No. 12September 1, 2021
|
44th General Election
Total Number of Parties and Candidates at the Close of Nominations
Nominations for the 44th General Election closed at 2:00 pm on August 30. Elections Canada has confirmed that a total of 1,998 candidates have registered, 1,909 affiliated with political parties and 89 independents.
There are 22 political parties participating in the election. None of them are fielding candidates in all of Canada’s 338 ridings. Of the parties with seats in the House of Commons at the dissolution of parliament, the Liberal Party is short two, the Conservative Party one, the NDP three and the Green Party 103. The Bloc Québécois has registered candidates in 77 of the 78 ridings in Quebec.
Twenty Days Left in the Campaign
There are 20 days left in the 44th General Election and the results are not predictable at this time. In Canada there is no such thing as an informed vote. Canadians are told that they elect representatives but it is neither they nor individual Members of Parliament (MPs) who set the agenda. Far from it, powerful private narrow interests intervene in the election to favour a cartel party which they figure will best represent them and claim it has a mandate from the people. The so-called leaders’ debates, which are touted as the crucial event of an election to inform the electorate on what the parties stand for, are a prime example of the violation of an informed vote. Only the parties that the ruling class have decided merit attention are present and the rest are not only marginalized but then, to add insult to injury, this is justified by calling them fringe!
The so-called leaders’ debates will be held on September 8 and 9. Their role is to help the ruling class narrow down who it prefers to form the next government. The questions that are put to the party leaders by the representatives of the ruling class during those debates reveal their concerns and the agenda that they want to see going forward. After that, the knives come out in the form of scandals of one sort or another, innuendo and defamation to discredit this or that candidate or party so as to tip the scales in favour of the horse they want to win the race.
None of it brings credit to this electoral process which brings cartel parties to power, not the citizenry.
The Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada calls on Canadians to use the election as another opportunity to set their own course which favours them, not the rich. Take up the need to renew the political process by voting for candidates who do not create illusions that the process of party government can be made fair or representative of their demands and claims on society. This can be a first step to getting rid of this system which ensconces cartel parties in the parliament whose main role is to keep the people without a voice.
The MLPC advocates the reform of the electoral process in a manner which favours the electorate:
– no election without selection,
– fund the process, not the parties,
– for an informed vote,
– opposition to party government, and
– for the elected Members of Parliament (MPs) to form the new government and elect the Prime Minister and also choose the head of state.
These measures would put some power into the hands of the electorate as well as MPs who could then more readily hold governments to account. By choosing the head of state and assigning the person’s duties and term of office, the colonial vestige of having a foreign monarch as head of state would be ended. Provincial legislatures could do likewise and Canadians could be rid of the medieval relics of governors-general with prerogative powers to sign laws enacted by parliament and perform duties as assigned by the state, not the people. With the spectre of a change of monarch on the horizon, this is the time for Canadians to bring in a new system which eliminates all vestiges of state institutions and practices which are designed to keep the people out of power in favour of narrow private interests.
What the Workers Have to Say
We Need to Send a Clear Message to Politicians:
Stop Playing With Our Lives
– Metal Worker from Mauricie, Quebec –
I find this election call totally irresponsible, a total lack of judgment on the part of this government, those who are elected for the people, but they have long forgotten that. At the moment, they are more interested in getting elected than in actually dealing with what is going on. On the one hand, they’re making all kinds of regulations about COVID-19 to try to curb it, but on the other hand, they’re going to make everyone line up at the polls to vote. It’s completely absurd. It’s a political calculation just to get elected. They know very well that there is a big chunk of the population that limits their travel because of COVID-19, and that they probably won’t vote. And they know that there are people who are busy with other things, who are busy surviving. If you just look at what’s happening in Quebec cities with the housing crisis, there are still a lot of people who don’t have housing right now, so the election is the least of their worries.
In the west, it’s tragic what’s happening, with the heat wave and the forest fires. I find that beyond the political calculation that tells them that statistically this is a good time for them, they have ignored everything else. They’ve ignored the human side of what we’ve been going through for almost two years, being locked up or nearly locked up in our homes and limiting our travel. To get their majority, they are ready to put people at risk.
We must mobilize ourselves to send a clear message that enough is enough, politicians must listen to the people, and we must teach the Liberals a lesson. We must send a clear message to the politicians that they must stop playing with the people, with our lives.
We need governments that govern in the interests of the people.
(Translated from original French by Renewal Update.)
(To access articles individually click on the black headline.)
Send your articles, photographs, reports, views and comments to editormlpc@cpcml.ca
