In the News June 1

Ontario Election 2022

Windsor-Tecumseh

Statement by Independent Candidate Laura Chesnik

With just a few days to go to election day, I wanted to share my thoughts on what a vote for me in Windsor-Tecumseh means.

In this election there are 10 candidates in the running.

It is often said that a vote for an independent candidate is a waste. Let me just address that by saying being independent is never a waste. In fact we teach kids in school that charting your own path in life is very important and that speaking up when something is wrong, even if you are the only one at first, is not just the right thing to do, it is what humans have done throughout our history to address serious social problems. This is not to say that if you don’t vote for me, or even don’t vote at all that you are not independent. The point is that independents play a very important role in opening a new path forward where an alternative does not appear to exist.

Let me make it clear as well: I am an independent candidate, but my campaign is partisan to the working people of Windsor-Tecumseh. It represents the independent political activity, thought and history of the working people of this riding and this country. It represents a break with the idea that workers should divide their ranks between allegiances to politicians or parties whose sole aim is to come to power. This is what my independent campaign stands for.

In this election, as in all elections we, the working people of Windsor-Tecumseh, face a tough decision. How will we make our vote count? According to the way our electoral system works your vote only counts when you vote for the winner. So the right to vote and express your conscience really gets reduced to a casino where you are trying to pick winners from losers. The right of the electorate to participate in deciding the direction of their society gets eliminated and instead we are told that freedom is all about making the right “choice.” Well, what do you do when none of the choices offer an alternative to the status quo? This is a serious problem.

This is also why I am running. To open a path for an alternative. If you have followed my website or my social media, my campaign is not about your vote – it is about your voice. It is about providing the space for the working people of this riding to unite their voices and speak for themselves.

I speak for myself as a teacher who fights for the right to education. Because of this, I know how important it is that everyone has a way to speak for themselves about their work and what is required because as workers we know the problems that we live with every day. When you speak for yourself you need to have your own instruments and media, otherwise you can just be silenced or ignored. My campaign is an instrument of the working people of Windsor-Tecumseh to speak for themselves.

During the pandemic we were all left to fend for ourselves by governments at all levels who soon realized that all they had was public funds but not the capacity to mobilize the people to come together to solve a global emergency. Instead of workers being given a way to contribute and participate in the fight against COVID we were just told to keep working and to be “flexible.” In other words we should just accept what is unacceptable in the name of an emergency and not speak up.

My campaign makes the statement that as workers we are very capable of speaking for ourselves. We the workers of Windsor-Tecumseh, like workers across this country, have a right and a duty to speak for ourselves and represent ourselves. It’s not easy. Often people think that as a candidate your job is to have all the answers. Far from it, we know from our own experience that it is through discussion and deliberation and hearing from those who are working on the front lines that solutions emerge, not from the top of one’s head or from a marketing firm or handler whose job it is to sell candidates to the people.

So, on election day whether you vote for me or not, I encourage you to be independent! Work out what your vote means to you and use your own voice to speak for yourself about what it means and what you think is required going forward. My website will continue after the election as a way for the electorate to speak and discuss our concerns and how we can represent ourselves, whomever is elected.

empoweryourselfnow.ca, May 30, 2022. Ontario Political Forum, posted June 1, 2022.