_ 10 both old-line parties had ensured that

ELECTION

: Continued from page 1
_ Judge the party’s impact by the vote, he
cautioned.

_ Most candidates and campaign workers
Cite an increased acceptance of the party’s
program — the call for a 50-per cent cut
to the arms budget, the massive housing
Project, the creation of a merchant marine,
the nationalization of banks and key sec-
tors of the eocnomy — realized through
contacts at all candidates meetings and
through the distribution of more than one
million pieces of CP literature.

“Audiences were more open-minded,”
Noted the CP central executive committee
M post-election analysis which acknow-
ledged the hard work from supporters,
Including the Young Communist League,

MM promoting the party’s program.

The election activities, particularly in
Quebec and Saskatchewan, saw increases
in party membership, the CEC noted.

Party leaders and workers note that
election times are always propitious for
Spreading the party program. In B.C.,
Rush and the other Communist candi-
dates praised local media, such as the cable
TV channels and community newspapers,

: for generally fair coverage of the CP cam-
Paign based on a strict “equal time”’ basis.
Conversely, the big media carried out a

CP campaign height

policy of virtual blackout of the campaign
of the CP, and other smaller parties, based
on the “false rationale of major and minor
parties,” the committee charged.

“Our vote was also negatively affected
by anti-Communism and anti-Sovietism,”
noted the party leadership.

The CP had continuously urged the
election of a progressive bloc of candidates
to help prevent the election of either Tory
or Liberal majorities, the CEC noted,
which resulted in some loss of votes for the
Communist candidates.

Rush agreed: “I know some who would
have voted Communist in my riding. But
because they figured (NDP contender)
Johanna Den Hertog had a good chance
of beating (re-elected Tory incumbent) Pat
Carney, their vote went to the NDP.”

While defeat of a right-wing majority
was not possible, the Sept. 4 election saw a
substantial bloc of progressives elected to
Parliament. That success, by which the
New Democrats held their own against the
Conservative sweep, came about despite
fears by right-wing social democrats that
the CP’s critical support for NDP candi-
dates and its call for progressive unity con-
stituted a “kiss of death,” the CEC
asserted.

“Our call for the formation of a pro-

ens peace em

: am) Ee ge

gressive coalition and of critical support to
the NDP where we did not run candidates
was soundly based and will have its impact
in the days ahead,” the committee said.

For the 10 Communist candidates run-
ning the B.C., the vote, with most polls
reporting, was as follows: Sy Pederson
(Comox-Powell River), 209; Ernie Knott

CP provincial leader Maurice rush sums up campaign election night. :

(Esquimalt-Saanich), 94; Vi Swann (Fraser
Valley West), 98; Mark Mosher (Nanaimo-
Alberni), 239; Rod Doran (New Westmin-
ster-Coquitlam), 133; Reg Walters (North
Vancouver-Burnaby), 89; Ray Viaud
(Surrey -White: Rock-North Delta), 154;
Maurice Rush (Vancouver Centre), 149;
Bert Ogden (Vancouver Kingsway), 213;
Miguel Figueroa, (Vancouver East), 228.

~ Collapse of Liberal

Continued from page 1

about the profound and growing crisis of
Unemployment.

” The question of patronage, although not
itself half the issue the media made it, never-
theless typified what many saw as a corrupt
80vernment too long in office.and too indif-
ferent to the plight of working people,
farmers and small businesses.

Dozens of columnists and commentators
across the country, taking their cue from the

ries and they in turn from multinational °

- COrporation executives, skilfully manipu-

lated the issue of the Foreign Investment
Review Agency and the National Energy
‘Togram to fuel that anger over jobs, blam-
Ing the economic problems on those Liberal
Policies they wanted scrapped.
th The Liberals had an opportunity early in
€ campaign to change the picture by fol-
OWing up the obviously popular Trudeau
Peace initiative with specific proposals for
Peace, including the nuclear freeze endorsed
M the six-nation peace plan. But the Liber-
S opted to follow their class position,
Tejecting a freeze, calling for further military

’ SPending and in the end offered no differ-

‘nce between the Liberals and the Conser-
Vatives on an issue vital to the future of the
Country, 4

In fact, the right-wing shift in the Liberal

arty, emphasized by the election to leader-
Ship of John Turner and the leadership
‘onvention itself was a major factor in the
Outcome. The dominant corporate interests

.

following that convention whatever choice
Of the two major players Canadians made,
't Would be a choice eminently suited to
Usiness interests. :
Liberal pollster Martin Goldfarb noted
ollowing the election that whenever the
liberals and Tories both occupied the right
Stound, the Liberals are the losers. Strate-
8st Senator Keith Davey, brought in to
th Vage the campaign, attempted to change
‘Nat orientation by emphasizing populist
Sues but it was too late.
} In the absence of any clear differentiation
ee with the NDP still not offering a possi-
t ity of government because it was blanked
ae in Quebec and Atlantic Canada, the
Oters opted for the party which could effect
Change in government.
In Quebec, where the turnaround was
Most dramatic, the Parti Quebecois and
© Union Nationale played a significant

role — for their own narrow, opportumst
reasons — by backing the Tories with
campaign support and people. Even
Quebec Liberal leader Robert Bourassa
made no secret of his support for Mulroney.

Significant amidst the Tory sweep was
the steady 19 per cent popular vote for the
New Democratic Party which was down
only marginally from the 19.8 per cent
chalked up in 1980. Across the country, the
NDP came out of the election with only a
two seat difference from the 1980 result
— 30 seats as compared to 32 in 1980.

The provincial results were different,
however, as the party lost seats in British
Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba
while picking up eight in Ontario.

What was particularly significant about
the shift in NDP seats was the degree to
which they were tied to the overall outcome
and the dramatic decline of the Liberals.

The seats lost in the west were the result
of a decline of the Liberal vote — which
went in greater amount to the Tories than to
the NDP. In Kootenay East-Revelstoke, for
example, the seat formerly held by NDP Sid
Parker, the Liberals declined in popular
vote from 22 per cent in 1980 to 12 per cent
in 1984. Of that 10 per cent loss, one per cent
went to the NDP and nine per cent to the
Tories, giving Tory Ted Schellenberg the
seat.

In Kootenay West, a similar ten per cent
loss for the Liberals went two per cent to the
NDP and eight per cent to the Tories, edg-
ing out the incumbent NDP MP. Both seats
had been held by Tories before 1980.

In Ontario, where the New Democrats
picked up eight seats from the Liberals, the
Liberal votes went almost entirely to the
Tories — many of whom had runa distant
third in 1980 — but with the result that the
two old-line parties split the right vote, giv-
ing the NDP candidate the edge.

In Essex-Windsor, for example, Eugene
Whelan’s former seat, the Liberal popular
vote declined from 51 per cent to 29 per
cent. The 22 per cent different went entirely
to the previously third-place Tories with the
result that the right wing vote was almost
evenly divided between the Liberals and the
Tories. The NDP candidate whose vote
remained at roughly the 1980 level, was able
to capture the seat. And that story was
repeated elsewhere across the province.

Only in Ottawa Centre did NDP candi-
date Michael Cassidy increase the NDP

vote benefits Tories

vote significantly at the expense of the
Liberals.

The general pattern — a sharp Liberal
decline benefitting mainly the Tories —
emphasizes the danger in NDP leader Ed
Broadbent’s strategy, which was reiterated
after the election, of pressing for the com-
plete demise of the Liberal Party across
Canada. That policy, coupled as it was with
a policy shift within the NDP leadership
towards a more centrist platform, could
prove disastrous for the party.

In most of the ridings in Ontario where
the NDP was successful, it was the division
of the conservative vote between the Liber-
als and Tories which enabled the NDP to
make gains.

Across the country, without the Liberal
presence, the NDP would have been
reduced to a handful of seats, most of them
in the west. ,

On the other hand, in working-class rid-
ings where NDP candidates had identified
themselves as strong advocates of alterna-

tive economic policies, women’s rights, and _

disarmament — in Vancouver East, Bur-
naby and Vancouver-Kingsway, for instance
— they were successful in increasing their
majorities.

Many of the NDP strengths were pushed
to the background in the media concentra-’
tion on leaders and the trade union move-
ment particularly was reduced to the role of
supplying troops as trade union leaders
shied away from a public role in the election
campaign.

But whatever the reasons the election
result leaves Canadians with a Tory
government which comes into office with a
vague and often contradictory economic
policy, a large number of right-wing hawks
in its caucus — and the congratulations of
U.S. president Ronald Reagan with whom
Mulroney has already closely identified
himself.

Corporate backers of the party — whom
Mulroney has already assured will have
their favors returned — can be expected to
put major pressure on the new government
to shift quickly to the right and begin the
dismantling of such Liberal-created agen-
cies as FIRA and the National Energy
Program.

Conservative governments in the provin-
ces are also likely to join with multinational

corporations in pressing for increased pro-
vincial rights over resources, a policy which
would lead to further alienation unless
major public opposition can be mounted.

Of key importance will be the new
government’s direction in social policy.

The election will bring to Ottawa numer-
ous Tories who share with right-winger
John Crosbie a desire to put into effect
Socred-style cutbacks in medicare, family
allowances and other programs as well as
budget cuts for the Canada Council, the
CBC and other cultural agencies.

Mulroney has denied that the Tories have
any agenda for reducing or even revamping
social programs but the record of Tory and
Socred governments has demonstrated that
it will take considerable vigilance to prevent
the new government from following the
pattern of reducing social programs in order
to increase military expenditures and pro-
vide new tax breaks for- private enterprise.

Particularly critical are the Tories’
deferice and foreign policy postures, both of
which have been markedly pro-Reagan as
was demonstrated by Mulroney’s visit to
Washington earlier this year. The current
defence critic Harvey Andre and external
affairs critic Sinclair Stevens are among the
most right wing members in the caucus and
Andre is already on record advocating a
doubling of military expenditures over the
next three years.

At the same time, Mulroney was com-
pelled during the campaign to differentiate
himself from Reagan over policy in Central
America and a continuing campaign by the
peace movement — backed by 85 per cent
of Canadians who support a nuclear
freeze — could force a shift towards a pol-
icy of negotiation.

It is in the area of economic policy and
job creation that even those who voted Tory
have the great expectations and the new
government will be under pressure, despite
the size of its mandate, to deliver.

But the continuing economic crisis, the _

structural problems of the economy created
by multinational domination and high U.S.
interest rates will all weigh against the con-
tradictory policies outlined in Tory plans
and the fight for genuine job creation pro-
grams will continue. Certainly the role of
the labor movement, the unemployed and
the opposition both inside and outside Par-
liament will not be diminished after Sept. 4.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, SEPTEMBER 7, 1984 3