OCTOBER 9 – On October 14, voters throughout Canada will be summoned to the polls to elect a new bourgeois government. Feeling the wind in its sails at the end of the summer, the Conservative Party (CPC) cabinet of Stephen Harper moved quickly to call elections, catching unprepared their rivals in the “opposition” parties: the Liberal Party of Canada (LPC), the New Democratic Party (NPD), the Bloc Québécois (BQ) and the Green Party. In order to bring this off, Harper did not hesitate to violate his own law instituting elections at a fixed date. It’s hardly surprising coming from a capitalist politician.

Since opinion polls indicated that there is a very good chance a majority Conservative (Tory) government will take office after October 14, that was all it took to unleash an intense campaign to “keep out the Conservatives” and “stop the right.” The reformist left – including, among others, the union federations (FTQ, CSN, CSQ), various popular groups, feminist organizations and social-democrats from around the country – mobilized to denounce the rightist policies of the Conservative Party and to drive it out of power, calling for a “strategic vote.” Their watchword is “Stop Harper.”

There is no doubt that Stephen Harper’s Conservative Party is profoundly reactionary, lined up with the policies of the U.S. Republicans and infested with religious fundamentalists. For example, it is seeking to “progressively” recriminalize the right to abortion with its Bill C-484; it raised the minimum age for sexual consent from 14 to 16, and it has significantly increased the number of Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. On the other hand, one shouldn’t forget that the Liberal Party has been the pillar for the rule of the capitalist class in Canada since Confederation in 1867, having been in office the longest.

The Liberals, under the leadership of Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin, waged an all-sided offensive against the social gains of the working class during the 1990s, drastically slashing unemployment insurance, public housing and federal transfer payments to the provinces for health and education. In doing so, they paved the way for the creeping privatization of the Canadian healthcare system and for a substantial increase in tuition and fees for post-secondary education. The Liberals also stole the surplus from the unemployment insurance fund in order to eliminate the federal deficit, supported the 199 Kosovo war against Serbia, sent troops to Afghanistan to participate in the war and colonial occupation of that country, and played an active role in the coup d’état against Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004.

Moreover, the Liberal Party of Canada is known for its hard line against the national rights of Québec, and above all against any struggle for national independence. The LPC went so far as to threaten a potential independent Québec with partition, and its current leader, Stéphane Dion, was himself the author of the Referendum “Clarity Act” to bash Quebec’s legitimate right to self-determination. And that isn’t even taking into account that throughout Stephen Harper’s minority government, from January 2006 to September 2008, the Liberals on the federal level have regularly supported their Tory “opponents” during votes in the House of Commons.

The fact that the LPC now seeks to present itself as a so-called “progressive” alternative to the Tories is utterly scandalous and revolting. During the September 28 demonstration in Montréal defending the right to abortion, Liberal Members of Parliament (MPs) were present even though 27 of their colleagues supported Bill C-484, the “Unborn Victims of Crime Act,” and their leader Dion was conspicuously absent on the day of the vote! The struggle in favour of the right to free abortion on demand, even though it is an elementary bourgeois-democratic right, is a fight against all bourgeois politicians, even the most “progressive.”

The other parties in what is commonly designated the “parliamentary opposition” are hardly any better. The right-wing social-democratic New Democratic Party, Anglo-chauvinist to the core, is marred by the unenviable balance sheet of NPD provincial governments in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and British Colombia, where they have actively participated in dismantling social programs, thereby opening the door to governments of the right. The NDP is also well-known for its chauvinist opposition to Québec national rights. It effectively supported the “Clarity Act” and favours a strong Canadian state, even though for the past several years it has came out for “asymmetrical” federalism that would grant more powers to the Québec government in order to go vote-hunting in Québec.

The NDP also supported Canadian intervention in Afghanistan up until its September 2006 congress in Quebec City, where it came out for withdrawing Canadian troops in favour of a “peacekeeping” force under the aegis of the United Nations! On September 22, NDP chief Jack Layton called for a coalition of the NDP and LPC in order to drive the Conservatives from office and to govern Canada (in defence of the interests of the imperialist Canadian bourgeoisie). There has already been a Liberal/New Democratic government, during the reign of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, from 1972 to 1974. And in the 2005 budget vote, New Democratic MPs  prevented the fall of the corrupt Liberal minority cabinet of Paul Martin.

For its part, the bourgeois-nationalist Bloc Québécois, the twin brother on the federal level of the provincial Parti Québécois (PQ), is going all out to keep its plurality in Quebec, dropping talk of independence in order to present itself as the “best defender of Quebec’s interests” in Ottawa. It’s worth noting that by more or less openly abandoning the “sovereignty” option, the PQ has had to adjust its aim in order to avoid disappearing altogether in short order. The BQ also supports the occupation of Afghanistan by the Canadian Army, while throwing in some “humanitarian” concerns. In contrast to these bourgeois nationalists, who yearn to be imperialist masters, proletarian internationalists struggle for the defeat  of the U.S., NATO and Canadian troops in Afghanistan, and to drive out the Canadian police “advisors” (mostly from Québec) from Haiti.

As for the Green Party of Canada – which now is now represented in the Canadian parliament thanks to the crossing over of a former Liberal MP from British Colombia, Brian Wilson – its campaign pitch seeks, among other things, to win over conservative voters and is centred on the need for economic competitiveness. Its program includes a pledge to reduce the public debt and a promise to reduce taxes, even for the most affluent. The Greens are also in favour of introducing a tax on carbon emissions, as are the Liberals, which would have the effect of penalizing working people who have to use their cars to get to work.

