In the context of this fall’s Conservative non-confidence motions in Parliament and opportunist manoeuvres by the other opposition parties, the Communist Party reiterates that we have no confidence in a Parliament dominated by monopoly corporate interests but we can be confident that a Conservative government will only make things far worse for working people.
The Liberal Party was elected almost a decade ago on many promises they failed to keep and offering “sunny ways”. This was after the previous 8 years of the Harper Conservatives which saw an aggressive anti-worker agenda, coupled with ties to ultra-right forces, global warming denialism and uncritical support for the US and NATO’s imperialist adventures. Harper’s government was run by libertarians from Big Business think tanks where Pierre Poilievre, who now pretends to speak for working people, played an important supporting role.
However, we do not have to choose between a corporate government with some mildly socially progressive views and a right-wing populist, corporate controlled government with a reactionary social agenda. Working people can and must unite to fight for peace, higher wages and living standards, an expansion of social programs and to roll back the political power of Bay Street. The struggle in workplaces and the streets is what is decisive at this moment to prevent the further consolidation of a growing reactionary agenda. With the world on the brink of environmental catastrophe and a rapid descent into militarism and war the situation is extremely urgent.
The working class’ standard of living continued to decline under successive Liberal governments. This deterioration sped up considerably with the huge rise in inflation and massive increases in the cost of basic necessities: food, fuel and housing. While the cause of this huge transfer of wealth from working people to corporate profits was systemic and is happening throughout the capitalist world, the justified anger was directed at the Liberal government and Justin Trudeau in particular. It is true that the Trudeau government did nothing to roll back skyrocketing prices and raise living standards. They didn’t dare challenge the retail monopolies, the oil and gas multinationals and increasingly financialized corporate landlords.
Nevertheless, in 2022 the NDP decided to give a blank cheque to the Liberal minority government and pledge their support if the Liberals enacted “pharmacare” and “dental care”. While the dental care program aims to help millions, it is means-tested, not universal, and will eventually cover only a small portion of the population, primarily for cavities. The pharmacare program introduced in 2023 covers only diabetes and contraceptives. Even after two years of the NDP-Liberal supply and confidence agreement, Canada remains the only developed country with universal healthcare that lacks universal prescription drug coverage.
The agreement to introduce anti-scab legislation is a positive step, but long overdue. Workers and their families have long suffered from employers using strikebreakers to undermine unions’ legal right to strike. Such practices should be banned nationwide.
Historically, the NDP championed universal social programs, advocating for broad access to services like healthcare and education funded through progressive taxation. However, their current support for means-tested programs, which create tiered access and are vulnerable to cuts, contrasts sharply with their former positions.
Despite this alliance, the NDP gained little for working people. They supported the government’s weak response to the housing crisis and corporate price hikes, and enthusiastically supported a massive increase in military spending, set to double by 2032. This military expansion threatens future austerity for social programs the NDP claims to support.
Furthermore, the NDP’s support for the Liberals failed to push for significant reforms to improve living standards, leaving space for a Conservative resurgence. Meanwhile, the NDP-backed Liberal government maintained its inadequate response to global warming and pursued foreign policies, including support for genocide in Gaza and escalating NATO military adventures in Ukraine, which have brought the world closer to global conflict and nuclear catastrophe.
While the Communist Party was critical of the supply and confidence deal when it was announced in 2022, we are also critical of the reasons for which the NDP has torn up the agreement. The real reasons are perceived electoral opportunities. With the collapse of Liberal Party support the NDP saw a window to distance itself and hopefully replace the Liberal Party in our undemocratic electoral system that trends towards duopoly. The NDP has pursued this overarching strategy of replacing the Liberal party for many years now and has done so successfully in Western Canada. The NDPs increasingly tepid policies reflect that goal.
In this context, the Bloc Québécois is playing with fire. The ultimatum it has offered the Liberal government only serves its narrow-minded nationalist and electoralist purposes. Yes, raising pensions by 10% for seniors aged 65 to 74 years of age would significantly improve their living conditions, especially for the retired working people. It is also true that protecting supply management in the further free trade negotiations would benefit farmers from Quebec and the rest of the country. However, entertaining the idea that a Conservative government led by Poilièvre could be more likely to deliver such programs is not only naive, but totally irresponsible. Through this manoeuvre, the Bloc tries to advance the narrative that for the people of Quebec, whoever is in power in Ottawa doesn’t matter. By so doing, it objectively plays the game of the Conservatives and shows that it is no friend of the working people and popular masses of Quebec, or from the Rest of Canada.
The Liberal Party deserves their fair share of condemnation in carrying out the agenda of the Business Council of Canada for the last nine years which has immiserated working people. They were elected on a campaign focused on the politics of “hope” in 2015 and they have created widespread anger and despair. This is the well-founded anger that Poilievre and the Conservatives are exploiting, to convince voters that they represent workers’ needs and interests, while the Liberals and ‘the left’ represent Bay Street elites, supported by the bureaucrats, including labour ‘bosses’ and intellectuals who maintain the status quo. We should be clear that the Conservatives represent the main political danger in Ottawa and their election would be like jumping from the frying pan into the fire.
This is the right-wing populism utilized by Trump to win the Presidency in 2016, and to swing politics to the far right. The rise of the far-right in the US, Europe and elsewhere reflects the bankruptcy of capitalism and a new trend towards abandoning bourgeois democratic rights and norms.
In the absence of a strong, class-oriented and class-struggle leadership in the labour movement in Canada, this populist pitch has gained ground among workers. Recent polls have shown that a substantial minority of union members would vote for the Conservatives if a federal election were held today. This is why the Conservatives are pushing hard for an early federal election.
The fact remains that people in Canada desperately need a government to act to build affordable social housing across the country, to roll-back prices and impose price controls on food, fuel and housing, and introduce full employment policies, and pay for them by cutting military spending and increasing corporate taxes. We need a government willing to take urgent action to curb carbon emissions and adopt a foreign policy of peace and break from the United States that is intent on heading towards world war. However, this isn’t what’s on offer by either the Tories or the Liberals or any opposition parties.
In this context, it is imperative that the labour movement, democratic and people’s movements take independent political action outside of Parliament to demand a People’s Agenda.
Whenever an election is called the Communist Party will run candidates in order to popularize important measures to fight for and win in order to roll back corporate power. We will be running candidates in most major cities across Canada with this goal.
But these measures alone would not solve the fundamental problem of capitalism – a system built on the exploitation of one human being by another, on war, and the exploitation of the environment – all in the interests of increased profits.
Only socialism can build a society where the needs of people and the environment are in harmony and where working people are in the driver’s seat. A socialist Canada is the aim of the Communist Party – fundamental social change that’s possible, urgent and worth fighting for.
Central Executive Committee, Communist Party of Canada