Ontario Political Forum

On June 12, the Liberal Party of Ontario won a majority government with 59 seats. Most of the seats were gained at the expense of the Progressive Conservative Party, which failed to deliver the vote in its favour, leading to Tim Hudak's resignation as PC Leader. The PCs won 27 seats, down ten from what they had. The Liberal Party victory was also at the expense of three key NDP seats in downtown Toronto (Trinity-Spadina, Davenport and Beaches-East York) where Liberal moles within the NDP guaranteed the defeat of two well-established NDP candidates in an anti-Horwath campaign. However, the Toronto ridings of Parkdale-High Park and Toronto Danforth held as NDP ridings. Also in the Greater Toronto Area, the riding of Bramalea-Gore-Malton remained NDP. By prevailed over Liberal and PC candidates in several key working class ridings elsewhere, the NDP brought its total seat count to 21 -- the same as it had going into the election.

An initial analysis of the election results shows that where the working people of Ontario participated in the election by actively opposing the austerity agenda of both Liberals and PCs, they could prevail. In the Windsor area, all ridings went against the Liberals and PCs (Windsor-Tecumseh and Essex held, and Windsor West was won from the Liberals). The two NDP ridings in London were held (London West and London-Fanshawe). All three Hamilton NDP ridings were held (Hamilton Centre, Hamilton East-Stoney Creek and Hamilton Mountain) and the Niagara Falls and Welland ridings had great showings and were also held. Kitchener-Waterloo was also held by working people as an NDP seat.

Meanwhile the workers in Oshawa also prevailed, gaining a seat for the NDP from the PCs. In Northern Ontario, the NDP held Kenora-Rainy River, Timmins-James Bay, Algoma-Manitoulin, Nickel Belt and Timiskaming-Cochrane and gained Sudbury from the Liberals. To guarantee these electoral victories the NDP vote increased significantly, showing that with a concerted effort the Liberals could have been defeated in at least six more ridings, producing a minority government that could have been kept in check for the next four to five years.

Windsor teachers and education workers carried out important work in this election to
oppose the Liberals' and PCs' austerity agenda.

Kathleen Wynne now becomes the first elected woman Premier of Ontario. She won the election because the ruling circles decided she was their best bet to keep the working class in check in the coming period. Wynne received an 11th hour personal endorsement of Michael McCain, President and CEO of Maple Leaf Foods and a Royal Bank board member, amongst other positions he holds. In a letter to the Globe and Mail (where the Thompson clan had officially endorsed Hudak), McCain made it very clear where the ruling circles stand. McCain wrote, "As a pragmatic business leader who cares about our social commitments in addition to fiscal responsibility, I am prepared to be clear that a more balanced approach is warranted. [...] The PC's 'million jobs plan' just isn't credible, and won't have a positive outcome for the Ontario economy. In fact, I believe it is dangerous."

The endorsements of prominent members of the ruling elite, coupled with a massive disinformation campaign by the Liberal base within the workers' movement resulted in the Liberals receiving their majority government. The disinformation campaign promoted Kathleen Wynne as the alternative to Tim Hudak. It declared the Liberal budget to be progressive and Andrea Horwath as betraying NDP values for forcing the election by turning down a "progressive" budget. All the crimes of the Liberal McGuinty/Wynne government as concerns the privatization of social and public services, attacks on public workers, especially teachers and education workers and continuous pay-the-rich schemes magically disappeared and were attributed to the Hudak PCs.

These Liberal government crimes greatly contributed to the destruction of manufacturing in Ontario. Its attacks on the wages and working conditions of teachers and education workers, health care providers and other public sector workers, as well as against the most vulnerable, including injured workers are tearing apart the social fibre of the province, wrecking the economy and pushing down the living and working conditions of the working class. The disinformation campaign turned the reality upside down creating a singular spectre of Hudak as the enemy and presenting the Liberals as the saviours of Ontario working families. A kind of Stockholm Syndrome gripped these Liberal social forces within the workers' movement. They promoted affection for the Liberal government, which just months earlier was assaulting the working class movement and during the election campaign kidnapped a section of the working class movement on behalf of the ruling class. They called on everyone to fall in love with their kidnappers who would save them from the evil of the Hudak Conservatives.

