While the Tories poll gaze and play
games with voters over the impending elec-
tion date, there’s been talk of time lines,
Media strategies and target dates humming
in backrooms across the country. All these
hushed tones are aimed at producing a roar
Once the writs are dropped.

The government which ushered in “rule
by consultation and consensus” has been
Most successful at making people mad.

_ there isn’t an interest group in the country

that hasn’t been stepped on by Mulroney or
One of his cabinet collegues and memories
are long.
_ Anti-poverty groups to environmental-
Ists, Natives and trade unionists, women
and tenants, farmers and peace activists,
Students and pensioners have reached
Unanimous agreement — another Tory
Majority would be a disaster and they’re out
to make sure it doesn’t happen.

Although emphasis on the issues differ,

- Consistent throughout the campaigns is the
aim to expose Tory hypocrisy and unmask
the real agenda behind the Conservative’s

Policy initiatives.

Everyone appreciates this will be no easy
task, The government has spent the past
year manoeuvreing to produce a tight
Media strategy — a list of actions it can
thyme off, claiming to cover all the bases of
Canadian concerns.

The prime minister was in Toronto last
Week trying it out in front of a lunchtime
Meeting of the Empire Club and Canadian
Clubs of Canada. The pitch was short and
Sweet — look how bad things were when

€ took office —a big deficit, record
unemployment and inflation. Now every-
thing is good and promises to get better.

It’s having an effect — as the govern-
Ment spends in socially-related areas its
Popularity inches forward. :

But key to the party’s electoral success is
to avoid at all costs any close scrutiny of the
facts, This is the Tory Achilles heel the pop-
ular movements have aimed at.

Exposing not only the hollowness, but
the danger in the government’s programs, is
Impossible in a 30-second TV clip, which is
Why groups have adopted a “people-to-
People” approach.

_ The largest of the anti-Tory movements
1S the Pro-Canada Network. Established
following the prime minister’s announce-
Ment of the free trade agreement, it is prob-
ably the largest, most comprehensive
Coalition ever to come together in Canadian

Story. Incorporating almost every national

Organization in the country, its aim has been

to force the government to call an election

mare the pact comes into affect on Jan. 1,

The Network has given rise to a new line
ee

WHAT'S

ANU NRY
Ns SaG aN
We RUST he
AVERIEANS.
ON FREE
TRADE?

Te
JONG
At

sae

Some straightforward
questions and answers on

| _ free trade.

Aislin cartoon on the cover of the forth-
Coming booklet on free trade slated for
sertion in every major paper in the
Country.

Canada

Groups gearing up to take on Tories

of catchy buttons and clothing, sporting the
American flag and a favourite colloquialism
in English-Canada “No, eh?.” Its leaders, a
mix of political stripes, have been on a non-
stop speakers circuit. There have been dem-
onstrations, pickets and the House of
Commons has been flooded with petitions
demanding an election call. Now the organ-
ization is out to convince the undecided that
the deal is bad and they should cast their
vote accordingly.

Coming out soon is a 24-page booklet —
”What’’s the big deal?” slated for distribu-
tion with every major newspaper in the
country. Illustrated by the Montreal
Gazette’s cartoonist, Aislin, and with a
script by playwright Rick Salutin, it goes
after the pact using a popular question and

’ answer format.

Still other organizations are zeroing in on
particular sections of the agreement to
rouse voter wrath. The Affordable Housing
Work Group Against the Free Trade
Agreement has put together a leaflet geared
to tenants and homeowners. Its message is
free trade will “seriously erode every Cana-
dian’s ability to provide and maintain
affordable housing.”

The housing crisis has also given rise to

EACH, the Election Agenda on Canadian |
‘Housing, a coalition of housing, anti-

poverty and women’s groups who joined to
highlight the plight of 500,000 Canadian
households who live without affordable,
adequaté shelter. EACH maintains any
future government should recognize affor-
dable housing as a human right and adopta
“housing first” policy when it comes to sur-
plus federal land.

A kingpin in his campaign strategy,
Prime Minister Mulroney is adamant that
the Canada Child Care Act become law
before he names the election date. If the bill
does reach Royal Assent, day care activists
are prepared to let voters know it’s not
worth the paper it’s printed on. Members of
the Canadian Day Care Advisory Associa-
tion will cut the act into paper dolls and
string them wherever the PM or his Tory
candidates are found.

The day care bill is probably among the
most graphic examples of government dis-
regard for constituents. Two task forces
held cross-country hearings and reported to
Parliament, but the legislation contains
every negative feature the government was
told to avoid. Groups also predict the bill
sets a precedent for absolving the federal
government of future responsibility for
social programs.

The peace movement also goes graphic
on its “Subs or Social Services Day.” At
public displays voters will be invited to take
$8-billion off a mock giant nuclear sub and
transfer it to their favourite social service —
health, education, housing, child care.

The Canadian Peace Alliance launched
its Canadian Peace Pledge Campaign last
year. So far, 75,000 voters in 147 federal
riding have taken the pledge to support only
those candidates who back a_nuclear-
weapons free role for Canada.

