[Marxism] Communist Party of Canada on th election

[gdunkel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Data is the same as other posts, conclusions are similar but attitudfe
reflects a class position in favor of workers.

My companion is in Canada for a month and tells me that many people
she's spoken to feel they didn't have a choice -- even between NDP,
Greens, Liberals and Conservatives.  (She is not in Quebec so the Bloc
Quèbecois didn't present candidates.

Speaking as a USian, I am encouraged that the Canadian electorate
rejected the Conservatives, and basically did it on their own.

/greg

PS:  I don't have a website for this, which is why I am enclosing the
whole text.

============
 significant victory against Big Business parties



Election analysis by the
Central Executive Committee, CPC

June 29, 2004

            The results of the June 28 federal election reflect a volatile
political situation in Canada. The Conservatives were defeated, and
the Liberals barely managed to hold onto power, reduced to a
minority government, dependent on the support of other parties for
survival.
            From the outset, it was clear that the election struggle had
assumed a defensive character, where the primary question was one
of blunting the drive to the right by preventing a Tory victory,
preventing either of the Big Business parties a working majority, and
expanding the size and influence of other more democratic and
progressive parties in Parliament. In this context, the outcome was a
significant victory for the working class and the left and progressive
forces in the country.

            The two parties of big business were hammered by voters,
falling from 80% of the total popular vote in 2000 to 68% in 2004.
The Conservatives lost over one million votes from the Alliance-Tory
totals four years ago, and the Liberals dropped 300,000, mostly in
Quebec. On the other hand, the parties seen by voters as defenders of
progressive positions made gains; the NDP gained about one million
votes, the Bloc Quebecois about 300,000, and the Greens almost half
a million.

            The first result is that the Martin Liberals were denied a fourth
consecutive term as a majority government. Despite Martin's
hypocritical posturing as a "progressive" during the campaign, he has
led a concerted drive - first as finance minister, and later as an open
leadership rival to Jean Chrétien - to shift Liberal policy in a more
right, neoliberal direction.

            Second, the even more right-wing Conservative Party has
been kept from power.

            Third, the minority government situation in which the Liberals
will have to make certain concessions to opposition parties may open
up prospects for the extra-parliamentary forces to exert greater
pressure. This could blunt the pro-corporate agenda of the Liberals,
and even win certain reforms around issues such as proportional
representation, or blocking Canadian participation in Missile Defence
and the FTAA. On the other hand, the Liberals may well seek support
from the Conservatives on important economic issues where the
parties have similar policies.

            The Liberal Party suffered the greatest losses at the polls,
losing 37 seats and witnessing the defeat of seven cabinet members.
Nevertheless, they managed to hold onto a plurality in Parliament with
135 seats.

            The Liberals suffered a particularly stinging rebuke in Quebec
where voters were angry with the imposition of the Clarity Act and the
Sponsorship program, both of which were designed to undermine and
ultimately deny Quebec's right to national self-determination. The
Liberal Party managed to hold onto only 21 of the 37 seats it held on
dissolution, with the remaining 54 seats going to the pro-sovereigntist
Bloc Quebecois. BQ leader Gilles Duceppe advanced a social
reformist platform during the campaign, playing down its sovereigntist
agenda, even when Bernard Landry, the leader of the parent Parti
Quebecois suggested that a large BQ vote would pave the way to
another Quebec referendum on independence in 2009.

            But it was the "new" Conservatives under Stephen Harper
who suffered the biggest rebuke from the electorate. Although the
merged Conservatives managed to increase their seat totals to 99 -
thanks in large part to gains in Ontario - their popular vote actually
decreased to 29.6% compared to the combined 37.7% achieved by
the Alliance and PCs in the 2000 election.

            This is a reflection of the fact that despite the efforts of the
Harper Conservatives to soft-pedal and in some cases completely
obscure their reactionary, right-wing program, many voters saw
through this deception and acted to prevent the Conservatives from
achieving control of Parliament. In several provinces - Nova Scotia,
New Brunswick, Quebec, Manitoba and B.C. - the Tories actually
lost seats to the Liberals and NDP.