The real alternative in this election was to make sure that while the PCs could not form any government, the Liberals could also not form a majority government. This was grasped by those forces that clearly activated the human factor/social consciousness in this election. Those forces took a vigorous stand against the austerity agenda of both the Liberals and PCs, and because they intervened as an organized force, they were able to combat the disinformation campaign that sought to sow confusion as to how they should cast their ballot in a manner that favoured their interests to hold governments to account.

Ontario Political Forum congratulates all those social forces who intervened on an organized basis in a manner that defended their interests against the promoters of the neo-liberal austerity agenda. They affirmed their right to govern the society they depend on for their living and well-being. This is a great achievement in itself. In some cases, the analysis of the election results will show their success has been truly resounding. They took all the Windsor area ridings, which makes a clear statement that the austerity agenda is not acceptable to the working people there. So too in other ridings where the working people either took them for the NDP from the Liberals or PCs, or defended them from Liberal takeover.

It will be important to analyze the voting patterns in these particular ridings to appreciate the level of social consciousness activated on an organized basis to guarantee these results. These forces are sure to organize themselves further to see how to fight for alternatives now that a Liberal majority will cynically be used to claim a mandate for austerity and Wynne's neo-liberal austerity budget will be reintroduced and passed.

Active workers and retirees from Local 1005 USW were very active in Hamilton and the surrounding areas to defend the interests of working people by calling on everyone to defeat the Liberals' and PCs' phony austerity agenda.

Hollow Victory for the Ruling Class

The voter turnout was 52.1 per cent of eligible voters (or 4,819,699 voters), slightly higher than the lowest voter turnout in Ontario's history in the 2011 election. In 2011, 49.02 per cent of eligible voters cast a ballot, down from the 52.8 per cent of eligible voters who cast a ballot in the 2007 election. Of the votes cast, the Liberals received 38.7 per cent, the Conservatives 31.3 per cent, the NDP 23.8 per cent, the Green Party 4.8 percent and other parties and independents, 3 per cent.

Initial reports show that the approximate number of eligible voters was 9,248,764. This means that the Liberal majority represents about 20 per cent of eligible voters. This is the basis on which Kathleen Wynne claims to represent "One Ontario."

"You voted for jobs, you voted for growth," Wynne said on election night. She said the Liberals would fight for all Ontarians. "Elections aside, we live in One Ontario, and our job is to build this province up for every single person here."

The electorate does not trust any of the parties in the Legislature, this much is clear. Ontario Political Forum considers this a hollow victory for the ruling class. Its austerity agenda will not resolve any problems facing the economy, nor legitimize their pay-the-rich anti-social schemes of direct handouts to monopolies, privatization and a massive increase of P3s building material infrastructure. Promises of transparency and integrity will have absolutely no effect on the rampant corruption within governments that engage in pay-the-rich schemes and privatization.

A serious clash is shaping up over the source of investment funds that the ruling class thinks the Liberals and their social base in the workers' movement will succeed in delivering from the public purse and from public sector workers' wages, benefits and pensions. It is a victory for the ruling circles only in so far as they were able to use their control over the political process and ownership of the monopoly media to disinform public opinion. The problems facing the society require serious solutions and a new direction for the economy and all aspects of social, cultural and political affairs not disinformation and more of the same neo-liberal politics.

This is the challenge the working people of Ontario must take up in the coming period. The inability to block the Liberal majority in this election requires serious deliberation. The working class movement must effectively oppose the wrecking of the public authority and imposition of the neo-liberal agenda at the expense of the people's interests. Mechanisms are required that strengthen the intervention of the working people as the attacks unfold. The working people must successfully defeat the attacks on their well-being and on society and the natural environment.

Let us together puncture the arrogance of the ruling circles who are confident that their political system does not permit the working people to express their voice!

Do not permit them to now push the austerity agenda, let alone push it with a vengeance! Hold the Liberal social forces within the workers' movement to account by demanding a new direction for the economy and a program that fights for the rights of all!

Let the independent voice of the working class of Ontario ring loud and clear. Let it rally together all working people and social forces who are at the receiving end of the anti-social neo-liberal austerity agenda. Ontario Political Forum puts itself at the disposal of this work.

Congratulations to Ontario's working people who battled hard in this election against the ruling elite and fought tirelessly for change and the rights of all!

Selfies by windsor teachers and education workers from OSSTF District 9 build excitement
for the Get 3 to Block Majority Campaign.

Congratulations to All Working People Who Fought for Change!

Hollow Victory for the Ruling Class

Congratulations to All Working People
Who Fought for Change!