Alberta General Election to Be Held May 29
Working People Faced with Need to Take Control of the Decision-Making Process
Rally against cuts to social programs, Edmonton, October 18,
2019.
Alberta has a fixed election date, with the election taking
place on the last Monday in May of a four-year term, which falls
this year on May 29. The writ was dropped on May 1 and
nominations close on May 11.
The people of Alberta face many
serious problems in this election but the most serious is that
because of the cartel-party system of government, they exercise
no control over the election process. They do not choose the
candidates of the parties who are contending for seats and to
form the next government. They do not set the platforms of these
parties, nor control what the ruling elite and their media say
are the issues, nor are their views sought on any issue which
they might set themselves.
All that the people of Alberta can say for certain is that the definition of democracy as rule of the people and rule of the majority is a fraud because they constitute the majority and they do not rule. The fraud lies in how the votes cast are said to represent this or that view which constitutes a mandate. How can you aggregate x number of votes to make one view? It is mathematically impossible. Views are views and numbers are numbers.
The feat is accomplished by claiming the democracy is representative. Your vote authorizes a representative to speak and act in your name and that representative in turn swears allegiance to the King and pledges to act in his name. The party that wins the most votes gets to wield the King's prerogative powers and set a course in sync with the King's values which, because you permitted the representative to act in your name, become ipso facto your values.
The challenge facing the workers' movement is how to intervene in the elections on the basis of the independent politics of the working class. These are established on the basis of the mass democratic method which requires holding informed discussions amongst the people. Such exchanges of information, views and proposals provide the participants with the orientation they need to work out their own vantage point. This means how to intervene in a manner that goes to their advantage, that works in their favour. Under all conditions and circumstances they need to be an organized force which can discuss freely, provide itself with information so that it can distinguish what is relevant and what is not and decide for itself how it can speak for itself.
The newspapers and websites of CPC(M-L), the Party's Workers'
Centre and its online Workers' Forum are available to
them, to communicate with others, share experiences and take
stands which they think are appropriate.
During the past four years, Alberta workers have put forward solutions to the problems that society faces in order to fight a barrage of anti-worker legislation that is attempting to crush the unions and criminalize collective action. Even the existing minimal employment standards and health and safety legislation was subject to the UCP's slash and burn. Under its current leader Danielle Smith, the UCP is hell-bent on pursuing what it calls "real health care reform" and measures which will further dismantle the system of public education.
Many unions as well as community organizations have been waging campaigns for the resources needed to meet the demands of the workers, without which there is no solution to the crisis of health care, education and other social programs. Working conditions in hospitals, seniors' homes, long-term care, and community and home care continue to deteriorate, while real wages have been declining for over 10 years, resulting in acute shortages of staff.
Paramedics are leading the fight for ambulance services, which are literally a matter of life and death. Nurses and other health care workers are demanding higher wages, which are necessary to resolve the staffing crisis. Long-term care workers are insisting on mandatory staffing ratios, and an end to privatization.
Health care rally, Edmonton, August 12, 2021
Teachers continue to organize their Stand for Education campaign, for a curriculum which meets the needs of their students and a modern society; for class sizes which allow them to meet the needs of their students; and for wages acceptable to them. Community activists are organizing for an end to homelessness and deaths from street drugs, the number of which is rising.
Indigenous Nations are holding the government to account for massive "leaks" from the tailings ponds in the Tar Sands and other serious pollution endangering their communities and the land and water they protect.
Workers in the meat processing plants took the lead during the pandemic and continue to fight against speed ups and for safe working conditions. Railway workers are continuing their fight for safety on the railways while a staggering number of derailments take place across Canada and the U.S., in which rail workers continue to be killed. Warehouse and delivery workers are waging a fight for a union while the anti-worker labour board upholds Amazon's fairy tale that the drivers are not Amazon employees.
Camp workers at the giant Wapasu work camp in the oil sands are fighting to force the company to retract layoff notices after they refused to re-open their contract and accept massive wage cuts at a time of soaring inflation. The layoffs amount to an illegal lockout by the U.S. monopoly Civeo. Migrant workers are courageously demanding Status for All including immediate permanent residency for all the undocumented workers.
Farmers have experienced huge increases in the cost of inputs such as fertilizer, fuel, machinery and commercial feed for livestock. They have never received a smaller share of the retail price of the food they produce, while the oligopolies that control processing and retail food distribution are making record profits.
There is strong sentiment to rid the province of the UCP and
its anti-worker, anti-social agenda, with its racism, misogyny,
homophobia and all-round attacks on rights. For the rulers, the
issue is to stave this off by dividing the people along
so-called right-wing and left-wing politics and political
parties, despite the fact that they are all part of the same
cartel which blocks the people from coming to power and speaking
for themselves.
The vacuum of leadership is such that during Jason Kenney's term in office, and now under Smith, the society has experienced unprecedented anarchy and violence, with increasing violence against women, racist attacks, thousands of preventable deaths, growing poverty and homelessness, and a profound refusal by government to carry out its social responsibilities. Far from addressing the problems the working people are raising, the people of Alberta are being subjected to a barrage of attack ads and incessant polling as to who is leading, who is gaining, and what the numbers supposedly mean.
It is said that the UCP will take the vast majority of seats outside of Edmonton and Calgary, with Edmonton a sure thing for the NDP and the final outcome of the election dependent on Calgary. The disinformation presents the election as a popularity contest between NDP Leader Rachel Notley and UCP Leader Danielle Smith, with each presenting the other as the devil incarnate. One poll after another is touted to promote the one which is allegedly the most popular in a manner which makes a mockery of the word popular.
And all of this before the writ was even dropped!
Information
There are 87 constituencies in Alberta. On adjournment of the fourth session of the 30th legislature on March 23, the United Conservative Party (UCP) held 60 seats; the Alberta New Democratic Party (NDP), 23 seats; and Independents, two. One Independent was elected as a UCP candidate, the other as an NDP candidate. Two seats were vacant.
There are 12 registered political parties. Only the UCP and NDP are expected to put forward full slates. As of April 29, ten parties had nominated candidates before the writ was dropped:
- Advantage Party of Alberta: 3,
- Alberta Party: 18
- Buffalo Party: 1
- Communist Party-Alberta: 3
- Green Party: 31
- Independence Party of Alberta: 7
- Liberal Party: 11
- New Democratic Party: 84
- United Conservative Party: 87
- Wildrose Independence Party: 2
Two registered parties have not yet nominated candidates:
- Pro-life Alberta Political Association
- Reform Party of Alberta
This article was published in
Volume 53 Number 5 - May 2023
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2023/Articles/M530057.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca