ELECTION |

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Turner, Mulroney speak for corporations

» The more I see John Turner and Brian Mulroney on TV or read about them in the press, the higher my blood pressure mounts. It’s not that I’m uninterested in the federal election or its outcome; it’s the frustration of being unable to learn any- thing from them as to what they really stand for, or what the real issues are that face Canadians in this election.

It’s hard to get excited about Mulro- ney’s charge of patronage against the Lib- erals (of which the Liberals are certainly guilty) when you know darn well that the _ first thing Mulroney would do if he became prime minister would be to fire all the Liberals in top civil service positions and replace them with Tories.

It’s clear to me that the main concern of — Mulroney and Turner is to conceal what ~

they really intend to do when and if elected: In the meantime they come out with pious platitudes and generalities that tell us next to nothing. The corporate- controlled media is going along with them

too; instead of calling attention to the big ©

issues facing the country it carries stupid stories about the prime minster 's alleged

propensity for bum-patting. Both Mulroney and Turner are jaiking about the federal deficit as if it were the number one issue in this campaign. What they are really doing is softening us up for the idea that the deficit can only be brought down if federal funding for such social services as education, health and

unemployment insurance are cut. Neither .

of them say anything about cutting the deficit by ending the unwarranted tax cuts given to big corporations or the equally unwarranted welfare grants of billions of dollars to big corporations in financial trouble.

The visits of both Mulroney and Turner to see Reagan in Washington were to assure the U.S. that any existing obstacles to further U.S. control of our economy would be removed, and that Canada would increase its military expenditures and even actively join with the U.S. in its insane preparations for star wars.

Has it not become increasingly clear to Canadians that both Mulroney and Turner are corporate executives out to serve only big business, involve us even

more in Reasail s mad scheme for a first strike nuclear war against the Soviet Union and place the whole burden of the depression on ordinary Canadiaris?

The two key issues in this campaign are peace and jobs and they go'together. Mul- roney and Turner have answers for. neither. Peace means that money now wastefully diverted to arms could be used °

Harry Rankin

to provide jobs, to undertake a large refo- restation program in B.C. that would pro- vide thousands of young people with jobs at decent wages and save our forests, to provide affordable housing for all, to modernize our plants:and mills and keep them operating, to build a Canadian mer- chant marine crewed by Canadians, to

“build up a manufacturing industry in B.C.

_ require drastic tax reform to compel big:

. taxes.

* would also make it possible to wring a few ©

which is the only sure way to create the necessary jobs..

These kinds of policies would require an end to U.S. domination of our economy, an independent foreign policy free.of U.S. control, nationalization of the banks and multinational corporations. It would also

corporations to pay their fair share of taxes and to cough up the approximately $30 billion they now owe in deferred profit -

As I see it, the best possible outcome of this election (given the present politi situation) would be the election of 4 minority government (and since we have to choose ‘between the two, the Liberals — would probably be preferable), the defeat of both national party leaders, and with the balance of power being held by the NDP. For the time being at least this would prevent a Turner or Mulroney giving us the same treatment that Bennett gave US after his election under false pretences. It

concessions for people from an unwilling — EOveeanicoh

‘Don’t give Liberals or Tories majority’ = - CP

Communist Party leader Bill Kashtan

swung through several British Columbia ridings last week, emphasizing to voters “the urgent need for a different direction in policy” and calling on them to deny either the Liberals or the Tories a majority government.

Following a press conference and an elec- tion rally in Vancouver Monday, Kashtan was off to meetings and interviews in

Nanaimo, Parsville, Port Alberni and Cour- tenay. He addressed a news conference and an election meeting at Surrey’s Kwantlen College Aug. 1, together with Surrey- White

Rock-North Delta and Fraser. Valley West

CP candidates Ray Viaud and Viola Swann, before returning to Toronto early Thursday.

Among the events on Vancouver Island |

were open air meetings in Nanaimo and

. Port Alberni.

Throughout the brief tour — Kashtan will come through B.C. again during the campaign, on Aug. 24 and 25 — the CP leader reiterated the party’s emphasis on the themes of jobs and peace.

_ He also emphasized the party’s callfora - . repudiation of the two old-line parties and

the need to elect a large progressive bloc, including Communists.

News blackout protested

The Communist Party’s B.C. cam- paign committee filed formal complaints with major broadcast and print media as well as the Candian Radio-television and Telecomrhunications Commission last week protesting the lack of responsible coverage given the party in the election campaign and the virtual black-out of federal leader Bill Kashtan’s B.C. tour.

In letters sent July 31 to BCTV, CBC- TV.and CK VU as well as the Vancouver Sun and Province, campaign manager Donalda Viaud stated: “Despite numer- ous press releases and statements outlin- ing the Communist Party campaign and candidates running, we continue to be blacked out.

“The practice of denying all points of view to be heard and seen by the Cana- dian public is totally undemocratic,” she said.

Viaud said the campaign committee was particularly disturbed by the almost total lack of coverage given the B.C. visit of federal leader Bill Kashtan. =

The various media were sent announce- ments of his visit as well as a detailed itinerary and were later contacted by telephone.