            The  results were a humiliating setback for the Alliance-
Conservatives, who had hoped to take advantage of popular
frustration and anger with the ruling Liberals to slip into power
"through the back door." Such an outcome would have opened up an
extremely dangerous situation, allowing the Tories to impose their full
political agenda, including the destruction of the public healthcare
system, the gutting and privatization of the public sector, the
systematic attack on democratic and minority rights, and the
acceleration of "deep integration" with the U.S. empire, including
support for the Bush doctrine of imperialist aggression and war.

            The fact that a Tory victory was prevented on June 28 is
therefore an important achievement. However, the Conservatives
control a large bloc of seats, and it will be necessary for the
progressive and democratic forces - inside and outside of Parliament -
to counter their reactionary influence on policy and government action.

            The results for the New Democratic Party marked an
advance, although not nearly as much as its optimistic forecasts. The
New Democrats under their new leader Jack Layton mounted an
ambitious campaign focussed on pro-environment, anti-war positions,
and pledges to defend healthcare, education and the public sector,
and bring about electoral reform, including the introduction of some
kind of proportional representation.

            The NDP platform constituted a small shift to the left
compared to previous electoral platforms in 1997 and 2000, and
attracted increased support and involvement from the labour and
democratic movements. The NDP benefitted from presenting their
policies as a dynamic alternative to the big business parties. However,
their proposals fell far short of a militant, class-based program for
political change which the circumstances require to meet the offensive
of finance capital in Canada and imperialism on a global scale.

            It is clear that the last-minute decision of many workers and
progressive-minded people to act strategically by voting for the
Liberals in a bid to block the election of Stephen Harper's Tories also
limited the chances of the NDP to make further gains. In the end, the
NDP's popular vote rebounded to 15.2% from its dismal 8.5%
showing in 2000, but the caucus will only grow by six seats to a total
of 19 in the new House.

            The Greens also scored some significant advances, building
their popular vote to over 4%, but failing to elect anyone to
Parliament. The Green Party received a sizable chunk of the "protest
vote" of those wishing to express displeasure with the big business
parties. The Greens however have shifted their policies sharply to the
right, offering tax incentives to "environmentally-friendly" corporations
and proposing to cut corporate and income taxes, replacing revenue
shortfalls with a highly regressive consumption tax (such as the GST)
that would fall most heavily on working people. Tellingly, the largest
environmental groups did not endorse the Greens in this election.

            The Communist vote was modest in the 35 ridings its
candidates contested. This resulted from a combination of factors such
as the continuing effect of the undemocratic first-past-the-post system,
the corporate media blackout, and lingering anti-communist biases
among sections of the people. Mostly, however, a compelling sense of
urgency led many left and socialist-minded people to vote strategically
to block the Tories and deny the Liberals a functioning majority.

            That said, the Communist campaign had an important positive
impact, gaining a higher public profile for our Party. The campaign
was able to reach out to broader circles of working people, especially
progressive labour and youth activists. The party's website received
over 3,500,000 hits during the campaign, reflecting growing interest in
the policies and perspective of our Party, and new members and
supporters were won across the country.

            The election results set the stage for a new period of ferocious
struggle over such issues as Canada's position on missile defense, the
battle over privatization, the FTAA trade pact and moves for further
economic, cultural, political, and diplomatic "harmonization: with the
U.S., and the direction of foreign and defense policies, to name but a
few. While debates around these vital issues will sharpen on
Parliament Hill, the decisive field of battle will shift to the streets and
workplaces of Canada, to the extra-parliamentary arena of struggle.
More than ever, unity of the labour, progressive and popular forces
will be the key to blunting the continuing offensive of Big Business and
its parties, and shifting momentum in a new direction.
*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *


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