October 4, 2022 - No. 25
Quebec Election Results
Evidence that First-Past-the-Post System Called a Representative Democracy Is a Fraud
• Results of the October 3 Election in Numbers
Ontario's Business Dealings with Indigenous Peoples
• Ontario Offers First Nations a Stake in Massive Expansion of Electrical Infrastructure
• Suspension of Lake Erie Connector Transmission Project
Letters to the Editor
• Torontonians Will Not Take Kindly to Ford's
Strong Mayors, Building
Homes Act
• Ford Government's Consolidation of Executive Powers
Quebec Election Results
Evidence that First-Past-the-Post System Called a Representative Democracy Is a Fraud
The outcome of the October 3 Quebec election shows above all else that the system said to be a representative democracy is a fraud. The Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) of François Legault can claim victory because the first-past-the-post system of counting ballots is designed to bring to power whoever the ruling elite has championed by skewing all the power and privilege in its direction.
The
voting system is designed to bring political parties, not Quebeckers,
to power. It favours the leader and party which the narrow private
interests which dominate the economy and the decision-making power
champion on the basis that they think it will best serve their
interests. Through their
media, these narrow private interests decide "the issues" and limit the
discourse to where all the parties and the electorate stand on these
"issues," thereby not giving the people a voice to set the agenda for
the economy and the policies on any front.
The result is that the CAQ received what is called a "mandate" to rule for the next four years on the basis of the slogan of "continuity" and "stability" despite the fact that 73.3 per cent of electors did not vote for the CAQ. The CAQ nevertheless won an absolute majority of the seats in the National Assembly, 90 of the 125 seats, with the votes of only 27 per cent of eligible voters.
The four other so-called main parties garnered 57.31 per cent of the vote but the number of seats they received is not comparable or representative. Of these parties, the Liberal Party of Quebec (PLQ) received 590,171 votes, 43,243 votes less than Quebec Solidaire (QS) which received 633,414 votes, but the PLQ now has 21 Members of the National Assembly (MNA) while Quebec Solidaire has only 11. Similarly, the Parti Québécois received 599,678 votes, 9,507 more than the Liberal Party but only has three MNAs. Then comes the Conservative Party of Quebec (PCQ) that garnered 530,804 votes, 59,367 less than the Liberal Party, but has no MNA.
PLQ -- 14.37 per cent of votes cast -- 21 MNAs
QS -- 15.42 per cent of votes cast -- 11 MNAs
PQ -- 14.60 per cent of votes cast -- 3 MNAs
PCQ -- 12.92 per cent of votes cast -- no MNA.
In an electoral system which does not guarantee an informed vote, the votes received by the Green Party, the PMLQ and other emerging parties and independent candidates do not count. This election makes it as clear as clear can be that the votes of Quebeckers as a whole have no weight when it comes to the distribution of seats in the National Assembly. Each CAQ seat is "worth" 18,772 votes; each Liberal Party seat, 28,103 votes; each QS seat, 57,583 votes and each PQ seat, 199,893 votes.
With 21 seats, the PLQ will now form the Official Opposition in the National Assembly. It remains to be seen whether a majority CAQ government will give QS official party status with the privileges that confers, since it reached neither the threshold of 12 seats or 20 per cent of the votes cast.
Results of the October 3 Election in Numbers
The Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ) elected 90 Members of the National Assembly (MNAs) out of 125. It received 1,682,952 votes. This means that the CAQ received 40.97 per cent of the votes cast, but was elected by only 26.7 per cent of eligible voters (24.5 per cent in 2018). In other words, 73.3 per cent of those eligible to vote did not vote for the Legault government.
Said another way, of the total votes cast, 2,424,350 were for parties other than the CAQ. Adding the 2,130,288 voters who did not vote, this means that the CAQ is in power, while 4,619,837 (out of a total of 6,302,789 registered voters) did not vote for it.
Here are the results of the October 3, 2022 election in Quebec and what the numbers reveal.
Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ): 90 MNAs, 1,682,952 votes; 40.97 per cent of votes cast; 26.97 per cent of eligible voters.
Liberal Party of Quebec (PLQ): 21 MNAs, 590,171 votes; 14.37 per cent of votes cast; 9.36 per cent of eligible voters.
Québec Solidaire (QS): 11 MNAs, 633,414 votes; 15.42 per cent of votes cast; 10.05 per cent of eligible voters.
Parti Québécois (PQ): 3 MNAs, 599,678 votes, 14.60 per cent of votes cast; 9.5 per cent of eligible voters.
Conservative Party of Quebec (PCQ): 0 MNAs, 530,804 votes; 12.92 per cent of votes cast; 8.4 per cent of eligible voters.
Green Party (GP): 0 MNAs, 31,206 votes; 0.76 per cent of votes cast; 0.49 per cent of eligible voters.
Independent and small party candidates: 0 MNAs, 39,062 votes; 0.93 per cent of votes cast; 0.61 per cent of eligible voters.
Note the result of the first-past-the-post vote. For example, the QLP and the PQ received roughly the same number of votes, but the result is 21 Liberal MNAs to the PQ's three. QS has more votes than the PLQ but 10 fewer MNAs.
