Canada/Letters

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NDP leaders shunned
debate on trade deal

Continued from page 12

indsor, a few days

before the election and

Ed meets with high

school students. Not

workers at a plant gate,
or local union leadership.

Let me relate a personal experience.
CAW had a Constitutional Convention
in Ottawa, November 7,8, and 9. Ed had
been scheduled to speak before the elec-
tion was called. The previous 10 days
hadn’t been good days for the party.
Michael Wilson was attacking the auto
pact, etc. I strongly suggested that it
would be good for Ed and our party, to
speak to our convention, that it repres-
ented a diverse group of workers from
Newfoundland to British Columbia, and
that we would open it up to the Ottawa
riding associations and other labour
groups.

A few days before the convention, I
was advised that Stephen Lewis would
be our guest speaker. He was great, but
even he wondered why not Ed. This deci-
sion was clearly based on not being seen

__ with “Big Labour,” when in fact I would
"argue we had excellent credentials across
Canada and Ed personally would have
received a real boost in the final few days.
Again, this decision was not an accident
or mistake. It was a conscious decision.

What about the last few weeks of the
campaign? While most agreed the
debates amongst the leaders thrust
Turner front and centre, with the anti-
free trade issue, the strategic reaction by
our campaign was in my opinion, ridicu-
lous.

All of a sudden, Turner and the Lib-
eral became the party we were running
against, even to the extent that we were
joining with the Tories’ cry of “why
doesn’t he tell Canadians how he is going

to pay for the promises the Liberals are.

making?” By adopting this strategy, all
We did was move votes to the Tories,
because people concerned about the
Costs of Liberal promises certainly wer-
€n’t going to vote NDP. We then fol-
lowed up with the tired slogan which
didn’t work, of Bay Street, Wall Street,
and Main Street, but by then it didn’t
Matter much. We had lost the issue and
the momentum, yet we were still talking
about getting the largest number of seats.
We had some bright spots in the elec-
tion results. B.C. where our candidates
and the B.C. Federation of Labour
Played the free trade issue well, but also,
We were the beneficiaries of the Reform
Party taking votes away from the Tories.
In Saskatchewan where Grant Devine,
and quite frankly, where initially our
Own party had thought the free trade
_ issue would hurt the NDP, it turned out
that the anti free trade movement helped
€normously. Of course, the Liberals were
Not a serious factor in either of these
Provinces.
In Quebec, although we did somewhat
tter in the popular vote, we were, in
Spite of the large amount of money spent,
Shut out. I don’t think we will ever face
another situation in Quebec, where the
Conservative Party federally, the Liberal

in key labour rallies

government provincially, and the 0;
provincially, all the business community,
and all the newspapers speaking with one
voice, as they did on free trade. The
bright development in Quebec was the
support for the NDP by the FTQ, the
Quebec Federation of Labour.

In Atlantic Canada and Newfound-
land, it was obvious that in spite of
attempts by the pro free trades to con-
vince this section of Canada that free
trade would be better for them, the anti-
free trade votes prevailed and most went
to the Liberals.

In Ontario, in spite of our efforts, we
saw thousands of our votes go to the
Liberals because they had clearly identi-
fied with the free trade issue.

Why we didn’t get out front and critic-
ize the corporations’ spending programs
and attempted threats. of what would
happen without free trade, was beyond
me.

t certainly was out of
character to hear John
Turner attacking the
business community
for their multi-million
dollar ad campaigns, but it worked.
We now have in Canada, whether we
like it or not, a situation where we have

10 seats representing 75 per cent of the
population, and our popular vote
increased marginally over all, since 1984.

The tragedy of this election and the
strategy carried out is that, in my opin-
ion, it was a once in 25 to 30 year oppor-
tunity. We will not have in the near
future, another issue like free trade where
there will be so much unanimity in the
labour movement, both at the top
nationally, at the local and provincial
level, and at the workplace level, and to
pretend otherwise is to ignore realities,

This issue was not, as some tried to
make, complex and complicated. The
vast majority of working Canadians
were opposed, and our party, quite
frankly, didn’t come to grips with its
importance, its emotion, because we
were trying to finesse our way through
the election without making this the key
fight. And that is why the results of this
election have created so much deep dis-
appointment.

everal of the NDP can-
didates made the trade
issue the key plank, but
they needed the sup-
port and the profile of
a strong anti-free trade campaign.
There are a lot of people inside the
,NDP who must make up their minds
‘Are we going to be a party that tries to
finesse our way through, with the
thought that we will be a serious con-
tender for the government of Canada, or
are we going to be a party that clearly
knows the importance of representing
working people, that recognizes the
importance of the labour movement, not
just for its financial support, but for its
ideas, and its leadership, as an important

part of the success of the NDP. We need
to have a long, hard discussion about our
future.