As we have already mentioned, the reformist left is actively mobilizing for a “strategic vote,” a telegraphic formula denoting voting for the NDP, in some cases for the Liberals, and for the Bloc Québécois in Québec. The Internet site “Presse-toi à gauche” (Keep Left), which is close to the Gauche Socialiste (Socialist Left – followers of the late Ernest Mandel) as well as to the Québec Solidaire coalition, tends toward the NDP, viewing the BQ as too close to the PQ and not “left” enough. For its part, the Communist Party of Québec (PCQ), led by the ex-Maoist André Parizeau, is calling to keep out the Conservatives and Liberals by voting either for the BQ or the NDP. Meanwhile, the PCQ shows a clear tilt toward the BQ in the name of the struggle for independence of Québec, even though the Bloc is presenting itself less and less as a pro-“sovereignty” party. The PCQ, as usual, counterposes nationalist interests to those of the working class, trying to present the BQ as a “progressive” party due to its support for a federal “anti-scab” law and its verbal opposition to cuts in unemployment insurance.

The Québec Solidaire party, which brings together all these reformists, is also calling to keep out the Conservatives without issuing a specific call for a vote, which surely means voting for the NDP or the BQ. This “strategic vote” is nothing but unvarnished parliamentary cretinism. In English Canada, just about all left organizations call for a vote for the NDP, including the International Socialists (followers of the late Tony Cliff), the Mandelites of Socialist Action and Fightback (followers of the late Ted Grant). The latter two call on the NDP leadership to adopt a “socialist” program and after a fashion try to push that party to the “left.” As if the election of an NDP government on a “radical” platform would somehow lead to bringing in socialism! In its election statement, Fightback makes no mention of the Quebec national question, nor that of the indigenous peoples, reflecting its total indifference toward questions of special oppression.

There are also some “communist” organizations participating in these elections. These are the two main Stalinist groups in Canada, the formerly pro-Soviet Communist Party of Canada (PCC) and the one-time Maoist and pro-Albanian Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist). Both are putting forward completely reformist and electoralist programs. The PCC calls to keep out the right by electing a group of progressive MPs – i.e., the Greens, the New Democrats, and of course, some “Communists”! And of course, it even goes so far as to favour the election of a minority liberal government!! All its election propaganda is centred on denouncing the Tories, while mouthing at most a few words about the Liberals being no alternative.

The PCC opposes Quebec independence in the name of defending Canadian sovereignty – i.e., reinforcing Canadian imperialism – at the expense of the working class and the various minority peoples nationally, while internationally reinforcing the position of the Canadian bourgeoisie on world markets. In the last referendum of Quebec sovereignty, it openly favoured maintaining Canadian unity, in order not to weaken poor Canada supposedly threatened by the United States! Its election platform is based on intransigent Canadian nationalism even though Canada is a fully sovereign imperialist country that is firmly controlled by its “national” bourgeoisie.

The infernal logic of the “strategic vote” was shown with striking clarity in 1968 when the CPP called to “keep out the right” in the federal elections, with the result being that the Liberal government of Pierre Elliott Trudeau took office and placed Quebec under martial law during the crisis of October 1970. The Communist Party of Canada has never renounced its policy of allying with imaginary nationalist and “progressive” sectors of the Canadian bourgeoisie to form an “anti-monopoly” coalition. As for the PCC-ML, it issued calls for “democratic renewal,” for electing an “antiwar” government (without specifying who would make up such a government), for the adoption of a new and modern Constitution, for the education of “worker politicians,” etc. These two so-called communist parties have joined the “Anybody But Harper” movement, with a few particular nuances, which advocates a popular front diametrically opposed to the interests of working men and women.

For our part, the Leninist-Trotskyists of the League for the Fourth International do not support, even critically, any of the parties that are presenting candidates in this election. Not one of them in any way draws a class line clearly opposed to the interests of the bourgeoisie. That is why we say there is no choice for the working class in this election. Even the parties claiming to be “communist” only seek to rearrange the capitalist system so as to render it more “human” and “liveable” for working people and the oppressed. The real solution lies in building a revolutionary Leninist-Trotskyist workers party which seeks to rally the most combative sectors of the working class at the head of all the oppressed, in the struggle to overthrow capitalism in the framework of a North American federation of workers republics leading to a socialist society.

The LFI is committed to this fundamental task, and to carry this out we seek to achieve the broadest possible unity of the working class in Québec and English Canada. That is why we advocate independence for Québec with the aim of putting an end, once and for all, to the historical national oppression of the Quebec nation, and also to remove this issue from the agenda. It is only in this way that it will be possible to demonstrate to the workers of the two nations that their real enemy is their respective capitalist class and not the working class of the “other” nation.

We also defend the right of indigenous peoples to freely decide their destiny, as they have been heavily oppressed and plundered by the imperialist Canadian and Québec bourgeoisie. We support the struggle for the recognition of their ancestral rights that are threatened both by the English Canadian chauvinists and Québec nationalists. The LFI calls for full citizenship rights for all immigrants, documented or without documents, and for the end of all measures of intimidation, harassment and discrimination against them. We say that only international socialist revolution can definitely put an end to all forms of national and linguistic oppression as well as national antagonisms in Canada and elsewhere. ■