The Toronto Star has reported on the upcoming election strategy of Tim Hudak and his Progressive Conservatives. It is no surprise that organized workers and their unions are targeted. I guess you could say it is Tim’s plan to “anti” up. Think anti-labour, anti-worker and anti-living wage.
With all due respect to Dr. Seuss’s town of Whoville, featuring The Grinch , I want to compare that fictional community to what Ontario will be like under Grinch Tim Hudak. I call it “Welcome to Huville”.
First, who actually planned Huville? That job started with right-wing urban planners like Mike Harris and company. His design firm also brought us other treats like Walkerton, the Highway 407 selloff, the power black-out of 2003 and the megacity called Toronto.
The megacity in turn spawned two “mega-mayors:” Mel Lastman and Rob Ford. Each emerged from fights that pitted suburbs against the inner city. The inner city was described as a place for the privileged elite, while the suburbs were where the commoners lived. In Huville, constant division and turmoil was to be the goal.
The result of this awkward marriage is plain to see! Huville (Toronto), the 4th largest city in North America, is battling Duck Dynasty as America’s favourite reality show.
In Huville strange rules apply. There are plenty of winners and losers. Rich folks and corporations always win, while working people and the poor lose. In Huville public sector workers – the majority of whom are woman – are defined as entitled, overpaid and in possession of gold plated pensions. And they also have all those paid sick days. Getting paid while ill is considered ineffective in Huville.
The burghers of Huville do not understand why working with hundreds of people in schools, hospitals and jails would actually increase the probability that someone just might be exposed to germs and illness. Huville folks also do not understand why working people who chose to accept paid sick days instead of wages years ago should now not just give up these paid days …and get, oh yes, nothing in return.
That kind of deal is the rule in Huville. Workers must put their nose to the grindstone for an honest day’s work for an ever less honest day’s pay.
In Huville law and order tops the agenda except when members of the PC party run amuck with admissions of drug use, drinking and driving, uttering threats, making false accusations and refusing to cooperate with police. In Huville, the title of Chief Magistrate has been changed from ‘’Your Worship’’ to “Your Boorship.”
In Huville Rob Ford serves as both Mayor and Minister of Correctional Services. He knows that after one apology a criminal personality can be good as gold again.
In Huville, the answer to all economic issues is lower taxes for corporations and lower wages for workers. As a result, in Huville, very few people can afford the goods that business produces. Who needs a discretionary income? It means nothing. In Huville it is tossed aside, as many in Huville will just waste it anyways. Trickle-down economics is the approach to governing.
Huville leaders want to prove that destroying unions creates wealth for all. They want to turn Huville into Leamington, Ontario. There, the world’s richest man, Warren Buffet, bought a ketchup company and made it and 740 jobs disappear. Even more magical was that as these jobs vanished, 249 other ketchup jobs were created in Ohio with a $29 million investment. Too bad the Leamington workers (and their families) can’t just swim across Lake Erie to these new Ohio jobs.
Huville is what life will be like if people make the wrong decisions in the pending Ontario election. A mistake will bring a world of grief for many.
In the movie How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the Grinch experienced a change of heart and realized that a prosperous community recognizes the power of neighbourliness and generous spirit.
For Tim Hudak and his ilk of Tories, we will not witness a similar change of heart. Instead, our PC Grinch and his ominous shade of blue will become the mood of Huville residents for the future.
In solidarity
Eddy (Eduardo) Almeida
1st Vice President / Treasurer