reece

Stollowing statement on
€nt provincial election
ld by the Ontario exe-
OMmittee of the Com-
arty:

Ontario Tories parlayed
H we 1,432,000 votes cast
ic! into 66% of the seats
cath Legislature of this
y Weren’t supposed to win
“nt elections so handily.
pbservers conceded them
q Majority at the most
Pdistinct possibility they
|me out a minority gov-
‘ With the odds on the
Pick up the official op-
“ slot,

Sme of the Reasons

|. Were the factors which
m “l€ Tory victory, the
(8 defeat of the Liberals
" less than successful re-
= the NDP?

| "ould ‘suggest the follow-

nts :
mee either Manitoba,
4 Ewan or the Maritime
4 Ontario is an ex-
yj Wealthy province with
ot share of Canada’s re-
’ ee custry and manufac-
tun ustry and the largest
2 € in Canada. In spite
‘ Msis developing in the
4. the government had
tn tnds to make impor-
tm “sSions to old age pen-
a the eve of the elec-
Ter to make some cuts in
a ee ments which af-
| rhe 1ons of people. It was
Pay ae the election cam-
Hote almost on the eve of
» to announce tax cuts
Hy million program to
7 Nemployment this win-

Ne

redoing this it promised
ty Es, “hold-the-line” pol-
Py “ttion and used gov-
up auditing . facilities to
ih Paenuses by the oppo-
My ch the government
; mipounted to more than
On additional spend-
ay pould only result in in-
th axation.
q Bons taken by the
€tnment on the Spa-
Py hTessway and the new
Thy “a On public mass tran-
ty EY position on not ex-
Hehogy iBtous education in
Biber System, the removal
Nas S and the election of
Wer arty leader and pre-
lus Sufficient to create
a ns which were neces-
a Bard off wide-spread
T whi With Tory govern-
iy UCh Ontario has been
With for the past 28

Vith

hu

mill
he

PY

Campaign funds
it have reached close
lon, the largest sum
: Mpaic a provincial elec-
Ma 4. 89 in the history of
f Wey a single party, the
the eles able to set the tone
Suc

Reg -eSSful that in some

it swept into office
n pt into offic
le han tities whom most
“ip rig seen in or out
\ Ings.

thehilfut public relations
soo, 80vernment shifted
i < the election away
i, the aa sorry record and
8 ady tberals in Ottawa,
Nene or ace of a deep re-
' the Liberal econo-

|
)

10n campoign which _

mic policies. Provincial issues
were by and large not debated
in the election. Federal issues

dominated the entire campaign.

‘e By pursuing the line that
the NDP was a major threat in
Ontario the government was
able to capture much of the Lib-
eral vote. First through fanning
dissatisfaction with Ottawa Lib-
eral policy, and second through
fear by right-wing Liberal ele-
ments of a strengthened NDP.

e By making the issue lead-
ership and the quality of the
leader the Tories took advan-
tage of the lack of credibility
of either Lewis or Nixon as a
premier.

e There were strong sugges-

-tions of a deal between the Lib-

erals and the Tories to gang up
on the NDP in a number of con-
stituencies.

e By no means last in impor-
tance was the decision by the
right-wing leadership of the
NDP to play the game by the
Tory rules and enter into the
personality contest with Davis.
One can suspect that Stephen
Lewis’s overriding experience
with by-elections led him into
trying to run a provincial elec-
tion campaign like 117 by-
elections. Unlike by-elections,
however, the outcome of provin-
cial elections is determined by
the overall impact of a party on
the isues, under which umbrella
constituency campaigns can
make the difference between
victory and defeat.

“ Game of Politics

The NDP failed completely
to focus the smoldering discon-
tent of the electorate on the
giant U.S. and Canadian mono-
polies who are behind the crisis
in Ontario and link the Tory
government up with these mon-
opolies.

Rather it played the politics
game, separating government
from the economic forces it rep-
resents and leaving the impres-
sion that it was a question of
whether it would be Lewis,
Davis or Nixon who was going
to run Ontario after October 21,
rather than a question of whe-
ther power was going to remain
in the hands of the big corpora-
tion or be taken over in large
measure by a progressive anti-
monopoly majority at Queens
Park and used for the people.

Vote Analysis

An examination of the votes
in working class constituencies
around the province produces

"the following:

The NDP vote held in most
constituencies, but in many
failed to increase in ratio to the
higher overall vote cast. Most
of the 400 thousand new voters
who voted were brought out by
the -Tory campaign, not the
NDP or Liberal campaigns.

In working class areas such
as Oshawa and Peterboro large
number of people who had pro-
bably never voted before were

pulled out by the Tories.

in Oshawa, the
For example, t 5,000,

Liberal vote stood still a

the NDP vote went up from
13,182 in 1967 to 15,531, but
the Tory vote went up from
11,102 to 18,324. Thus of 9,000
new votes, 7,000 went to the

Tories.
It was much the same story

- candidates,

ssons of the
ntario elections

in Peterboro where the NDP
vote went from 15,400 to 18,034
while the Tory vote went from
12,673 to 18,649; the Liberal
vote increased from six to seven

‘thousand there.

In Hamilton the NDP held its
three seaes but had its margins
cut in two of them while the
Tories substantially increased
their margins in the two con-
stituencies they hold.

In Sudbury the NDP increased
its margin in one seat by more
than 7,000 votes’ eclipsing its
two opponents, and took the
other seat away from the Lib-
erals.

In the Lakehead they repeat-
ed the same feat holding one
seat and adding another gain
from the Liberals. 2

In Windsor West the NDP in-
creased its margin of victory
and almost took Windsor Walk-
erville from the Liberals.

