“Trudeaumania undoubtedly was an
important ingredient in the Liberal
victory,” said William Kashtan at the
Central Committee meeting of the

Communist Party of Canada, in Tor-.

onto last weekend.

Following are some excerpts of his ©

report.
ON THE ELECTIONS

- The projection of a new image, 2
Swinger, a man with a radical back-
ground, undoubtedly swung sections of
young people, intellectuals and others
over to the Liberal camp- To them
_Trudeaumania spelled change, an end
to old politics and the beginning of
new politics. The fact that Liberal
Party policy had not changed, that
old politics still carried the day, did
not seem to be noticed, attesting to
the power of mass media in putting
something over.

The Liberal Party position on One
Canada, coupled with its conservative
stance on economic and social ques-
tions, for example, Mr. Trudeau’s call
for fiscal integrity, a balanced budget,
restraint, no more social welfare pro-
grams until the economy expanded
enough to afford them, made it the
preferred party of monopoly in this
election. It was no accident that some
of the influential Conservative press
threw its weight behind Mr. Trudeau.
Neither was it an accident to see the
positive reaction in the Toronto stock
market the following day where more
than 946 million dollars was added to
the paper value of industrial shares
following upon the election of the Lib-
eral majority. Obviously monopoly felt
it had nothing to fear from such 2
majority.

What finally determined the out-
come of the election for the Liberal
Party was its position on what was in
fact the central issue of this election—
English-French Canadian relations. By
coming out for One ‘Canada, One Na-
and no special status for Quebec, the
Liberal Party placed the Conservative
and NDP parties on the defensive be-
cause of their wrong policies. Under
this umbrella it was able to extend its
electoral support in English speaking
Canada, help its positions in French
Canada, primarily because of the shift
of English speaking constituencies in
Quebec away from the Tories and to
the Liberals, and gain substantial sup-
port from the ethnic group community
throughout the country. = :

Nevertheless some significant shifts

in voting patterns emerged jn this
election.
_ For one thing Social Credit disap-
peared as a political, party in the
federal arena with its supporters in
Alberta mainly voting Conservative
and in B.C. voting Liberal. The shift of
Social Credit voters to the Liberal
Party was an important factor in
checking the NDP in B.C,

The Progressive Conservative Party,
notwithstanding its new image, was
unable to win one seat in the major
urban centres and lost support in tra-

ditional Conservative seats in English -

speaking Canada, due in general to its
ambiguous and two faced position on
the two nations of our country. Thus
the main electoral base of the Con-
servative Party has placed it in the
position of becoming a party of the
Tural areas and small towns.

On the one hand the Tory-Social
Credit marriage in Alberta may résult
in pressures to shift the Progressive
Conservative Party to the right, along
the lines of Premier Manning’s “new
political realignment.”

The most significant feature of the
election however, is the fact that the
Liberal stratagem was able, for the
time being, to check the growing turn
away of Canadians from the old line
parties, a process which was most
clearly evidenced in the increased vote
for the NDP in the 1965 elections.

The outcome of the election may see

movement, stimulated by the Liberal
and Conservative parties, to break
away from support of the NDP while
within the NDP a struggle over policy
and orientation may well develop
masked behind the fight over leader-
ship of that Party. Actually such a
struggle has already begun. Mr. Steph-
en Lewis, one of the aspirants to
leadership of the NDP posed the ques-
tion: which way for the NDP by de-
claring: “There are too many parties
clouding up the political centre. The
place in the political spectrum for us

_ is to take up a radical posture on

issues.”

One could agree with Mr. Lewis.
The social democratic parties of West-
ern Europe are indeed in deep crisis
because right wing leadership and pol-

icy have been directed to saving .

WILLIAM KASHTAN

capitalism and making it work in the
interests of monopoly,

' The election of Mr. Trudeau, despite
his radical background, does _ not
change the fact that the Liberal Party
is the preferred party of monopoly.

THE ECONOMIC SITUATION

Unemployment which jis already
high is expected to rise to 6 percent
of the labor force this autumn, affect-
ing workers in manufacturing as well
as young people. Unemployment is
rising because more young workers
are entering the labor force and be-
cause of a faster displacement of
workers as a result of automation,
rationalization and mechanization.
What this reflects is the fact that the
economy is not expanding. This is
borne out by the GNP which may in-
crease by 8 percent this year but half
of which, that is, 4 percent, represents
an inflationary rise in prices. Actually
the growth rate will be closer to 314
percent, far, far short of what is
needed to ensure employment for a
growing labor force, let alone maintain
existing employment levels. This sit-
uation is likely to be aggravated by
jack of wheat sales and declining farm
\ comes.

