04) ONTARIO COMMUNISTS GEAR UP FOR OCTOBER ELECTION

PV Ontario Bureau

            Delegates to a special Ontario convention met June 18 in Toronto to lay out the Communist Party's platform and message for the October 6 provincial election. Delegates also condemned back to work legislation for postal workers and Air Canada workers as "a frontal attack on free collective bargaining" by Ottawa's new Tory majority government.

            The attack on free collective bargaining and on workers rights and living standards began with the attack on Canadian autoworkers in 2008‑09, on municipal workers in Windsor and Toronto, and miners and smelter workers in Hamilton in 2009‑10, and on workers in basic steel in 2007, up to today's lock‑out in Hamilton. 

            "This fight for labour rights and standards is also the fight for public services, for a Canadian industrial and manufacturing base, and for good jobs, wages and benefits for all", said CPC (Ontario) leader Liz Rowley.

            The Party will start its campaign in early August to block the Tories from forming the next government "because they are by far the greatest threat to democracy, to labour and to working people in this province," said Rowley.

            "The ferocity of the Tory‑led assault on workers' jobs, pensions and living standards and on free collective bargaining and the right to strike at the federal level, combined with the ferocity of Tim Hudak's platform for Ontario, make the Tories the greatest danger in this election, though they aren't the only threat. 

            "The McGuinty Liberals, were elected in 2003 to reverse the years of Tory devastation under Mike Harris, are a failure. Instead the Liberals have carried out the same policies in health care and education, and have done nothing to reverse the cuts which reduced the purchasing power of a welfare cheque to 50% of what it was in 1995. So much for the Liberals' war on poverty! More like the continuing war on the poor by the parties of Big Business and the rich.

            "Working people are extremely angry at the Liberals, and rightfully so. They also remember who was in charge in 2008 when collective agreements were stripped and autoworkers lost half their pensions. And they remember who brought in the HST ‑ colluding with the federal Tories ‑ to deliver a whopping $9 billion in total corporate tax cuts last year," Rowley said.

            The NDP under Andrea Horwath has a very mixed record, supporting back to work legislation for some workers and opposing it with others. For Toronto transit workers, they supported back to work legislation and then opposed essential services designation. Horwath has led the fight against the HST, but has said the NDP will not repeal the HST legislation. 

            Hoping for a provincial "orange crush", the NDP is still at the bottom of the polls, and has not yet revealed its election platform. The NDP's reluctance to take a firm stand on the side of labour makes it an unpredictable and weak partner for labour at a time when strength, dependability and durability are key assets. How the NDP defines the main target in the election will determine a lot.

            "The Communist Party will campaign to block the Tories and defeat the right, and will advise working people ‑ surrounded by circling sharks ‑ that the best outcome in this election would be a minority government reliant on a strong progressive bloc in the Legislature and subject to mass public pressure from a people's coalition of forces outside the Legislature. Electing Communists would fundamentally change politics for the better and qualitatively strengthen the fight for democratic and progressive change in this province," Rowley said.

            The CPC (Ontario) is the only party fighting to repeal the Harmonized Sales Tax and replace it by doubling the corporate income tax rate, cancelling corporate tax cuts, restoring the capital tax, collecting deferred corporate taxes, and introducing wealth and inheritance taxes on estates over $750,000. 

            The Communist Party is fighting for full employment policies to put Ontario back to work; plant closure legislation and a plan to protect and expand secondary industry and manufacturing; nationalization and regulation of Ontario's natural and energy resources; investment in solar, wind and thermal energy; and closing down nuclear and coal fired operations.

            On social issues, the CPC (Ontario) is campaigning for social housing, real rent controls, public child care at a cost of $7 per child, per day, a guaranteed annual income above the poverty line, substantially increased funding for health, education, and social programs, and immediate action to raise living standards and quality of life of Aboriginal Peoples.

            The complete Communist program, and the list of candidates will appear on the CPC (Ontario) website in July. See the next issue of People's Voice for full details.

 

(The above article is from the July 1-31, 2011, 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.)