os Ra New Democratic Party
can accept as its objec-
. tive nothing. less than
: forming the government of On-
tario after the next election,”
{ declared Donald C. MacDonald,
| Ontario leader of the New De-
¥ Mmocratic Party, in his keynote
Speech to the party’s Third On-

tario Convention last week.

Five points of developments
: of our society were put forward

by MacDonald as the conditions
_for a basic upheaval. They are:

“A new technology has burst
| Upon this continent. In Canada
it has centred in Ontario.

“We are engaged in the most
critical rethinking of federal-
Provincial relations since Cana-
da was founded 99 years ago.

Once again, Ontario is at the
heart of it.

“Our economy is becoming

more Consumption-oriented, giv-

A ing the appearance of abundance
and affluence. Yet many of our

nored.

“2 8k

“The future of our relations
with the United States has be-
Come the subject of national de-
bate.

PR “A mushrooming population

oncentrating itself in our cities
'S Creating new problems for the
urban areas and depleting our
rural hinterland.”

bs “Project 67,” said MacDonald,
elect’ 67 members to achieve

citizens live in deep distress, ig-

‘Project '67—Elect 67’

aim for government

power in this province. This is
our goal.”

Later at a press conference
MacDonald indicated that in his
estimation there were 65-70
seats in the province that could
be taken by the NDP, mainly
from the Tories and mainly in
the urban areas. He indicated
that he felt there was half a
dozen seats that could be taken
from the Liberals. He also felt
there was the possibility in rural
as well as urban areas of a
breakthrough. 5

The main items mentioned in
the NDP program for Ontario
were: legislation which recog-
nizes labor’s right to share in
decision-making; medicare; ma-

DONALD C. MacDONALD

chinery to review price increas-
es; a just share of the province’s
wealth for the farmers; and
equality of educational oppor-
tunity.

A burst of applause greeted
MacDonald’s statement that,
“we New Democrats accept the
challenge of working out a pro-
gram for Canadian development
of our economy.”

- He later added: “I do not agree
with E. P. Taylor that Canadian
nationalism is old fashioned. I
do not share Mitchell Sharp’s
unconcern about where continen-
talism will lead. I cannot accept
Stanley Randall’s promotion of
a branch plant economy in this
province. I believe there is room
for two experiments in democ-
racy on the North American
continent, and I insist that the
Canadian . experiment cannot
long remain healthy ‘if we are
to continue to be absorbed, eco-
nomically and culturally, into
the American orbit.”

MacDonald told the press con-
ference that individual member-
ship in the province had doubled
since 1963 and trade union affi-
liation had risen from 150,000
to 185,000.

The theme of Canadianism
was also taken up by the party’s
federal vice-president, Charles
Taylor, who accused the federal
Liberal government of “paralytic
continentalism.”

“Beating back the vain at-

tempt of Walter Gordon to give
its policy a nationalist direction,
the federal Liberal party has
consistently slid down the path
of piecemeal, muddled integra-
tion,” Taylor added.

The support of the convention
for this position was also to be
seen in the adoption of a reso-
Jution urging Prime Minister
Lester Pearson to reverse his
decision to allow gas to move
through the United States as had
been granted to the Trans-Can-
ada Pipe Lines Ltd.

Other resolutions adopted in-
cluded:

e sharp denunciation of the
use of injunctions in labor dis-
putes

@ emergency resolution wel-
coming the protest by house-
wives of high food prices and
calling for a consumers protec-
tion bureau, a prices review
board

e denunciation of the Canada-
U.S. auto pact and a call on the
Ontario government to create
job opportunities for laid-off
auto workers

® endorsation of the federal
NDP stand on the war in Viet-
nam, described as ‘‘clear-cut op-
position to increased U.S. inter-
vention”

® accusation of the Ontario
government for bringing chaos

_ to the rapidly growing field of

secondary and post-secondary
education.

Ontario New Democrats

NDP federal leader T. C.
Douglas, in addressing the con-
vention, accused the premiers of
Ontario, Alberta, Manitoba and
British Columbia of opposing
medicare to protect the large in-
surance companies. He rejected
the claim that postponement of
medicare was a way to fight in-
flation.

Douglas proposed instead that
the refund of five percent on
corporation profits, which was
contained in Sharp’s spring bud-
get, should not now be returned
to the companies but invested
by the government to increase
productivity.

