In last week’s column, I detailed the signs that Ontario Premier Ernie Eves will soon call a spring election. I also described the strengths and weaknesses of the strategy and policies of the Liberals and the Conservatives. And, in what seemed to get the most attention from readers, I predicted that the PC government is on its way out, that it knows it is on its way out, and that its focus is on avoiding oblivion. I stand by that prediction.

In 1999, there were still people in the province who thought that tax cuts were a free gift. Now, the people of Ontario have come to realize that there are consequences to Tory policies that affect more than just the poor and marginalized. The question for most voters going into this campaign is going to be: “Which of the two opposition parties is best suited to undo the damage caused by Mike Harris and Ernie Eves?” It probably won’t surprise regular readers that I’m going to make the case for the NDP as the best alternative.

I’ve been a member of the NDP for nineteen years. During that time, I have to say that I have only rarely been impressed with the electoral strategies employed by the party’s central campaign team. We’ve always had credible leadership, sound policies and well-respected local candidates. But, we seem to be constantly outmaneuvered by the other parties on the campaign trail.

To be fair, a lot of the problem stems from an inability to match the spending of the corporate-backed parties. This time, I think that the NDP has found a strategy that will carry the party to greater success than anyone anticipates in the coming campaign.

Building on Howard Hampton’s successful campaign to halt the privatization of Ontario Hydro, the NDP platform is called “Public Power: Practical Solutions for Ontario.” It’s available in its entirety at: www.publicpower.ca, but here are the ten key aspects of the platform:

  • Stop hydro privatization and deregulation and ensure clean, reliable public power at cost.
  • Extend public homecare, create one hundred new Community Health Centres and cut long-term care user fees. Cancel plans for private MRI/CT clinics and privately built hospitals and put funds back into public health care.
  • Keep our drinking water public and protect water from source to tap.
  • Ensure every student has the opportunity to excel, guaranteed by a dedicated Education Excellence Fund that takes the politics out of education funding. No public funds for private schools.
  • Immediately increase the minimum wage to eight dollars an hour, prohibit scabs and treat injured workers fairly.
  • Freeze rents for two years, build at least 32,000 units of affordable housing and increase shelter allowances.
  • Cut tuition by ten per cent and ensure that no student is denied a quality education or training for financial reasons.
  • Lower transit fares, shorter waits and reduced gridlock through a dedicated transportation trust fund.
  • Reduce childcare fees to $10 a day for 18-month to 5-year-olds in non-profit, regulated childcare, and create 20,000 new child care spaces.
  • Protect your pension from inflation and let you take it with you from job to job.

My instincts tell me that the people of Ontario are going to identify with these and other issues raised by the party. The NDP’s internal polls certainly indicate that they are. As Howard Hampton puts it: “The public is with us; they just don’t know it yet. That’s what the campaign is for.”

So, what about the Liberals? Will Dalton McGuinty be able (or, more importantly, willing) to deliver on this kind of alternative agenda if elected? The short answer is a big “maybe.” If the Liberals form a minority government, and the NDP holds the balance of power (the most likely best case scenario if current polling numbers hold), then they can be forced to implement some progressive changes (as they were forced to do between 1985 and 1987). Under any other Liberal victory scenario, your guess is as good as mine.

I do know that, during the last three sessions of the legislature, the Liberals have voted with the Conservatives sixty-three times (while the NDP voted against it). During the same time period, the NDP never voted with the government (while the Liberals voted against it). That should tell you all you need to know about the Liberals.

In closing, I’d like to take you back to the Liberal pre-election ad, which I had such a fun time ridiculing last week. As Dalton McGuinty stands in a snow storm, looking only slightly less stiff than the tree beside which he is standing, he asks and answers a key question that is intended to define him for voters: “Am I an optimist? Maybe.”

Why don’t you get back to us when you decide, Dalton?

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Scott Piatkowski

Scott Piatkowski is a former columnist for rabble.ca. He wrote a weekly column for 13 years that appeared in the Waterloo Chronicle, the Woolwich Observer and ECHO Weekly. He has also written for Straight...