The B.C. Federation of Labour made the best of the Labour Day holiday. It chose to highlight its campaign for a $10 an hour minimum wage. B.C. Fed President Jim Sinclair announced his members would be out targeting cabinet ministers in their ridings. He thought the public should know that while six months ago Liberal government ministers voted themselves a 28 per cent salary increase (Premier Campbell gets 54 per cent more), the B.C. minimum wage has been stuck at $8 an hour, for six years, with the only reform being the addition of a lower $6 an hour so-called “training” wage.

It was Frank Scott, poet, McGill law dean, and first president of the NDP who coined the phrase “a just society,” adopted by Scott’s friend, and one-time CCF supporter, Pierre Trudeau, and forever attached to his 1968 campaign.

While the Trudeau Liberals are remembered for establishing French as an official language, and introducing legislation to promote multiculturalism, Scott (and the young Trudeau) knew building a just society entails going beyond language equality, and recognition of minority rights.

A just society means sharing among all citizens: the fortunate pay taxes so that the less fortunate can take part in society, for instance. Wealth needs to be redistributed from rich to poor, so that all citizens can participate in creating a just society.

Participatory democracy is the means to a just society said Trudeau in his first election campaign, and speaking for the CCF/NDP Scott said improving the situation of the economically disadvantaged was a primary measure of just how just is our society.

The claim of the political right, under the supply-side economics adopted by U.S. President Ronald Reagan, was that tax reductions for the wealthy contributed to economic justice for the middle class and the poor. The Laffer curve suggested that a high marginal tax rate for U.S. personal income tax (91 per cent in the postwar period) was a disincentive to wealth creation. Therefore, cut marginal tax rates, increase wealth, and you would get increased overall tax revenue. Presumably, this increased revenue, had it appeared, could have been used to help out the middle class, and the poor.

Instead of putting more money in the pockets of the wealthy, an increase in the minimum wage would put more money in the pockets of the 250,000 poorest paid workers in B.C.

The BC Fed campaign is being waged on behalf of the lowest paid, by unionized workers who, thanks to unions, earn on average $5.14 more per hour than non-union workers.

The Federation of Independent Business opposes a minimum wage increase; apparently, it does not want business customers to have more money to spend. Does its membership know about this?

A just society values liberty, but we accept to curtail liberty so that no harm comes to others. We pay taxes, for example, so that security of the person is protected. When a society fails to protect its members, when preventable deaths occur, or people suffer unnecessary indignities, such as sending their children off to the first day of school without proper clothing, or money for school materials, harm is done. Our attachment to justice is betrayed, though we are prepared to curtail even our personal liberty to ensure that no such thing occurs.

So what recourse do we have when, despite claims to the contrary, public policies made by elected officials fail to protect us from spreading injustice?We expand our liberty of action through spending, and through public policy we can regulate and set standards for private spending, as well as determining public spending priorities. Higher minimum wages are as important as accessible, generous welfare benefits, and low tuition. On all three counts the B.C Liberals fail the justice test. The starting point for action is informing our fellow citizens about the situation.

The B.C. Fed public education campaign is best understood as a component of the larger project of building a just society: based on the aspirations of working people, and their organizations, for a better life for all. How appropriate it is to bring low wages to our attention, as the new school year begins, and we expect all pupils to have equal opportunities for knowledge and enlightenment.

Duncan Cameron

Duncan Cameron

Born in Victoria B.C. in 1944, Duncan now lives in Vancouver. Following graduation from the University of Alberta he joined the Department of Finance (Ottawa) in 1966 and was financial advisor to the...