Turnout: 65.5 per cent, the lowest since 2012 (one per cent lower than in 2018 -- 66.5 per cent)
Number of registered voters: 6,302,789
Number of votes cast: 4,163,501 (66.06 per cent)
Number of valid ballots: 4,107,302 (98.65 per cent)
Number of rejected ballots: 56,199 (1.35 per cent)
Number of polling stations in Québec: 21,897
The number of women serving in the Blue Room has increased from 52 in 2018 to now 58 out of 125 MNAs.
Ontario's Business Dealings with Indigenous Peoples
Ontario Offers First Nations a Stake in Massive Expansion of Electrical Infrastructure
For
the people of Canada and Quebec reconciliation means building a new and
modern relationship with Indigenous nations which harmonizes the
natural and social environment in a manner that upholds the rights of
all. To us reconciliation is not about trying to "integrate" Indigenous
nations into an economy whose aim and direction is based on paying the
rich, treating people like things and using nature and its bounty to
enrich those in power. Yet, it appears that this latter conception of
reconciliation is what is being put forward as if it were consistent
with our conception despite the fact that these are in complete
contradiction with one another.
On September 22 Hydro One, Ontario's major transmission and distribution utility, announced a new "equity partnership model" with First Nations on new capital transmission line projects with a value exceeding $100 million. The model "offers First Nations a 50 per cent equity stake in all future large scale capital transmission line projects," Hydro One says. Hydro One was a public utility until it was privatized in 2015. The province is now the controlling stakeholder with a 47 per cent stake.
The transmission projects between London, Windsor and Sarnia are said to require a $1 billion to finance and are proposed to be developed in phases through 2030. They required an Order-in-Council declaring three of the transmission line projects as "priorities," streamlining the Ontario Energy Board's (OEB) regulatory approval process in order to begin work on them immediately.
Hydro One has also said it will increase its "Indigenous procurement spend to five per cent of all materials and services by 2026 and ensuring that 20 per cent of its corporate donations and sponsorships support Indigenous communities."
The model will apply to the five transmission lines Hydro One is currently developing in southwest Ontario. At the time the lines were announced Ontario's Minister of Energy Todd Smith made it clear the aim was to use public funds to provide the infrastructure the auto and agri-food monopolies based in southern Ontario demand. "Our government is supporting the incredible growth in Southwest Ontario by accelerating the development of five new transmission lines that will power the new Stellantis and LG Energy Solutions battery plant, the growing greenhouse sector and other job creators." He added, "As our government reduces the price of doing business, including by lowering electricity prices by 15-17 per cent for large commercial and industrial customers, we have seen significant new investment. Today we are demonstrating our commitment to build the critical infrastructure to support those new jobs."
In the most self-serving fashion Hydro One Chief Human Resources Officer Megan Telford said of the model, "For too long, First Nations have borne the impacts of infrastructure development in their traditional territories without seeing the benefits. We recognize that we did not always get it right, and this equity model signals a significant shift in how Hydro One will work with First Nations. For our collective success we must continue to push existing boundaries. Hydro One is committed to its journey of taking meaningful action to advance reconciliation and we will continue to listen to and learn from Indigenous communities with a focus on building trusting and long-lasting relationships."
What
Telford does not mention is that the aim of these new models is to use
the funds at the disposal of various First Nations-backed investment
arms to pay large monopolies who are demanding Ontarians pony up so
that these same monopolies can get their hands on the lands and
resources to enrich narrow private interests. It is not a model that
favours the interests of the Indigenous peoples, beginning with the
fact that they do not give informed consent.
It is nonetheless presented as being good for everyone, including the Indigenous peoples while the projects are totally out of their control. That transmission lines will need to go through Indigenous nations' lands is a major issue which Hydro One, the government and the companies setting up shop are aware of. What happens when the demands of the rich to get paid or they will leave are rejected by the Indigenous nations or people living on their territories?
All of this is left hidden as the people living in the regions to be affected do not have a say in what is taking place or the direction the province is taking. It is all done behind the backs of the people with the value created from their labour. It is not reconciliation, but a new form of using public funds to pay the rich.
Suspension of Lake Erie Connector
Transmission
Project
On August 2 the project of the private investment company ITC Investment Holdings to develop a major new transmission line under Lake Erie was suspended. This follows the notification given on July 27 to Six Nations of the Grand River Development Corporation (SNGRDC) that ITC Investment Holdings Inc., the company leading the project, had suspended all project development activities and commercial negotiations.
The Lake Erie Connector was "planned to be a 117 km, bi-directional, high voltage direct current (HVDC), underwater electricity transmission line. The LEC would have delivered 1,000 MW of power directly between Ontario and the largest electrical market in the world — 13 U.S. Mid-Western and Mid-Atlantic states. One converter station was planned to be located at either end of the cable, in Haldimand County, Ontario and Erie, Pennsylvania. The project was being developed by ITC Investment Holdings Inc. and early site work was anticipated to begin in 2023."