Stickers, buttons, ads and placards will
remind Canadians to “vote for peace.”
CPA groupsare polling candidates on their
attitudes towards disarmament issues.
Organizers see as vital, since four out of 10
Canadians say disarmament will be a decid-
ng factor in how they vote.

While the Conservatives have seen their
ortunes rise on some questions, defence is
yne area’ where they’ve consistently lost

ground. The most notable drop in support
has been around the purchase of nuclear-
powered submarines, which has been put
off at least until after the election.

Its desire to avoid the issue is undoubt-
edly behind the party’s refusal to allow the
prime minister to take part in a leaders’
debate on foreign policy and defence issues.
Both NDP leader Ed Broadbent and Lib-
eral leader John Turner have agreed to a
debate.

The PM has looked more favourably at a
debate on women’s issue — a longas itisn’t
sponsored by the National Action Commit-
tee on the Status of Women. During the
1984 election campaign, Canada became
the first country ever to devote an entire
leaders’ debate solely to women’s issues.
NAC was the initiator.

Mulroney’s office says he will participate
in a network-sponsored debate, knowing
the stations would refuse. Sources say Mul-
roney may be stalling while his strategists
pull together another women’s coalition
more friendly to the party who could host
the event.

NAC says it has its own plans to embar-
rass the PM into consenting. In the mean-
time it is busy mobilizing its 600-member

groups to make it known that “Women
Vote!”

Shocking pink buttons, t-shirts will help,
but so will the “Equality Accord” candi-
dates are asked to sign. The accord commits
the candidate to tearing up the free trade
agreement, scrapping the child care act,
guaranteeing reproductive rights and taking
meaningful steps to end violence against
women.

While most campaigns are non-partisan
the Canadian Labour Congress and most of
its affiliates are delivering a straight “vote
Ed” message. Trade unionists will be on the
phones to their co-workers urging them to
support the NDP candidate in their riding.

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers
is spending $3 million to make the govern-
ment’s privatization plans a focus in the
election debates. And the Public Service
Alliance of Canada, representing federal
government workers, wants the muzzle
taken off their members, allowing them to
participate fully in the political process.

It all adds up to an exciting 50 days.
There ‘won’t be anywhere in the country
from a church basement to country club
where the prime minister will be able to
escape all the angry people.

Senate asked to
block day care bill

Child care activists put the pressure on
Liberal Senate leader Allan MacEachen
to stall passage of the Conservatives’
child care legislation. The bill made it
through third reading in the Commons
last week with the Liberals and New
Democrats voting in opposition.

Activists want the Senate to hold its
own hearings on the implications of the
Canada Child Care Act. “This is a very
crucial piece of legislation,” said Sue Col-
ley of the Ontario Coalition for Better
Day Care. “Certainly the democratic
process should allow for a full public
discussion.”

Introduced in August, the $6.4-billion
spending package went through the
Commons steps in record time, allowing
for only two days of public hearings in
Ottawa. Prime Minister Brian Mulroney
has emphasized he wants the Act passed
before a federal election is called.

Union backs
broadcast changes

Amendments to the Broadcast Act,
including a strengthened role for the
CBC, affirmative action for women and
minorities and limitations on the federal
cabinet’s power to influence CRTC mat-
ters, have been welcomed by the head of
the actors’ union (ACTRA).

But two weak areas remain, says
Garry Neil — a greater role for private
cable TV operators, and no increase in
the amount of resources private tele-
vision is required to contribute to Cana-
dian programming.

Cable TV should be limited to its exist-
ing community services role, says Neil.
Private stations should be required to
program 45 per cent Canadian content
during prime time in each calendar quar-
ter, he said.

Jobless rate
hits women

More women than men got spit out on
the unemployment lines when there was
a burp in the economy last month.
Unemployment rates went up a quarter
to half a per cent across the country, but
the women’s employment rate rose by
almost a full per cent, leaving 76,000
more women looking for work, says Sta-
tistics Canada.

In a related report, Statscan found a
record number of mothers in the work-
force: 72 per cent of married women with
children under 16 worked during 1986,
while 87 per cent of women 16 to 24 were
in the workforce.

Most significant was the wage gap
between unionized and non-unionized
female workers. Non-unionized women
workers are the lowest paid in the coun-
try, making about 60 per cent of the
wages of their unionized sisters.

Halifax CP
names candidate

Miguel Figueroa has been named the
Communist Party candidate in Halifax
riding. The 36-year-old journalist, an
activist in the peace and solidarity
movements, joins the 50 other candi-
dates running on the Communist ticket.

Figueroa says the government’s poli-
cies of free trade, the Meech Lake
Accord, defence policy and privatization
“spell disaster for the country, but per-
haps its most serious impact will be felt
here in the Atlantic provinces,” he said.

“Free trade and Meech Lake will
totally undermine the basis for regional
development in the east, while militariza-
tion and privatization will bring long-
term pain in terms of job loss in the
Maritimes.”

The candidate will champion the re-
establishment of a Canadian merchant
marine. “Let us build ships, constructed
and crewed by Canadian workers —
ships to carry goods to our domestic
markets and for peaceful trade with all
other countries around the globe — not
subs which would only entangle Canada
further in the U.S. nuclear war-fighting
strategy and the madness of the arms
race.”

Pacific Tribune, October 3, 1988 ¢ 5