rabble.ca Canadian federal election blog

Harper’s economics, at home and abroad

by rabble staff

On the eve of the election, Nikolas Barry-Shaw has an excellent piece on Znet summing up the convergence of economic and foreign policy issues in this campaign. First, he summarizes the bi-partisan (Liberal/Conservative) implementation of neo-liberalism:

While those fortunate enough to own stock in the banks and the oil companies have certainly enjoyed the fruits of “solid” economic fundamentals, ordinary Canadians have most certainly not, according to a recent study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.  It wasn’t always so. “Between the Second World War and 1980, the economic pie was growing at all points in the distribution, even if income shares in Canada didn’t change much” observes Lars Osberg, author of “A Quarter Century of Economic Inequality in Canada: 1981-2006”.

With the exhaustion of the post-war boom, however, class warfare was reborn under the moniker of neoliberalism.  Employers’ hardened stance and an open assault on trade union freedoms - pursued by Tory and Liberal governments alike - would usher in a “new norm” of lowered expectations and “stagnant or declining real wages, despite unprecedented improvements in education and skills,” for Canadian workers. The “fear of falling” for workers was also enhanced, with the poor facing “a much nastier reality now than twenty years ago, since cuts to social assistance have substantially increased the poverty gap - even in Canada’s richest provinces.”

(Stephane Dion’s claim to represent both social justice and the economic legacy of the Chretien/Martin years is unproblematic only to those with a serious case of historical amnesia.  It was precisely the deep cuts to social spending made by the Liberals during those years - after beating the Tories in 1993 on the promise of “Jobs, jobs, jobs” - that helped established this “new norm”.)

Then, the connection is made to foreign policy, mentioning a country that - despite suffering from a devastating food crisis while under Canadian supported UN occupation - has been totally off the election discussion radar:

it was Canada, in concert with the U.S. and France, who put Haitians in such a hopeless situation.  Canada helped plan and execute the overthrow Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s democratically-elected reformist government, in whom Haiti’s poor had invested so much hope.  After the coup d’État, Naomi Klein writes, there was “a wave of Falluja-like collective punishment inflicted on neighborhoods known for supporting Aristide,” unleashed by the Canada-backed interim government and the UN “peacekeeping” mission.

The repression imposed a “peace of the graveyards” on these restive neighborhoods, so that Harper and other foreign dignitaries could visit like conquering heroes.  During his July 20, 2007, visit to Cité Soleil, one of the hardest hit neighborhoods of Haiti’s capital, Harper stated that Canada’s presence in Haiti was “giving [Haitians] some hope and some opportunity,” and that “Canadians should be very proud that they are offering to help, that our help is making a difference in terms in safety of people’s lives.”  The sullen looks on the faces of the mothers present for Harper’s awkward photo-op, however, told another story.

The savage violence of the occupation was necessary to impose a tremedously unpopular neoliberal economic plan on Haiti.  The opposition was so great that Haitians began referring to IMF and World Bank strictures as the “plan lanmo”, literally “the death plan”.

It should go without saying that like the Kandahar mission, the 2004 coup in Haiti was initiated by the Liberals and then supported by the Conservatives.

24, 24 hours to go …

by rabble staff

… or less. So if you are not out doing some last minute campaigning, here’s some great reading and listening from rabble.ca:

Late last month, Naomi Klein spoke in Toronto on the financial crisis and the Canadian election - listen to it here, courtesy of the rabble podcast network. And, in case you missed it, rabble’s Duncan Cameron made the case that the crisis shows the need for “old socialism” in his column last week.

On a related issue, Ellen Gould reveals that Harper’s government has in fact championed the deregulation that has put the U.S. economy in such a tailspin.

Alice Klein looks at the certainties that this campaign has undone. Doug Nesbitt, meanwhile, argues that so-called strategic voting lets the Liberals off the hook. Murray Dobbin, for his part, looks at Elizabeth May’s strategic voting dilemma.

Finally, Rick Salutin looks at the impact of a war supported by the Liberals, Conservatives and Obama down south, analyzing Canada’s expensive Afghanistan blowback.

