07) THE LITTLE CAMPAIGN WITH BIG IDEAS

 

By Johan Boyden, Montreal

 

            Finally, the marathon election is over. Harper got the boot. Now the Liberal Party is toasting a sweet majority: 54 percent of the seats, with 40 percent of the votes. Not a bad return on money, they must be thinking.

 

            The mass media are currently giving Trudeau a honeymoon. The CBC and Radio Canada are no exception. Take, for example, CBC’s discovery of an “average, West Coast, middle-class mom voter,” who wrote a letter via Facebook to the young Prime Minister.  And - wait for it - Trudeau replied!

 

            Still, I read her message.  “Even though I put my X next to your [party's] name, I did not vote for you. I voted against the alternative,” she wrote to Trudeau. “How many millions of us gambled today on whatever bet would be ‘not Harper’?”

 

            Campaigning at the doors, people often spoke to Communist candidates about the need to kick out Harper, "but what can we vote for"? Such conversations were also reflected in discussions over Twitter and other relatively new social media.

 

            To be sure, some twitter users simply kept us updated, albeit unintentionally. “There is a lot of signage in my neighborhood to vote Communist for a man named Iqbal Kahlon,” a young woman in Surrey wrote.

 

            Others gave feedback on our leaflet: “So interesting. Found a Communist Party flyer on my car today in Esquimalt. Captivated by platform.” Or: “Reading through the platform of the Communist Party. There’s some pretty good stuff.”

 

            These comments came out of the blue. “The Communist Party supports a $20 minimum wage, better than any other party.” “People should really check out the Communist Party and their position on indigenous rights.” “The Communist Party is the only political party that is all out pro-Palestinian.”

 

            When the election came, people even tweeted that they had voted Communist. But for our party, it never was just about the votes. Of course, we fought hard for them, and the result was somewhat uplifting: 4,382 votes across the country despite an almost total media blackout. While only running 30% more candidates than in 2011, the Communist Party scored a 50% increase in votes.

 

            Our best results were by Peter Marcus (525 in Vancouver East) and Kimball Cariou  (447 in Vancouver Kingsway, breaking the 1% threshold), Jason Devine (390 in Calgary Forest Lawn), and party leader Miguel Figueroa (261 in Toronto's Davenport riding). Other candidates achieved over 150, including Marianne Breton Fontaine and Adrien Welsh (177 and 158 respectively in the Montreal ridings of Hochelaga and Outremont), Bob Mann (169 in Hamilton East-Stoney Creek), and Ryan Barry (151 in Nova Scotia's South Shore-St. Margarets).

 

            All this was part of the struggle for ideas, a struggle perhaps most clearly illustrated in the tweets about our candidates in debates:

 

            “I'd say the communist candidate [Sean Burton] is actually winning the debate so far.” “The Communist candidate [Mike Lewis] just got louder applause than the NDP.” “Communist Party candidate [Bill Sloan] starts the debate by breaking out into song. 'Go Harper Go, Just Go, And Don't Come Back'. Catchy tune.”

 

            “Communist party candidate Darrell Rankin says 2% cap on federal funding for First Nations post secondary education is racist.” “Saleh Waziruddin: Isn't it a bit `barbaric' to refuse a new inquiry to missing and murdered aboriginal women?” “Liz Rowley says no Ring of Fire Development can happen until outstanding land claims are resolved.”

 

            “First references of the night to `apartheid Israel' come from Communist candidate Drew Garvie.” “Yes the Canadian Wheat Board is fundamental to food security and survival of the family farm. Thanks Tristan Dineen.” “Stuart Ryan criticizes universities and the fed government of ‘using’ international students while simultaneously burdening them with high tuition. Right on!”

 

            Another person tweeted, “The continued existence of the Communist Party is kind of admirable and impressive.”

 

            These are just a few tiny snapshots in 120 characters. Snapshots of Communists in the battle of opinion. A campaign focused not on “the gamble of voting against Harper,” but on projecting and uniting around a real people’s alternative agenda.

 

            Ours was a farsighted campaign, well worth remembering. And now, in different forms, that struggle continues to win a people’s alternative, to shift power to the working class, and for socialism. Well done, little party with big ideas!

 

            (Boyden was the Communist Party's central campaign organizer.)

 

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