Canada:
Manitoba electors vote for change

After 11 years of Tory rule, electors in the Canadian province of 
Manitoba ousted them at the end of September, electing an NDP majority 
government. "People voted to defeat the Tories, and for progressive change 
based largely on the history and reputation of the NDP in Manitoba", said a 
statement issued by the Communist Party of Canada's Manitoba Committee 
after the election.

However, "While this election is a rebuke to the Tories, it does not 
signify real change, the kind of change growing numbers of people want", 
said the CPC statement.

"The NDP admits it will adopt the Tories' main economic policies. It has 
failed to provide a real alternative to the corporate agenda and its 
policies will do little about poverty or jobs.

"The one major popular reason for people shifting toward the NDP was the 
promise to end hallway medicine, a term for Tory health care cuts."

All the main parties failed to address the real issues of growing poverty 
and loss of good paying jobs.

"Under the leadership of premier-elect Gary Doer, there are dangerous signs 
that the new government will follow the right wing, divisive path of 
[other] recent NDP governments", the statement went on.

The NDP has promised to create "a new partnership with business and 
labour".

The NDP's promise to end political donations from unions and corporations 
can only be seen as an attempt to end its relationship with organised 
labour.

The CPC warned that a "massive mobilisation of working people and 
progressive forces" will be necessary to "prevent this suicidal drift to 
the right by the NDP".

The election was hotly contested but saw little direct involvement by the 
labour and other movements. Nevertheless, working people are starting to 
doubt that pro-corporate policies will save their jobs or build a better 
future.

The Communist Party's call to defeat the Tory-corporate agenda and its 
proposals for People's Alternative policies had a positive impact, not 
reflected in its small vote. The Party conducted a vigorous campaign with 
six candidates, the most since 1945.

Summing up the positives and negatives of the election, the CPC noted that 
while "people are not yet ready to vote for alternative policies ... they 
want to defeat pro-corporate parties".

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People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper

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