02) DIFFERENT TRENDS IN ONTARIO CIVIC ELECTIONS

 

People's Voice looks at some results of the Oct. 27 municipal elections across Ontario

 

            In Toronto, Ward 5 Public School Trustee Howard Kaplan was re‑elected with 48% of the vote, cruising to victory ahead of six contenders on the political right. Kaplan campaigned against budget cuts, school closures and land severances, and for a new needs‑based funding formula to deliver quality education for students and tax relief for homeowners and tenants.

 

            Kaplan's campaign to pay for education from provincial general revenues was well received by voters who are fed up with rising taxes and continuing cuts to programs and staffing in TDSB schools.

 

            Almost half of the TDSB Trustees are new, with a majority on the progressive side. Parents, students and educators hope this Board will oppose more budget cuts, and that bargaining will be fairer than in 2012 when the McGuinty Liberals suspended free collective bargaining and removed $2 billion from wages and benefits under Bill 115.

 

           Premier Kathleen Wynne, herself a former TDSB Trustee and advocate of a new needs‑based funding formula, has shifted to provincial bargaining on the key issues of wages and working conditions, leaving School Boards to negotiate local issues only. The big issues of a new funding formula and tax reform were raised by progressive candidates across the province.

 

            In Guelph Juanita Burnett finished third in a field of six, supported by CUPE and the local Labour Council.

 

            In Brampton, Harinderpal Hundal ran a very strong campaign with broad community support, but was out‑spent by a slate of NDP candidates and the provincial NDP machine, which is trying to make inroads in the Greater Toronto area leading into next year's federal election.

 

            In Ottawa, Larry Wasslen campaigned for a City Council seat in an election mainly

about unrestrained development and the need for a new financial deal for cities.

 

Ford Dumped

 

            The Toronto City Council is virtually unchanged with only one right-wing incumbent dumped by voters. The new faces are mainly right‑wingers replacing right‑wingers who stepped down or retired. Council continues to be dominated by a right wing majority, so the lines are drawn for more budget battles and struggles against layoffs and privatization of city services.

 

            Establishment choice John Tory defeated Doug Ford and NDPer Olivia Chow for Mayor. Chow's uninspired campaign said little on the big issues like taxation and municipal finance, and nothing to indicate that she would fight for working people.

 

            Doug Ford on the other hand, played directly to the poor, the unemployed and the unorganized, small business, and those of the edge of financial disaster. He framed the campaign as a choice between John Tory as the candidate of power and privilege, and himself as the fighter for the underdog, the common people,  workers. By focusing on Tory's background, and by avoiding public debates in favour of press conferences, Ford evaded questions about his record as a leader of one of the most vicious right‑wing majorities on Council in decades. 

 

            During the last four years, both Doug and brother Rob Ford slashed and privatized services, raised taxes, attempted to close libraries and homeless shelters, fired the Board of Toronto Community Housing, sold off public housing stock, cut transit routes and raised fares, laid off hundreds of municipal employees, and locked out city workers. But this record was rarely discussed. In fact, most of Ford's campaigning took place in the poorest neighbourhoods, where too many gullible voters sucked up the lie that Ford would fight for them.

 

            The media gave Ford a free pass, dutifully reporting his lies. When the Ford campaign got underway in September, Chow was left in the dust.

 

            John Tory had the massive financial and political support of Big Business for almost a year before election day. Their strategy was to paint Ford as a danger, and to convince voters that it was a two‑way race between Ford and Tory. This resulted in a massive shift of Liberal votes from Chow to Tory in the last weeks of the campaign. Tory won about 40% of the vote, while Ford finished with 35%, and Chow only 21%.

 

            But the 35% of Torontonians who voted for Ford are likely to be a force in the 2015 federal election, linking the Ford brothers to Harper and the Tory Party leadership in Ontario. Far right "Tea Party" partisans are coming out of the woodwork, a dangerous development for democracy, and for labour, civil and social rights.

 

            What's needed is a strong labour-led People's Coalition with alternatives to mass unemployment, falling wages and living standards, mass privatization, deregulation, and "free trade". Working people and the unemployed are desperate for real solutions and real leadership, by working class partisans willing to fight. The consequences of not acting will be serious indeed, as the Toronto election so clearly demonstrated.

 

 (The above article is from the November 16-30, 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.)