Eight Good Reasons to Vote Against Stephen Harper’s Conservatives

Posted by rabble staff

note: rabble will be posting video from this press conference - check back here for notification

Press Conference: Eight Good Reasons to Vote Against Stephen Harper’s Conservatives

October 8, 2008

(Toronto) As the federal election race tightens in the final days of campaigning, eight prominent personalities from a cross-section of Canadian NGOs will collectively express their opposition to the re-election of Stephen Harper’s Conservative Party.

The eight leaders from the environmental, labour, arts, aboriginal, culture, anti-poverty, and anti-globalization communities in Canada will speak at an impromptu “Stop Harper” press conference in Toronto on Thursday, October 9, at 10:00 a.m.

The press conference will take place in the Civic Ballroom of the Sheraton Centre Hotel, 123 Queen St. W., in Toronto.

Eight Good Reasons to Vote Against Stephen Harper’s Conservatives

Chair: Linda McQuaig, Journalist and Author

Speakers (in alphabetical order):

Naomi Campbell, founding Central Committee member, The Department of Culture

Chief Isadore Day, Serpent River First Nation Chief and Huron Treaty Commissioner

Alice Klein, Editor and CEO of Now Magazine, and co-founder of voteforenvironment.ca (climate change website encouraging strategic voting)

Ken Lewenza, National President, Canadian Auto Workers union

David Martin, Climate & Energy Coordinator, Greenpeace Canada

Garry Neil, Director, Council of Canadians

Marvyn Novick, Professor Emeritus, Ryerson University, and child poverty advocate

Ricken Patel, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Avaaz.ca (sponsor of the Stop Harper “anthem” performed by K-OS, Ed Robertson, Sarah Harmer, and other artists)

‘The Harper government is sordid not only in its means but also its ends’

by rabble staff

Carl Rosenberg sent in this editorial on the election from Outlook: Canada’s Progressive Jewish Magazine.

This election will take place after almost three years of one of the most regressive governments in Canada’s recent history. The circumstances under which Harper called it show the depths of authoritarianism and duplicity which his government has reached, even judging by the not always inspiring standards of Canadian politics. Contrary to Harper’s excuse, parliament was not “dysfunctional” but was simply not “functioning” completely to his advantage. He and his team made it “dysfunctional” by sabotaging parliamentary investigations into spending improprieties in the 2006 election and other potential scandals, then cut them short altogether by calling an election in violation of his own legislation imposing fixed election dates. Harper probably also wants to go to the polls before the U.S. election, to avoid the possibility that an Obama victory will create a liberal shift in the political mood in North America as a whole, making Harper’s government even more of a reactionary anachronism.

Harper’s contempt for democracy has been demonstrated from the outset by the now-infamous defection of David Emerson, engineered by Harper, among other dubious appointments; the muzzling of cabinet ministers and civil servants; smearing critics with accusations of disloyalty; restrictions on press access; the systematic blocking of access to government documents; the closure of the public database of access-to-information requests; the attempted censorship of the Arar report; and the suppression of internal documents revealing torture of detainees in Afghanistan during the prisoner-transfer scandal. It is a record unmatched in Canada, at least by any one government, since the Duplessis era in Quebec.

The Harper government is sordid not only in its means but also its ends—cutting funding to women’s groups and the arts; tax cuts favouring the wealthy and depleting public funds that could be used for social spending and health care; the destruction of the Kelowna Accord; undermining effective action on global warming; support for the Israeli occupation; and committing Canada to a long military occupation in Afghanistan (which Harper now promises to end under the spur of the election campaign). Canada under Harper has been utterly submissive to Bush’s imperial policies—ironically, policies which are now being widely challenged in the U.S. This has been shown in many ways, from Harper’s support for the “Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America” (SPP) scheme for further “integration” of the U.S. and Canada; to the deportation of U.S. war resisters, in spite of a motion—albeit non-binding—supported by a majority of MPs in favour of war resisters’ being allowed to stay in Canada; to Harper’s complicity in the continued detention and mistreatment of Omar Khadr, making Canada the last Western power with one of its citizens still a prisoner in Guantanamo.
It is likely that this election will result in another Conservative minority government.