In Toronto the NDP dropped
two of its existing seats to the
Tories and picked up one from
the Liberals.

The Sudbury and Thunder
Bay votes would seem to sug-

gest that the main anger of the

North in large working class
cities is directed at the Federal
Liberals and the NDP came
through there as the alternative.

It is also possible that the
separate school issue, both in
Sudbury and Windsor was a fac-
tor in favor of the NDP.

Communist vote

While the Communist vote
was low it represented an in-
crease over previous elections.
In three of the five constituen-
cies the vote was over 400.
(Dovercourt 434, Lincoln 407,
Yorkview 403. In Hamilton West
it was 223 and in St. Andrews
St. Patrick 235.)

There were close to 170,000
pieces of literature distributed
mainly in the ridings where
Communists were running but
also in many other ridings across
the province, plus ads in local
papers presenting our program.
Communists appeared on TV
and radio, and spoke to many
thousands of people at public
meetings and in schools. Every-
where our program was receiv-
ed with great interest and ap-
proval and many thousands of
people whose only image of
Communism was the distorted
one fed them by the public
media had an opportunity to
read our program and meet our
candidates.

The major weakness of the
party’s campaign was the fact
that we did not run more candi-
dates across the province and
were not able to campaign ac-
tively in every area even where
we had no candidates in the
field around our program. This
must be overcome in time for
the ‘upcoming federal elections.

Fight for Unity

The unity position of the
Communist Party was widely
appreciated and with a few ex-
ceptions there was a noticeable
lack of red-baiting in the cam-
aign. In many instances NDP
including leading
figures in the party associated
themselves quite closely with
Communists at public meetings.

One of the few instances of
red-baiting took place at a meet-

©

ree

ing in Dovercourt at the Oak-
wood Collegiate where NDP
candidate Stephen Penner, in
response to a question to all
candidates told the gathering
that the NDP did not ask for
nor need the help of the Com-
munist Party, that the NDP was
a “democratic” socialist party.

This was in marked contrast
to his remarks several days
later at a meeting called by the
Militant Co-op where he asked
why the Communist Party was
running in Dovercourt as the
only effect its running could
have was to defeat the NDP.

Wm. Stewart, provincial lead-
er of the Communist Party, who
was appearing on the platform
with Mr. Penner reminded him
of the attitude of the Commun-
ist Party towards healing the
split in the labor movement and
its preparedness to discuss with
him, or the NDP as a whole, the
question of unity at the polls to
defeat monopoly in Ontario.
Such unity however could not
be simply based on our drop-
ping out of constituencies where
we have a long tradition of run-
ning and perspectives of electing
Communists in the near future.
Unity, he said, presupposes give
and take. Members or groups in
the NDP who expect Commun-
ists to make sacrifices to con-
tribute to their elections will
have to stand ready to recipro-
cate before such unity can be
achieved. He reminded Mr. Pen-
ner that the position of the Waf-
fle, advanced at the last con-
vention of the NDP was that
the way to socialism in Canada
was through the NDP only.
What kind of unity position is
that, he asked.

It totally ignores irrefutable
experience—Canadian and inter-
national—that there can be no
meaningful working class unity,
or advance, without the open
participation of Communists.

Lessons Drawn

What conclusions can he
drawn from the elections? ,

e@ 73 out of every 100 voters
who went to the polls in Ontario
voted for the parties of big
business. As matters stand now
a coalition of these parties
could practically wipe out the
NDP.

e Quite aside from the weak-
nesses in its election campaign-
ing the NDP is not a sufficiently
broadly based political force to
unite the diverse elements in
this province whose interests
are objectively in opposition to
monopoly. For that a much
broader political alliance must
develop, which wilh include the
NDP, Communists, sections of

the farmers and the business
community, democratic organi-
zations, etc. Rather than berat-
ing the~ working people and
others for not voting for. the
NDP, as many of its spokesmen
did at the recent OFL conven-
tion, they must come to realize
the necessity for such a coali-
tion and abandon their sectar-
ian insistence that the NDP
alone can substitute for such an
alliance. The organized labor -
movement, in action on a daily
basis for the economic and social
needs of its own membership
and the entire anti-monopoly
community, ‘must become the
core of such a movement.

e The catastrophic policy of
discouraging mass action of the
working people in defence of
their economic and social inter-
ests in favor of solving all prob-
lems at the ballot box must be
discarded in favor of mass
struggle policies. ;

@ Unity of the working class
is the prerequisite for successful
engagement in the epic battles
shaping up in Ontario now.

Anti-communism must _ be
swept aside and working-class
unity shaped around an anti-
monopoly program designed to
strengthen Canadian indepen-
dence, nationalize U.S. monopo-
lies and the resources industry,
recognize the rights of Quebec
to national self-determination,
provide a bill of rights for labor,
establish full equal rights for
women, regenerate the leader-
ship of the trade union move-
ment with militant leaders, in-
cluding young workers and wo-
men workers.

Unity of Left

To this end unity of the left.
is of primary importance. The
growing left socialist trend in
the NDP, which includes the
Waffle movement, is an objec-
tive expression of the bankrupt-
cy of right-wing social-democra-
tic policy and opens the possi-
bility for unity between left
NDP forces and Communists in
the struggle against monopoly.

The Communist Party needs to
strengthen its participation in
the labor movement and all the
mass movements of the people,
pressing for solutions to the im-
mediate problems of the people.
and simultaneously putting for-
ward its socialist goal. Not
least of all it needs to strength-
en its participation in electoral
battles at all three levels of
government. :

It is in these battles, where
the presence of our party is felt,
that unity of the left, the work-
ing class and all democratic
forces will be forged.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1971—PAGE 7