Had we conducted our campaign
mainly on the free trade issue, would the
results have been different? I think so.
But one thing is clear. Our troops would
have felt that we made the best fight
possible on behalf of working people and
in the interests of the kind of Canada we
want, and our base of support would
have grown from which to build. Defeat
is not the issue here. Strategy, timing,
direction, and input are. This party
doesn’t belong to a handful of people
who ultimately think they have all the
answers on ads, election policies, strategy
and co-ordination. We must have a tho-
rough discussion at the NDP executive
and the NDP council, as to why we are
where we are after the 1988 election and
what we are going to do about it.

I have not mentioned the question of
leadership in this letter because there are
some who would like to review the
results of 1988 and determine how much
of the responsibility rests with the leader,
and that it’s time for a change. This dis-
cussion must be held regardless of what
decision Ed Broabent decides to make
and he should be party to the discussion.

he reason an imminent

discussion is important

is because if Ed does

decide to leave in the

future, this debate must
take place before leadership candidates’
points of view would be dismissed as
internal political building.

I don’t want this letter in any way to
Suggest that we give up building a strong
social democratic movement, or that we
give up the fight on the effect of the trade
deal, because in many ways a lot of the
important issues are still ahead of us.

I watched when the NDP lost the

‘government of Manitoba and asked

myself why wasn’t a better Strategy fol-
lowed, rather than depend on an unreli-
able MLA to pass a budget. I heard the
rumblings of discontent, but kept quiet.

These latest results, quite frankly,
cannot be allowed to be brushed aside
with statements about bleeding a while
and rising to fight again.

It was not an easy decision to commit
this to writing, but believe me, the sense
of frustration and disappointment is
widespread, and to ignore it will be at the
peril of our party.

After we have had the appropriate
discussions about election 1988, we need
a thorough discussion and examination
of where we go from here.

Can we seriously say we will be build-
ing to forma national government soon?

Are we going to bea party that clearly
identifies with working people?

What really is the role of the labour
movement inside the party?

How do we in future campaigns,
insure that the leader, the tour and the
Strategists are not insulated from other
points of view?

ESS

Paper useful
to unionists

The results of the federal election have

given rise to an even greater need fora press
that truly reflects the interests of the work-
ing class.

As a member of our local union’s Politi-

cal Action Committee, (Local 514, Cana-
dian Paperworkers’ Union) the Tribune
serves as an excellent reliable source of
information,
Labour Congress and provincial federation
press releases, which allows the committee
to report events and developments of inter-
est to our membership in an informed and
factual way.

supplementing Canadian

Of,special interest at this time, are your

articles on the abuses of the forest manage-
ment licenses, particularly to those of us
employed in the forest industry. They serve
well to offset the barrage of industry hype
with which we are currently being bom-
barded. Suffice it to say that if the industry
devoted the funds and energies to improy-
ing harvesting practices that they do bam-
boozling the public, the situation would be.
indeed, much improved.

Keep up the good work.

Karl Ettinger,
Port Alice

U.S. costs show

threat of deal

Recently a friend of mine whom I hadn’t

seen for a long time related to me an inci-
dent which I think would be of interest to
Tribune readers.

Several winters ago, as he drove through

the U.S. in a snow storm, the roads became
impassable so he decided to stop over and
booked into a motel for the night. However,
the ordeal of driving through the storm had
exhausted him and he felt ill so he called an
ambulance and had himself taken to a hos-
pital some 10 minutes away from the motel.

The doctor spend five minutes with him,

told him he should go on a diet as he is
overweight and didn’t even prescribe any-
thing else for him. So after spending a night
in the hospital he drove home.

The ambulance charged him $550 — for

a 10-minute drive. The hospital charge was
$960 and the doctor's bill was $175, making
a total of $1,685! Aren’t we fortunate that
with free trade we might be able to look
forward to the standards of the “Land of
the Free?”

Karl Zuker
Vancouver

Members of Arts
Players sought

lama graduate student at the University

of Victoria, researching the unemployed
movement in Vancouver during the 1930s.

In this regard, I am anxious to contact

anyone who was active in the Progressive
Arts Players, or remembers performances
given by this group.

If you are willing to share your experien-

ces of the workers’ theatre with me. please
contact me through the History Depart-
ment, University of Victoria, Box 1700, Vic-
toria, V8W 2Y2.

A thank you to the Tribune, and all those

who respond to his letter.

Bonita Bray,
Victoria

Pacific Tribune, December 19, 1988 « 13