A petition to the Lieutenant-
Governor of Ontario was circu-
lated among the delegates ask-
ing for royal amnesty for the 26
men convicted as a result of the
demonstrations in support of the
Tilco strikers. It was pointed

“out that such applications for

royal clemency do not involve
the merits of the case as decided
by. the courts.

At the firlal morning session
there were 814 delegates pre-
sent, about 300 of them from
trade union locals. This was
nearly 200 more than the top
attendance at the last conven-
tion. A successful appeal to the
delegates to raise funds for the
upcoming election resulted in
$30,000 pledged after about half
of the delegates had been ap-
proached.

Launch public drive to get rid

BH OCUSING altention on the
need for the labor move-
ment in Saskatchewan to
5 Tid the province of the recently
Passed Essential Services Emer-
sency Act, the [1th convention
ot the Saskatchewan Federation
-Of Labor adopted a resolution
Which envisages a public cam-
Paign to remove this item of
legislation from the books.

Slressing that the steps de-
‘cided On were being taken as a
‘means of self-preservation and
defense, not attack,” the dele-

gates unanimously decided to
call for:

_ © The circulation of. printed
information to provide an under-
Standing of the compulsory arbi-
tration act and try to see that
Every union bulletin board dis-
‘Plays an account of the Act.

b ® Seek by use of all com-
Minication media _to awaken

concern in every Saskatchewan
community to the provision of
the Act. Where there is no labor
council in a locality, an indivi-
dual union or several unions in
concert, should work to spread
publicity.

@ The consideration of public
meetings, demonstrations, and
like gatherings to arouse people
lo the dangers of labor legisla-
tion changes in 1966.

@ The approaching of farm,
teacher, and cooperative organ-
izations to explain the effects of
these laws. To emphasize the
impact in the future on these
organizations. :

e The visiting of every MLA
by organized employees to soli-
cit his support for repeal of the
act. Point out that the govern-
ment has acted hastily as well
as unwisely in rushing this law,

e Trade union meetings held
during the next two months be

asked to report on the Act and
the menace it represents. Every
union member be asked to indi-
vidually register his dissatisfac-
tion with the Act by writing a
letter or a telegram to Premier
Thatcher.

e All locals, labor councils
and. union staff be asked to par-
ticipate in a province-wide con-
ference on or about Dec. 3 in
Saskatoon. All action taken and
results be reported to the federa-
tion office before Dec, 3, so that
it can be considered for the con-
ference.

The Essential Services Emer-
gency Act was passed during a
strike of the gas workers against
the Saskatchewan Power Cor-
poration. The Act provides for
compulsory arbitration proceed-
ures for workers who are deem-
ed to be in essential services.
It also provides fines and de-
certification penalties for unions
who defy the law as well as

punitive measures against the
workers involved.

The Essential Services Act is
seen by the labor movement in
Saskatchewan as only one mani-
festation of the anti-labor char-
acter of the Liberal government
of Premier Ross Thatcher.
“There is a gun pointed at our
heads,” said one delegate. “The
government is saying, ‘You keep
your mouth shut or else’. We
must say; ‘If you force us we
will take you on’.”

In its report to the conven-
tion, the executive of the SFL

said that a greater awareness:

for labor to be united has deve-
loped over the past year.

“Never before ‘in Saskatche-
wan has there been a situation
where so many. have had so
much in common, and never be-
fore has there been such .an
awareness of the need for Jabor
to be united,” the report read.

- October 21, 1966—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 3°

of Saskatchewan anti-labor law

It has become abundantly
clear there exists what is hard
to avoid calling a “conspiracy”
by Big Business through helpers
in government to blame wages
for what is really profit infla-
tion, the report said.

Saskatchewan itself is a prime
example of a province _ whose
income distribution  discrimin-
ates -against labor, the report
said. The figures show that Sas-
katchewan was the only prov-
ince in Canada except New-
foundland where there was no

_ average hourly earnings increase

whatever in 1965.

Average weekly wages and
Salaries, even including mana-
gerial salaries, rose less in Sas-
katchewan in 1965 than in any
other province from Quebec

west. The rise~was less than —

half of that in British Columbia
and below the Canadian average

by nearly 40 percent, the report |

said,