Of course, the Liberals do not have a glowing record—they also waged war against the poor on behalf of the wealthy and powerful, and led us into Afghanistan. But a Liberal minority government, unlike a Conservative one, would at least make it possible for the NDP to gain some concessions on various issues. But whether the Liberals or Conservatives form the next government, Canadians will still have to resist the general political trend which Harper exemplifies—the combination of regressive social policies, submission to U.S. imperial policies and its “war on terrorism,” and infringement of democratic freedoms which has led the U.S. itself, and much of the rest of the world with it, to disaster.

Dying to go to school

by Mai Nguyen, rabble staff

Saying no to war isn’t that easy. When you’ve got a pile of debt from your student loans, or you’re working a minimum wage job, or you have an unreliable health plan, it’s hard to refuse when military recruiters dangle a “solution” to your problems.

Let’s face it; higher education is expensive, making university campuses hot spots for military recruiters to enlist. Many Canadian universities are affiliated with the Canadian Forces, providing them with booths at career fairs and space to sprinkle their advertisements around campus.

Recruitment is a big part of the Harper’s Canada First Defence Strategy, and one of their major approaches to dealing with shortages in the armed forces is to establish solid relationships with educational institutions wherein lies the young and the vulnerable.

With incentives like tuition subsidies and messages like “you, too, can be a hero,” the bait is almost too enticing.

But, there’s a lot these military recruiters don’t tell you on the spot. While they don’t hesitate to emphasize the benefits of working with Canadian Forces, they pause when it comes to the ramifications of enlisting, Canada’s foreign policy and especially when it comes to why we’re in Afghanistan and Haiti. Details aside, it makes for a pretty glamorous career.

Under the Conservative government, the Department of National Defence spent over $17 million on advertisements alone, the most out of any government agency. With that money, Canadian Forces recruited more people than they intended.

Harper promised to pull out troops in Afghanistan by 2011. In the meantime, how many more young Canadians will be killed?

Following the words of War Free Schools: “Students shouldn’t have to die or kill to afford to go to school.”

NDP Durham candidate in hot water over offensive Web postings

by rabble staff

The Liberal Party has issued a press release calling for the immediate firing of Andrew McKeever, the NDP candidate in Durham, Ontario. The Liberal release states:

NDP Leader Jack Layton must fire his candidate in the riding of Durham over inappropriate comments he made on the internet this summer on the subject of United States war deserters.

“Mr. Layton must fire his candidate in Durham, Andrew McKeever, who threatened people who didn’t agree with him with physical violence in a web posting,” said Durham Liberal Candidate Bryan Ransom.

The following quotes from Mr. McKeever’s Facebook posts are intolerant and demonstrate lack of fitness for public office:

“Answer a direct f**king question you c**t. I can guarantee, if I ever see you face to face I will make you squeal for the same authority you have such a baseless disdain for” [to a woman poster on the Facebook group]

“…one by one the TraitorCriminalDeserters [US war deserters] will be sent back down south to face the music”

“There is no room for this kind of vicious, threatening attack in Canadian politics. These comments are beyond the pale and Jack Layton must denounce them and fire his candidate immediately,” said Dan McTeague, Liberal Candidate for Pickering-Scarborough-East.

The Liberals have made public a pdf file of some of the offending remarks made in a Facebook discussion by the Durham NDP candidate. The comments attributed to McKeever include sexist and violent language, and derogatory comments about U.S. war resisters seeking refuge in Canada. (The NDP has consistently supported sanctuary for the resisters.)

A number of McKeever’s comments were made toward krystalline kraus, a long-time rabble.ca contributor.

Yesterday, on the “Andrew McKeever for Durham NDP” Facebook group, the candidate posted the following:

I took part in several online discussions over the last few months and was often a less than respectful contributor, exchanging insults with other members.

I am deeply sorry for having offended anyone.

My uppermost concern has always been the support of the men and women of the Canadian Forces and their families. I also acknowledge the legitimate moral reservations of those who cannot, in good faith, fight any longer.

As of 3p.m. EST, the NDP campaign had not yet made any official statement on the matter. (On babble, the discussion is already focused on when McKeever will be dropped by the NDP).

McKeever, 34, is a recent university graduate who won the NDP nomination for Durham last week.

Update: Late this afternoon, an NDP spokesperson commented on the issue to rabble.ca: “The NDP candidate in Durham has apologized for the comments he made on Facebook. It was a fulsome apology and he is making a direct apology to those whom he offended.”