Why Tories should be dumped
December 2, 2008
Over the next few days, the federal Tories will be in your
face scrambling for their political lives, using every means at their
disposal to convince you that they deserve to stay in office: TV ads, talk
shows and scare-mongering about separatists running the country.
Don’t believe them.
Whatever you might think about a Liberal-NDP coalition
government backed by the Bloc Quebecois, it’s got to be better than the
Harper Tories. They are not the party that should be running our government
as we head into tough economic times.
The economic statement by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty on
Nov. 27 showed the true “Harrisite” tone of the Harper Tories: They intended
to legislate contracts, including roll-backs of union settlements already
negotiated, as well as eliminating the right to strike. They wanted to roll
back pay equity. And they made no effort to stave off what nearly everyone
predicts will be the biggest downturn since at least the early 1990s, maybe
worse.
What about the loss of thousands of manufacturing jobs in
cities across Ontario? Don’t they care what will happen to our families?
Their answer is just as it was under the Mike Harris regime: “No, we don’t
care.”
While the governments of Britain, Australia and China have
followed up on investments of about two per cent of national income --which
would amount to $30 billion in the case of Canada – Harper and Flaherty have
done nothing. The European Union has just introduced a major stimulus
package. The US has already done it, and Barack Obama is promising more.
Instead of acting, the Conservatives pretend that tax cuts
have already done the job that "the government is planning on balanced
budgets or better for the current and the next five years."
As the old Joe Hill song goes, “There’ll be pie in the sky
(when you die)…”
OPSEU members have lots of experience with the effects of
the Harris government. Most of his key cronies are working for Harper:
Flaherty, Tony Clement, John Baird and lately Guy Giorno, the former Harris
hatchet-man now working as Harper’s top assistant. Together, these guys
almost took down the province. We can’t let them take down the country.
In solidarity,
Warren (Smokey) Thomas
President
OPS Bargaining 2008
