June 12 Election Campaign Enters Final Phase

What It Means to Vote Strategically

- Jim Nugent -

You Can Make a Difference!
Vote to Show Opposition to Austerity Agenda!
Defeat Both Liberals and PCs!

June 2, 2014 - As the Ontario election enters its final days, working people definitely need to use their vote strategically. This can be done so long as people vote based on the interests at stake for workers in the election rather than on allegiance to a particular political party.

The need for strategic voting arises because all of the dominant parties have demonstrated that they are self-serving. Not only are they incapable of representing working class interests, which is nothing new, but they are wrecking the public authority by putting private interests in command of public institutions no matter what the consequences. Then they put labels on this such as "fair" or "sensible" and the like.

But what strategy should working people be trying to realize with their votes? The political forces pitching the slogan "Anyone but Hudak!" are becoming increasingly strident. They bombard working people with advice about the need for "strategic voting," by which is meant voting for whichever candidate in a particular riding has the best chance of beating the Conservative (PC) candidate. The likely outcome if workers listen to this advice, especially now that PC leader Tim Hudak is not doing himself any favours in this campaign, would be another Liberal government, possibly a majority Liberal government.

This certainly will not do the working people any good. So what should workers think of the advice they are receiving about voting strategically based on the Hudak threat?

Does strategic voting based on the "Anyone but Hudak!" slogan solve the political problems workers are confronted by in the election, or even solve the main problem facing workers?

The situation workers face is that the rich minority with political power is causing great harm to working people and further weakening the economy by imposing austerity -- wrecking social programs and public services in the name of deficit reduction, while at the same time sucking up billions of dollars through pay-the-rich schemes. The political problem the workers have is that all of the dominant parties have bought into the ruling elite's austerity agenda. How to vote against austerity when the dominant parties all have competing versions of how austerity should be imposed?

Strategic voting has to address this problem. It has to give political expression to the widespread opposition of working people to austerity, to turn the election into a referendum on austerity, an opportunity for workers to say, "No to austerity!" Voting based on the "Anyone but Hudak!" slogan does not achieve this strategic aim. It gives expression to the ruling elite's rope-a-dope approach to the electorate, using the Hudak threat to push working people into a corner where the only choice seems to be between the Liberal and PC style for driving down their living and working conditions.

The kind of anti-worker, anti-union retrogression spouted by the Hudak PCs is an affront to every worker and needs to be taken seriously. No effort should be spared to prevent the PCs from getting any seats, let alone additional seats, or a so-called mandate to form a government. But working people have to resist being stampeded over to the Liberals and allowing the NDP to collapse. A Liberal majority government would greatly strengthen the hand of the rich for taking the economy into an even more harmful direction and imposing more austerity to get there. Defeating the Liberals does not mean a victory for the Hudak PCs. There is no reason why both these champions of austerity can't be defeated.

The widespread opposition to austerity among the electorate should not be underestimated, nor should the capacity of working people to work out practical ways of mobilizing this opposition during elections. Mobilizing opposition to austerity in order to block both the Liberals and the PCs from forming a majority government is a realistic objective for the workers' opposition, especially considering its recent successes in several by-elections.

The Hudak PCs were defeated in six of the seven by-elections held since the last general election. The Liberals also had huge losses in these by-elections. Working people made effective use of strategic voting to take a stand against austerity by defeating both parties in several ridings. Workers and their organizations also gained valuable experience about their capacity to work out election strategies that serve workers' interests.

Effective use of strategic voting in the current election means voting to ensure that neither Liberals nor PCs are able to form a majority government. These parties must be blocked from claiming they have received a "mandate" for imposing the austerity measures they are equally committed to. Vote strategically by voting No! to Austerity. Defeat the Liberals and PCs and block the ruling elite's push for a majority government.

See how to achieve this in your riding! Phone three friends and invite them to join in and to also phone three friends to join in and to also phone three friends. It can be done. You can make a difference!

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