Moreover the anti-inflationary pol-
icies of the U.S. Government and the
uncertain economic situation in the
United States, further aggravated by
the possible election of a Nixon Ad-
ministration, may have further nega-
tive effects on the-Canadian economy
and employment prospects. Nor has
the dollar and gold crisis disappeared.

In today’s conditions of rising un-
employment a balanced budget and an
austerity program which stands in
sharp contradiction to the Govern-
ment’s pledge of a Just Society which
is the surest way of making unem-
ployment worse. Provincial Govern-
ments are pursuing a similar course,
also seeking to balance budgets by
cutting down on
projectsi:.722 33} : t193

The situation will be further aggra-
vated by proposals

socially useful

now being advanc-

ed to increase taxes federally even
though working people. are today
working four months of the year just
to pay taxes. A latest example of this
is the proposal by a Committee of the
Ontario legislature to impose a tax on
drugs, food and children’s clothing,
proposals which should be most vig-
orously opposed by the labor move-
ment, consumers and housewives.

The Government talks glibly about
a Just Society but advances no pro-
gram to deal with widespread poverty
or with the acute housing needs of:
large numbers of Canadians. The recent
report of the. Economic Council on
poverty highlights the fact that we are
not faced with pockets but with mass-
scale poverty embracing 20 percent of
the population. This report exposes the
lie about the affluent society, about
equality of opportunity for all, about
the humane qualities of capitalism and
about capitalism itself which breeds
poverty while making the rich richer.

This callous disregard of people is adds °

ed to by an equally callous disregard
of the housing needs of a large number
of Canadians, seen in the fact that
$85.00 per capita is spent yearly in

. defense while only 11 cents goes for
public housing.

Everywhere the thesis is being ad-
vanced that monopoly which controls
the economy and Governments, is too
weak and that labor is too strong.
Under this smokescreen, legislation is
being pressed for which would take
away labor’s right to organize, to
strike and to bargain collectively. This
anti-labor drive is aimed at imposing
compulsory arbitration not only on
government and public employees but
on all workers, as Bill 33 in B.C.
already shows. If the Rand proposals
are adopted tribunals would decide
what is in the public interest in deter-
mining whether workers could strike
or not. In these conditions, the rejection
of every move aimed at imposing state
regulation over the trade union move-
ment is decisive if the working class is
to challenge the power of monopoly
and if the trade unions are to maintain
their independence,

The Government could begin to get
at these problems by overhauling the
taxation system and increasing taxes
on corporate and individual incomes of
the wealthy, and by a capital gains tax.
In fact, a capital gains tax could in
large measure pay for medicare. It
could have additional funds for social-
ly useful projects if it curtailed its
military - expenditures, withdrew the
Canadian troops from West Germany
and Canada from NATO.

FOR AN INDEPENDENT
FOREIGN POLICY

Of particular significance is the

Presidential contest in the USA which
-seems to favor not only Mr. Nixon but
a conservative, even reactionary Con-
gress and the ultra-right gathered
around Mr. Wallace. :

What this presages, unless a decisive
turn in U.S, politics takes place, is that
conditions are being created for a re-
turn to the cold war or worse, while
within the U.S.A., a rightist orientation
is being pressed for on which neo-
fascism finds nourishment and support.

Nor can one ignore the efforts of
the U.S.A. and West Germany to put
“muscle” into NATO and overcome its
inner crisis. West German militarism
is now pressing for a revision of
NATO with the aim of strengthening
its role in that body and giving it ac-
cess to nuclear arms.

One cannot close one’s eyes to what
is the most important feature of im-
perialist tactics at this stage—the sys-
tematic efforts aimed at undermining
the socialist countries from within,
soften them up, divide them, using its
“bridge building,” not to'strengthen co-
operation with the socialist countries
on the basis of peaceful coexistence,
but to undermine them, one by one. **

The events in Czecho

slovakia can- —

Mi

not be looked upon i ery ; :
the over-al] Pon in isolation from

international situation,

change in the p
strengthen its

) the Democratic Re:
ube of Vietnam, by unconditionally
ending its bombing, and the prospects
of a further escalati ova

d on of the -war ul:
less world ins
US. i Public opinion can. compel

the AS imperialism, in
i Taeli Government,
Middle ‘he flames of: war, into. the
pan mee again, seen in the efforts
eter pen Security Count
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All these event bots) a
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mand that the 1;°. °XiSts in the de

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governments ee lai pe | theif
Nations, in reco 1d Outside.the United

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with respect ted in different ways
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