St. Paul's the 2nd

Good evening everyone. Today is a good day to be a New Democrat.

            Looking around this room, I can see three or four generations of New Democrats and CCFers gathered today because of a commitment to never abandoning our struggle for justice and equity. I feel proud to look around this room and see the faces of so many activists who don’t wait for government to make change but are out on picket lines fighting for workers’ rights or in our parks and local wilderness engaged in environmental restoration. Today, I want to especially single out the members of the Raging Grannies and others who helped to make the demonstration in solidarity with Penetanguishene environmentalists campaigning against dump 41 into the smashing success it was this afternoon.

            It’s a great day to be a New Democrat because we know that the values of solidarity, compassion and sharing that launched this movement are eternal values, articulated in the earliest texts human beings made. Whether we call the thing for which we strive Zion, the Kingdom, socialism or Mouseland, we share a proud heritage that unites us in heart and in action as we come together to choose our candidate tonight.

            It’s a great day to be a New Democrat because I can feel our movement coming out of a long period at the margins. Those who have kept our party relevant, those who have kept our party active, those who have rebuilt a base that was shattered in 1995 are beginning to see their work come to fruition. Today, after an invigorating leadership race, we have a new, articulate, dynamic leader. Today, a new generation of voters is turning to the NDP as this global economic downturn is making painfully clear who is really on their side.

I am very hopeful today. But hope is often born of crisis. Let us not minimize the challenges our party faces. Every election, the Greens have siphoned more of the progressive vote from our party. If we do nothing more than hold our 15% from the last two elections, there is every chance that it will earn us fourth place, not third this time. We cannot beat Eric Hoskins with an undefended flank – and I believe that my background and experience make me uniquely qualified to reverse the trend of the last few years and move Green votes back to the NDP.

            I am standing here today as one of the people who was inspired by Andrea’s speech at the convention this spring, who felt a renewed enthusiasm for the NDP after her bold declaration that we will no longer check our socialism at the door. This, I thought, is a movement that is once again ready to take on the hard work, not just of fighting the right-wing policies of the Liberals and Conservatives but the hard work of redefining the political discourse in our province.

            For too long, politics in this province has been a debate about who will do the best job of holding the line on taxes, while cutting the alleged “waste, corruption and inefficiency” out of our government. As long as people think elections are just an audition to see who will do the best job of shrinking the public sector while keeping their Harris-era tax rates in place, New Democrats will lose, whether we are elected or not.

            For me, this by-election is part of the process of our movement relearning how to win.

            Winning isn’t just about filling the benches in the legislature with a new generation of NDP MPPs. That is crucially necessary and it will only happen when it is our ideas that are being discussed at water coolers, on street corners and on Twitter.

Too often corporate media trap us into being the defenders of the status quo.

            When we resist health care privatization, we are portrayed as being satisfied with or indifferent to the escalating costs and lengthening waiting lists. When we stand up against massive nuclear plant development, we are painted as defending an antiquated, crumbling electricity grid. When we stand up against the punishing cost increases low-income people will suffer due to the HST, voters are left with the impression that we think the current regressive 8% PST is somehow okay and that our current tax regime deserves to be defended.

            Ironically, we, the progressives, are too often viewed as the only true conservatives. What do I mean by conservative? A conservative is a defender of the status quo, selling a politics of nostalgia for a bygone era. We must remind voters that we are not and have never been satisfied with the status quo.

            As we saw in the United States last fall, people are once again looking for a politics of change. And here in Ontario, we have a ripe opportunity. The Conservatives have just chosen a backward-looking leader seeking to recreate the supposed glory days of Mike Harris. And our current Liberal government is clearly out of gas. It has no new ideas. The plan of delivering a Rae level of services with a Harris level of taxes has been exposed as a fraud.

            Once again, New Democrats can position ourselves as a truly progressive party – a party that will deliver the change people are demanding.

            Retail politics is going to be an important part of this campaign. Voters need to know that an NDP victory is the best way they have of saying “no” to the Harper-McGuinty HST. But they also need to hear how we plan to solve the problem of government revenues being too low. They need to hear a social democratic vision of a fair tax system. The Conservatives have already staked out the turf of anti-tax naysayers. We need to talk about a tax system that targets pollution and overconsumption, that gets the richest among to pay their fair share, that ends the free ride for our wealthiest banks and communications companies.

            Voters need to know that an NDP victory in St. Paul’s is the best way of ensuring that Bombardier starts building our new streetcar fleet next month and construction starts on the TransitCity right-of-way on Eglinton. Exposing Dalton McGuinty’s use of his trained seals on Metrolinx to delay desperately needed transit is only half the battle. We need to show voters our ecologically and socially progressive plan for a twenty-first century transportation grid all across our province. To offer voters an ambitious transportation strategy that recreates a publicly-owned rail system, rather than subsidizing US-owned rail companies with new free track infrastructure and exorbitant rents for using a rail bed that we taxpayers built in the first place.

New Democrats can recapture the public discourse by offering a solution-oriented campaign.

            Will we offend some people by speaking boldly and courageously about new ideas and innovative policies? Yes. I believe we will. Will we scare some voters? Yes. I believe we will. That’s what relevant political parties do. They shake things up. And when they shake things up, they earn the trust and admiration of other voters.

            We have always called ourselves a progressive party. And back in the 70s, we used to mock the Tories’ absurd name, “progressive conservative.” The “forwards backwards party” demonstrated that they had no idea what progressive politics really was. For progressives, the status quo is not an option – it is an illusion. Change is all around us. Standing pat is not an option. Doing what worked last time is not an option.

            Every party in this election will vie to carry the message of change to Queens Park. Eric Hoskins will beg voters to make him the messenger as he bobs and weaves to avoid the McGuinty government record. Sue-Ann Levy will sing her own riff on Tim Robbins’ brilliantly-titled satire, “the times are a’ changin’ back.” Chris Chopik will offer the Greens as a brand new party with new ideas, despite their stunning similarity to the policies that his party has been offering and voters have been rejecting every election for the past quarter century.

            New Democrats can and will speak in favour of real, fundamental change in the political life of Ontario. We will be a voice that is forward-looking and compassionate, a voice that is honest and inspiring. It would be a great honour to be selected by you to speak for a new progressive politics and to represent you as the first-ever NDP MPP for St. Paul’s.

Meanwhile, the Levy campaign is dropping literature in apartment buildings telling people their rent is being increased...but it turns out to be an attack on the HST.