But with the exception of a brief report on two radio stations, his visit — which included a public rally, press conferen- ces, and appearances at such places as the Vancouver Unemployment Action * Centre — was blacked out by the major news media.

“The Vancouver Sun did run a brief and obviously truncated story on the Communist Party’s participation in the election but ignored Kashtan’s appear- ances. An interview was scheduled but

: told the Tribune.

when Viaud phoned to confirm, she-was _. |.

told that the reporter had been re- assigned. She was later informed that the interview was cancelled, on the basis that a story on the CP campaign had already appeared. : That was despite detailed — and con- tinuing — coverage given the leaders of the three major political parties. Coverage has also extended — part- icularly by the three television stations — to the various antics of the Rhinoce- ros Party which has gained attention because of the commercial media’s attraction to the unusual and the bizarre. But the election platforms put forward by the Communist Party and, to a sim- ilar extent, the Green Party, have been

passed over. “The fact is we’re being excluded from the major news outlets — the main ones

that the public sees and reads,” Viaud ©

She contrasted the approach taken By the major news media with that taken by local cable stations which have endea- vored to provide a forum for genuine election debate, covering all-candidates meetings, making time available for on- air candidates’ forums and interviewing individual candidates.

CKYVU did set up a two-hour debate on the peace issue — but confined it to the three major parties, excluding both the CP and the Green Party, both of which have devoted primary attention to disarmament issues in the election.

Viaud said a letter was sent to the CRTC Aug. | protesting the lack of cov- erage and calling on the commission to take steps to ensure fair coverage.

2 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, AUGUST 8, 1984

“‘We said earlier this year that the election

of Turner as Liberal leader. would mean |

that there would be less and less difference between. the policies of the Liberals and those of the Tories,” Kashtan told an elec- tion rally audience in Vancouver July 30.

“And in the election campaign, there are no real differences between Turner and Mulroney — on oil prices, on their support for cruise missile testing, on NATO spending.

“That’s why we’re calling on voters to,

deny the Liberals and Tories a majority — because their policies are not in the inter- ests of Canadians, because both of them

. have ‘hidden agendas’ ” he said. ; In both the meetings and later press con- ©

- ferences, Kashtan criticized the job training _ program outlined by Turner, emphasizing ©

that it would sidestep the unemployment problem.

“You can. become a erravic or a plumber — but what good does it do you if there are no jobs?” he asked.

“Programs like that don’t mean anything unless they’re tied to a full’ employment

policy — and the Liberals and Tories don’t have one,” he said. ~°

Kashtan told audiences that the CP was calling for a reduced work week without reduction in pay and increased pension

_ payments to encourage older workers to

seek early retirement — measures, which,

he said, could provide an bnmediate, - 200,000 jobs.

In addition, he told reporters at a press conference Aug. 1, unemployment insu- rance payments should be increased to 90 per cent of earnings and maintained for the duration of unemployment. .

Asked ‘where. the money would come |

from, Kashtan noted that the Liberals and Tories “have warned about the deficit but at the same time, they’re both talking about doubling military expenditures. And the Liberals gave $1.3 billion to Canadair.

“So apparently there is money — but when the programs are in the interests of the

- Canadian people, we’re told 10 tighten our ~ belts.”

The CP leader irned that there would be increased calls for working people to tighten their belts, as ‘‘all the economic pre- dictions are saying that any chance of rec- overy is out the window.

- “The crisis is going to be made worse by © _ the policies of the Reagan administration, - on protectionism, increasing interest rates

and massive military expenditures,” he warned.

“And that’s why we need policies of real change,” Kashtan emphasized, pointing to

BILL . KASTHAN...Tumer’s jobs program means little without a full employment policy:

‘the need for democratic nationalization ‘genuine Canadianization of resources aS means to address the economic crisis.

It’s for that reason that the party is put ting forward candidates in. the election rather than “just getting behind the “NDP,” he said, although he emphasized that the party was urging voters to give “criti support” to NDP candidates where thet® was no CP candidate. /

That support — backing candidates while criticizing NDP policy ‘shortcoming’ — occasioned comments from NDP lead Ed Broadbent who terms Kashtan’s. remarks “the kiss of death” and told a radio : audience that the NDP “doesn’t need theif support — they may as well vote for the Tories.”

“What would Broadbent have us do: give no support or give “quiet support?” K

_ tan asked. He emphasized that either altel”

native would mean “no policy at all.”

He noted that Broadbent, despite the NDP’s position on disarmament, had 1° given much emphasis to peace issues during the debate and had not gone after Turn! and Mulroney for their positions on the cruise and NATO spending. :

“The Communist Party is putting peace in the forefront,” Kashtan said, pointing out that it would not only be campaigning for a'cancellation of the cruise testing and the designation of Canada as a nucleat weapons free zone but would also be ae ing for the adoption of a no-first-use polic: and a“a nuclear freeze on a world scale.”