Boycott the 2014 Ontario Elections

[Yet_Another_Boring_Marxist]

As some of you know the Canadian electoral circus is going on again and the RCP-Canada is out in full force boycotting the elections. This time their campaign has gotten attention from two mainstream media outlets since with the new strength of the RCP Canada they are able to exert a lot more influence on the street level. Here is some of the coverage it got.

http://www.cbc.ca/pointsnorth/episodes/2014/06/09/sudbury-group-calls-for-an-election-boycott/

http://www.netnewsledger.com/2014/05/28/move-to-boycott-election-voting-starts/

Not much but hey it's a good start considering that the group was pretty small years back.

Also I've noticed a lot of the RCP-Canada's documents have moved away from the Pekingese style to a more lucid and coherent writing style. I've critized them a lot for having a shitty paper and I'm glad it seems they're listening a bit. Here's their coverage of a recent Thunder Bay Liberal-NDP vote

http://boycottelections.wordpress.com/2014/05/28/commentary-on-the-thunder-bay-liberal-ndp-debate/


I went to the Debate between Wynne and Horwath today at Valhalla Inn in Thunder Bay. I showed up an hour early and chatted with protesters who were carrying signs, usually in support of Unions or a 14 dollar minimum wage, or against privatization.
I asked the protesters which parties supported the messages that were on their signs – the Unions said the ONDP supported them, the $14 minimum wage folks said no party (of course I gave them my handbill) and the anti privatization person happened to be Mary Kozorys, Candidate for the ONDP.
I saw someone with a massive rainbow flag, and asked which party supported LGBT liberation. They were supporting NDP, though they said the Liberals were pretty good as well. I wonder which party is going to help transwomen who get thrown into a men’s jail like my friend and comrade?
Somehow I was given a lanyard and ushered into the debate. The crowd was literally chanting “ANDREA” and Hudak was not in attendance. When people in these ridings talk about boycotts being “handing your vote to Hudak” they really don’t know what they’re talking about. The Wynne and Horwath were give a bunch of softball questions by regional mayors and a deputy grand chief (you can watch the debate online if you can stomach it), and my table, NDP supporters, gave Horwath a standing ovation.
I asked the person sitting next to me, wearing a “Kicking Ass for the Working Class – Union” shirt, if Horwath mentioned Class or even Unions. They shook their head “no” uncomfortably. As they sat down from their standing ovations the table realized I wasn’t a committed party member, the climate changed.
I asked the official-looking guy with a Secret-Service style earpiece what he thought about the NDP proposing a Minister to make cuts. The confused, blustery response I got was priceless.
I was told that
1 – I was campaigning for the Liberal Party
2 – Many people in the NDP want higher minimum wages than what Horwath is promoting, but then right wingers won’t vote for them.
3 – When Andea is invited to speak in front of a union, then she talks about unions.
3 – the NDP is a socialist party
4 – the NDP is not a socialist party
5 – only the ONDP is a socialist party.
6 – The ONDP is a socialist party but they don’t tell anyone because Sun News will cover it.
7 – That this critique (http://www.socialist.ca/node/2269) is the best critique of the ONDP.
I then chatted with the banquet staff, young folks wearing black clothes on a 25 degree day, waiting hand and foot on all us respectable people, what they thought. They weren’t impressed with either candidate, and considered both candidate’s minimum wage increase lackluster. I gave them a boycott handbill.


This isn't to say that the campaign is perfect, it seems their critique is more against formal democracy and could use some fleshing out but overall I'd say its definitely one of the more positive approaches the revolutionary communist left has had to elections in recent times

[The Intransigent Faction]

You're about a week late. :grin: The election was a week and a day ago. I made a post or two about this in the other thread, though, and yeah, I'm in complete agreement with them on this one. I spoke about the campaign with a good friend who currently lives in Sudbury.

The NDP succumbed to the same fate as so many other Social Democratic parties (it's really telling that they captured a seat in Oshawa from the Conervatives). The Cons were just Cons, and the Liberals continue scandalous relationships in the form of P3s and financial handouts to the bourgeoisie.

The election's turnout was slightly over 50%, and the Liberals won a majority. Manufacturing will continue its decline, and pressure on the public sector will continue.

[Yet_Another_Boring_Marxist]

You're about a week late. :grin: The election was a week and a day ago. I made a post or two about this in the other thread, though, and yeah, I'm in complete agreement with them on this one. I spoke about the campaign with a good friend who currently lives in Sudbury.

The NDP succumbed to the same fate as so many other Social Democratic parties (it's really telling that they captured a seat in Oshawa from the Conervatives). The Cons were just Cons, and the Liberals continue scandalous relationships in the form of P3s and financial handouts to the bourgeoisie.

The election's turnout was slightly over 50%, and the Liberals won a majority. Manufacturing will continue its decline, and pressure on the public sector will continue.

Pardon, being a yankee I'm not necessarily in the loop. I need to re-connect with my Canadian contacts. I appreciate some information from Canada though! Any info from your Sudbury friend?

[blake 3:17]

I was wondering why you were posting about an election that already happened as if it hadn't.

About 35000 people declined their ballots -- it sure wasn't the RCP that did that but whatevs. One of the folks involved in the decline your ballot campaign was shown to be part of the ultra right, but on democratic issues I'm OK with certain blocs.

The option became viable largely because of Democracy Watch and some of the attention they drew. http://democracywatch.ca/20140522-democracy-watch-calls-on-elections-ontario-to-inform-voters/

The mainstream media covered them.

Overall the vote was up percentage wise -- a good thing -- and the proto fascist Hudak Tories were defeated -- another good thing.

The real opening(?) on the Left was the right campaign from & open break from the NDP, our shitty social democratic party. People voted Liberal, Green, Socialist, Communist, and declined in larger numbers.

Ultra douche bag OPSEU president Smokey Thomas has been calling out the activist layers of the labour leadership for not being stupidly NDP faithful enough. Dude's a fucking corporatist who's all about a seat at the table, and is pissed that he doesn't have one now.

I voted Socialist Party of Ontario.

[The Intransigent Faction]

What I heard from him can mostly be gathered from one of those links you shared. The NDP has faithful supporters up there. In fact they won the seat. Something else worth keeping in mind is that in some ways northern Ontario is more like Manitoba than it is like southern Ontario (hence the separate debates).

Hudak lost, but that by no means signals the long-term end for talk of at least some private-sector activity in the "Ring of Fire" (mineral deposits in northern Ontario). There will be pressure for resource extraction there as there is anywhere else.

If there's one thing worth noting it's that the election wasn't so much an enthusiastic endorsement of the Liberals as a "Screw you!" to the opposition parties. This is shown by the way "strategic voting" for Liberals was touted even in ridings where the Conservatives weren't contenders. This is of course shaky ground to win on, and might not help them as much next time around. Bourgeois politicians are well aware people are more and more skeptical toward their farce, and they will go to great lengths to try to keep that skepticism contained in expressions less threatening to their interests.