The SNGRDC informs that "over the course of the project investment review, the Six Nations of the Grand River Elected Council (SN Elected Council), Six Nations of the Grand River Economic Development Corporation Group (SNGRDC Group), staff and the community invested considerable efforts in assessing the fit of this project for the Six Nations community. We are disappointed the Six Nations community will not realize the economic benefits from this project."
SNGRDC and SN Elected Council were prepared to enter into a $33 million equity investment deal in the Lake Erie Connector Project.
Six Nations of the Grand River Development Corporation (SNGRDC) manages the Six Nations' economic interests in 20 renewable energy projects and numerous economic development opportunities, in and around the Six Nations territory. SNGRDC is located on the Six Nations Reserve and employs an average of 140 employees through Nation Enterprise or the administration of Economic Interests projects. For more information, please visit www.sndevcorp.ca.
Letters to the Editor
Torontonians Will Not Take Kindly to Ford's
Strong Mayors, Building
Homes Act
The power grab by the Ford Conservatives via the Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act just before the municipal elections on October 24 cannot be accepted. The Ford government has already planned to apply this law across the province once it has been tested in Toronto and Ottawa. This is a further attempt to control political power through police powers and shut out any opposition to the "priorities of the province" which, in a nutshell, are organized pay-the-rich schemes for the biggest monopolies and financial oligarchs. This includes the critical mineral extraction from the Ring of Fire or the car battery operation being planned for Windsor and other housing and infrastructure projects. The cowardly Ford administration did not mention this during the provincial election because to do so would have resulted in their possible defeat given that only 18 per cent of the electorate voted Conservative.
Information
on this law and where things are going provided by TML Daily
informs the
discussion we need to have. One of the things it brings forward
for discussion
is that under the Canadian
constitution,
municipalities come under
provincial jurisdiction. At the time of Canada's formation and
as a Dominion of
Britain, 80 per cent of people lived in rural areas and the horse-trading between
the political
elites of that time created the provincial/federal power sharing
arrangement
that enabled a nation-building project in their image. Today the elites are
not engaged in nation-building, just nation-wrecking and
this law is an
expression of the police powers and the rule by decree that come
when the forces
of old want to hold on to power by any means necessary and
control the economy
for self-serving, anti-social ends.
Today
80 per cent of Canadians live in cities. Toronto alone, with its
population of 3 million, contributes some $200 billion or 10 per cent
of Canada's GDP. Torontonians have the right to decide how the city
operates. The constitutional arrangements need to be renewed to reflect
this reality today.
That the new law will allow the mayor much greater power over the
budget, appointments to key administrative positions etc., while giving
Torontonians less say in how the city is run does not bode well. The
people in the city, are not, for example, going to put up with a
government that tries to push them aside. In 2018, Torontonians in
their thousands opposed Bill 5 which reduced Toronto Council by half
during the municipal elections. They opposed the amalgamation of the
city by the Harris Conservatives in 1998. Seventy per cent of the
people of the Toronto municipalities at the time opposed amalgamation
and the subsequent privatization of city services in the name of
"efficiency." They now bear the brunt of the additional $300 million
per year that is spent to run the city "efficiently." Bill 3 may be
"legal" but it is not just, it is not democratic and it will not
benefit the people of Ontario or the Indigenous peoples of the province
who also will not allow their rights to be trampled underfoot despite
Ford's attempts to pull a fast one on them as well.
A Reader in Toronto
Ford Government's Consolidation of
Executive Powers
With
the Strong Mayors legislation the Ford government is consolidating its
executive power, expanding its police powers to implement an agenda
that is demanded by the oligopolies and by the U.S. war machine.
Through his first term Ford promised to develop the Ring of Fire to
secure the minerals
needed for electric batteries and other needs of the war industry. He
used the Freedom Convoy disruptions at the border to bring in
legislation to secure trade corridors from the north to the south and
to the U.S. and pre-emptively criminalize any force that stands against
this, particularly workers
and First Nations which do not agree to the destruction of their
territories. This restructuring turns mayors into tools of the
provincial agenda and emasculates local councils and further
disenfranchises citizens.
The fact that this legislation can be passed with no discussion amongst the people and no information as to what the "provincial priorities" are, not mentioned during the election campaign and pushed through the legislature with great haste, shows that there is nothing democratic about the so-called institutions of liberal democracy, that all that is left is police powers. Laws can be manipulated and changed at will by a government which did not even receive 20 per cent support from eligible voters. Anything which is or could be an obstruction to the anti-social pay-the-rich program of the provincial government is fair game. For example, the peoples' demand to hold private owners of long-term care homes accountable, which was made illegal through Ford's legislation that protects them from lawsuits and from responsibility. With this so-called Strong Mayors legislation, the Ford government is putting in place the means to block any opposition from municipalities to land use, resource extraction, highways, etc. with the option of arbitrarily declaring any mayor a 'strong mayor' and upending the local council's decisions at any time.
The need to expose and denounce measures like Bill 3 has
significance for all the forces across the country who are fighting for
control over their lives and against measures like this that strengthen
the rule of the elite and police powers.
A Reader in Sudbury
(To access articles individually click on the black headline.)
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca