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The Oct.
10 election in Canada’s most populous province delivered a reprieve to a
promise-breaker, a rebuke to a reactionary initiative, and a big blow to democratic
electoral reform.
Liberal
Premier Dalton McGuinty got off rather easy after four years of violating
his own pledges not to raise taxes (he imposed a special health premium)
and to rescue municipalities and school boards from insolvency. Despite a
drop in its share of the vote from 47 to 42 per cent, the Liberal Party
won 71 seats in the legislature, two more than in 2003.
Aided
by the lowest voter turnout in Ontario history, 52.8 per cent, a Liberal
majority government emerged—with the support of considerably less than one-quarter
of the eligible voters. For that you can thank the First-Past-the-Post
electoral system.
The
Progressive Conservative Party, led by John Tory, suffered a double rebuke—a
three per cent drop in support, and Tory’s personal defeat in his own constituency.
This was due largely to the unpopularity of his reactionary proposal to
extend public funding to all religious schools that meet provincial standards.
Unfortunately,
the corporate media’s focus on Tory’s blunder distracted attention from
other issues. These include the massive loss of manufacturing jobs,
rising poverty, and escalating environmental degradation.
The
Green Party capitalized on the religious schools controversy by calling for
an end to public funding of all parochial teaching, including the province’s
Catholic Separate School system. Votes for the Greens rose from two to eight
per cent. Still, the party failed to win a single seat.
New
Democratic Party leader Howard Hampton ran a lacklustre campaign under
the bizarre party-colour slogan “Get Orange”. The labour-based NDP
completely missed the boat on the religious schools issue by dodging it
and insisting on the status quo. Insanely, this was done in the face of
opinion polls showing that up to 70 per cent of Ontarions want to put an
end to public funding of sectarian education, period.
Despite
mildly more progressive policies on tax reform, the minimum wage, and
support for
municipalities,
the NDP vote grew by only two per cent to register 17 per cent, and the
party won 10 seats, two more (in an expanded legislature) than in 2003.
Although
the pro-business Green Party proclaimed its devotion to ‘market forces’
to rescue the environment, it attracted support from people alienated by
each of the major parties, and it bumped the NDP into fourth place in
several ridings.
The
blow against democratic electoral change took the form of a well-orchestrated
defeat of a little understood and somewhat complicated proposal for a version
of proportional representation. Multi-Member Proportional, the recommendation
of a randomly selected Citizens’ Assembly which deliberated for a year,
is a mechanism that would supplement elected territorial representatives
with at-large, party-list legislators to ensure that seats are allocated commensurate
with a party’s popular vote.
But
the MMP option, in the province’s first referendum since 1921, was hobbled
by rules that restricted political party participation in the debate
about electoral reform, and that imposed a double super-majority requirement
(60 per cent of total votes, and a simple majority in 64 of 107 ridings)
for MMP to pass.
The
body running the referendum spent most of $6.8 million on ads warning
voters, “Don’t let others decide for you”, but did little to explain how
MMP would actually work. Few observers were surprised when it was
defeated by a two to one margin. No doubt big business and its main
political operatives heaved a sigh of relief at the outcome – though they must realize that the idea
of proportional representation will not go away.
The
big media dubbed Dalton McGuinty “Mr. Nice”. They celebrated his victory
as a triumph of ‘moderation’ over Tory’s ‘recklessness’—thus grossly
exaggerating the difference between the Liberals and the Conservatives. Some
unions, like the teachers’ federations and the Canadian Auto Workers,
fell head over heels for this gambit. CAW President Buzz
Hargrove
made an ugly caricature of himself in the process.
Meanwhile,
the knives are out for John Tory in his own legislative caucus, while
Howard Hampton is being gently urged to step aside after 12 years at the
helm. Issues of party finance,
including miserly revenue-sharing with local riding bodies, and instances
of head office interference with local candidate selection, have stoked
the fires of resentment across the NDP grassroots.
For
NDP activists the process of critical reflection now informally underway,
combined with the possibility of a leadership race, opens the door to a
serious debate on programme and direction for the NDP in which the NDP
Socialist Caucus has much to contribute. (To see the Socialist Caucus
Ontario election statement and other documents: www.ndpsocialists.ca).
As
working people awaken from the media-induced campaign reverie, the need
to take up the fight against the lying Liberals and against the business agenda
of service cuts, higher fees and taxes, disappearing decent jobs, and the
expansion of deadly nuclear power, will be increasingly clear.
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