04) HUDAK THREATENS ONTARIO WORKERS

People's Voice Editorial

             While the Liberals feint to the left, and the NDP race to the right, the Tories have unleashed a campaign for another right‑wing "revolution" in Ontario. Tim Hudak is trumpeting his plan to lay off 100,000 public sector workers, slash wages, and demolish public services and social programs. He aims to bust unions with US right‑to‑work (for less) laws that would drive down wages and living standards across the province, as Ontario becomes the test tube for eliminating the Rand formula and the closed union shop across Canada. And oh yes, Hudak wants more corporate tax cuts, because 11.5% (the lowest CIT rate in the industrialized world) is way too high.

            Hudak's promise? To create a million jobs. Details: scanty, but directly connected to stripping the so-called "fat cats": the unions and the public sector. His target? The one million unemployed workers and never-employed youth, bankrupt business owners, dispossessed farmers, people falling through the huge cracks who are desperate for some kind of job and security.

            And Hudak has some traction. Polls show the Liberals and Tories in a tight race, with NDP in the basement. No orange wave here as the NDP openly embraces austerity, tax cuts, and sops to Big Business. NDP leader Andrea Horwath is gambling that a Liberal collapse will elevate her party to Official Opposition, as in the federal election. But the high price paid for those seats was a Tory government, and it could be again.

            The OFL has mounted a well organized campaign against Hudak's attack on labour and democratic rights. Unions are split in their support for the Liberals and NDP, but are focused on getting out the vote to defeat the Tories at all costs.

            The Communist Party's candidates are mounting campaigns across the province, and gaining traction with voters worried about the right turn by Ontario's political parties. For more information, contact the CPC (Ontario) campaign at www.CommunistPartyOntario.ca.

(The above article is from the May 16-31, 2014, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading socialist 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.)