03) MANY “FIRSTS” FOR COMMUNIST PARTY CAMPAIGN

 

By Johan Boyden, Central Organizer, Communist Party of Canada

 

            What are the Communist Party’s campaigners hearing at the doors? In the workplaces, schools and on the street?

 

            We hear that voters think there is a lot at stake in this federal election. Nine years of Harper Conservative rule have been a tragedy – a catastrophe, in fact. People are concerned and angry about the danger of another Harper government. There is a view that this election is a reckoning moment, something that’s been a long time coming.

 

            The Tories are fighting tooth and nail to hold onto power. Their giant war chest is outspending all other political parties, showing the class essence of their anti-people, pro-war and austerity agenda.

 

            Harper’s Unfair Elections act, disenfranchising thousands of voters, will no doubt be coupled with other dirty tricks and voter suppression. Most ridings in the country have been adjusted slightly, and thirty new electoral districts added, overall favouring the Tories.

 

            All this requires a certain sleight of hand, so the Tories have employed Australian-born political consultant Lynton Crosby, the so-called "master" of racist code words. No surprise then that their latest tactic is completely explicit, what I call “social Roundup” spray, or social poison.

 

            The poison of racism, of Islamophobia. “A calamity of terrorists threatens Canada. Niqab-wearing jihadists. Foreign barbarians.”

 

            All this is not-so-thinly disguised as what some commentators are calling “Harper’s crusade to save the oppressed brown women.”

 

            It makes you wonder: are the Conservative “old stock Canadians” those who donned white bed sheets and ignited crosses in the past? To combat this racism and sexism, we need to rip the sheets from these purveyors of fear, exposing and isolating them.

 

            We need a broad, mass, powerful, visible campaign, not narrowly limited on identity politics, but reaching much further to class solidarity, internationalism and peace.

 

            Into all this fray is the Communist Party of Canada’s campaign. The Communist Party is out fighting for a genuine alternative, raising the issue of fundamental change, not just replacing the Tories with “Harper lite,” another party with a similar pro-business agenda.

 

            The Liberals are offering some progressive-sounding rhetoric, presenting polished, tasty, red policies to the voters. But like the fabled witch’s red apple in Snow White, Justin Trudeau’s ideas aren’t as healthy as they look.

 

            The Green Party’s idea about eliminating tuition fees is a welcome proposal in the otherwise stale selection of ideas the big parties are peddling. Yet otherwise their party has little that is significantly different.

 

            In Quebec, the Bloc has brought Gilles Duceppe up from the crypt of independentiste politics, where he should have stayed.

 

            And as for the NDP, they’ve moved to centre-stage, literally and figuratively. A pharmacare plan that isn’t a plan, just a proposal to talk with the provinces. A child care plan that will take eight years. Neoliberal pledges to balance the budget. Stop bombing Iraq, but no cuts to military spending, and no break with NATO. And the Aboriginal NDP candidate who said that indigenous people lived the same experience as Palestine? Close the door on your way out!

 

            So it’s no surprise that the Communist campaigns are getting a good response. Some people may hold their nose and vote NDP, but they’re also saying – good for you for running!

 

            Our candidates are out door-knocking and fighting to get into debates. Running as a communist candidate is no job for the faint of heart, and we have a strong group of public spokespeople. Behind each candidate are committees and local party organizations, as well as friends and supporters, who donate generously and work tirelessly to get out tens of thousands of leaflets.

 

            This is also a campaign of many firsts for the Communist Party. For the first time, we are on the ballot in Newfoundland and Labrador. After years of perseverance, our organization in the province is coming together behind Sean Burton, a first time candidate and also a first rate campaigner.

 

            Before heading down from Montreal to work out of the Toronto campaign office, I was out in Newfoundland. I got screeched in, walked the streets and met a community that’s been fighting to make a living despite years of exploitation by the big transnationals.

 

            Like the central campaign, Sean is active on facebook and twitter, and getting a very good response. This is also a first.

 

            Another first: we have beautiful, professionally designed lawn signs going up right across the country, and they are in hot demand.

 

            There’s more. According to the CBC, the Communist Party is running more self-identified Aboriginal candidates than the entire Tory party with their 330-plus Harper flunkies.

 

            This is truly a grassroots campaign, part of a long-haul fight for voters to recognize their class interest. Kicking out Harper would be an important start in that direction!

 

(The above article is from the October 16-31, 2015, 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.)