting that negotiations and discussions could secure the same outcome, without legislation.

     The NDP was evasive on many issues, providing few specifics. It was a reflection of the very soft policies and agenda they now advocate in Ontario, and an indication of how far to the political centre the NDP has moved.

     One key message was preventing a Liberal majority, a point hammered home by Fife at every opportunity. Little policy was delivered by either Fife or NDP leader Andrea Horvath, who was active in the campaign along with others in her caucus.

     Both Fife and Horvath made a brief appearance at the K‑W Labour Day picnic, but neither spoke. It was clear the NDP wanted labour votes, but not the tag. In fact, the NDP was after Liberal votes, trying to appear "neutral" towards labour.

     Many unions sent workers to support the Fife campaign from as far away as Windsor, Toronto, London and elsewhere. For many, defeating the Liberals and Tories was as important as electing Fife.

The Common Front

     The Common Front, another name for the "We Are Ontario Coalition" birthed by the OFL and its social and community allies last April, did not endorse any candidates. But the coalition was active in the campaign promoting health care, education and labour issues, and warning against a Liberal majority or a strengthened Tory opposition.

     The KW Common Front was born in the campaign's early days, a local coalition including the Labour Council, various unions, the anti‑poverty movement, housing and other community advocates, the Kitchener club of the Communist Party, and others. While many were members or supporters of the NDP, the NDP was not present in any of these gatherings.

     Organizers for the Common Front say they are here for the long term, to build a movement to throw out neo‑liberal governments and secure a government tied to a progressive political program.

The Communist campaign

     Communist Party (Ontario) leader Liz Rowley was the Communist candidate in the by‑election, working with the Party club, its friends and supporters, to expose the Liberal and Tory austerity policies, prevent a Liberal majority, and campaign for the party's 10 point Prescription for a People's Recovery.

     She pointed out that the main issues would not be settled on Sept. 6.

     "A strong, united and inclusive movement needs to be built that can successfully strike down neo‑liberal policies and governments, and put in governments with policies that put people's needs ahead of corporate greed", Rowley said. "Things could get a lot worse with another recession that both federal and provincial governments are driving into. The Liberals promise more legislation to cover the whole public sector, and the Tories will support them, just as the Liberals can be expected to support Tory proposals for right‑to‑work legislation affecting the entire working class. We have to build that people's movement in the street, to mobilize and exercise that power that can stop the corporate sledgehammer.  Another world is possible, but we'll have to fight for it."

     Though K-W leans towards the right more often than not, major canvassing in working class districts showed that voters were very interested in the CP platform. The platform focused on job creation, increasing wages and incomes to provide a living wage for all, and raising living standards as the key to recovery. It proposed massive investment in job creation and expanded public services, to be paid for by doubling the corporate income tax rate, restoring the capital tax, introducing wealth and inheritance taxes, reversing corporate tax cuts, and collecting deferred corporate taxes at every level of government.   

Elections Ontario

     Major efforts were made to suppress the Communist message of a real alternative to capitalist austerity. Media in K-W refused to allow the Communist Party to participate in sponsored debates on television and radio. Meeting organizers like the Chamber of Commerce also refused to allow candidates other than the Liberals, Tories, NDP and Green, and police were present to eject Rowley and others who spoke from the floor. Elections Ontario took the position that election debates are private meetings, and that organizers are free to invite and exclude whomever they wish.

     In a major new development, Elections Ontario declared campuses private property and therefore off‑limits for campaigning. This applied to buildings and land owned by the universities and colleges, making it virtually impossible to reach thousands of student electors.

     As People's Voice was going to press, the misnamed "Putting Students First" legislation, was passed into law. CUPE Ontario President Fred Hahn, who was present at the Legislature along with the Presidents and members of ETFO, OSSTF, and CUPE, told People's Voice that the unions would launch a legal and constitutional challenge to Bill 115, and were also planning political action to resist the Liberal attack on collective bargaining and public education.

     "All the unions are united in this", he said, adding "you'll hear more about this very soon".

     Mass independent political action is on the agenda this fall and winter, to stop the right‑wing assault and to press the NDP to squeeze some concessions out of this minority government. A general election is expected sometime next spring.

(The above article is from the September 16-30, 2012, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)