British Columbia turns left

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News and views from SA Canada A rising tide lifts all boats website: http://socialistaction.ca The May 9 election in British Columbia (B.C.) showed a dramatic attempt by voters to break from 16 years of austerity under the Liberal Party towards a left social-democratic program. Like other regions of Canada, the western-most province was hit hard by the 2008/9 economic meltdown. Its staple natural resource indus­ tries—fishing, mining, and forestry—are plagued by continuing lay-offs and now face U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs. Intense real estate speculation fos­ tered immense income inequality. The shift to the left electorally was a response to this situation.

However, the election did not result in a decisive parliamentary victory for the New Democratic Party. Instead, while the NDP and Green Party won a com­ bined popular vote of 57.10% (40.25% and 16.85% respectively) to the ruling Liberal Party’s 40.38%, this resulted in a near tie in seats. The 87 seats in the BC legislature, under the first-past-the-post system, are now divided between 43 for the former ruling Liberal Party, 41 held by the NDP, and three occupied by the Green Party.

$15 an hour:

At the end of May, the Ontario Liberal government announced “sweeping” labour law reforms, inclining them to bask in the glory of their freshly appropriated “progressive values,” eliciting the ire and indignation of Conservatives, while causing New Democrats to ut­ ter a collective “well, duh!”

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business and the Ontario Chamber of Commerce were “shocked and appalled” at the suggestion that working people should be paid a living wage. Conservative leader Pat­ rick Brown, somewhat more cautiously stated: “Ev­ eryone wants higher wages, but when a worker wakes up in the morning, they need a job.” Now, is Brown ex­ uding obstinate blind faith in the debunked neoliberal nostrum that higher wages mean higher unemploy­ ment, or is he venting the natural instinct of a bour­ geois to prey on the desperation of working people?

In the end, the Conservative position seems quite clear: Capital is happy to provide jobs, but the ques­ tion of whether “a worker” earns a living wage from that job; that’s a problem for “them.” Well, if you’re a working person, “they” are “us.” And we want a living wage (which actually requires an amount closer to $20/hour).

As Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath stated in a recent radio interview, for labour-based New Demo­ crats, the sort of labour law reforms proposed by the Wynne government aren’t just a populist Hail Mary tossed up at the 11th hour; they’re “in our DNA!”

The biggest talking point of the announced reform, of course, has been the increase in minimum wage, from $11.40 to $14 an hour in 2018, and to $15 in 2019. Right-wing critics say this measure will spur inflation and drive up the cost of living, thus hurting the very people it is designed to help. However, the most significant expenditures by low-income earners (i.e., shelter and transportation) are not labour-inten­ sive, and are therefore not likely to be affected by an increase in minimum wage at all. So, any increase in the cost of living of low-wage earners is likely to be nominal, while clearly the purchasing power of wage earners will increase considerably.

Another criticism is that a higher minimum wage will make it harder for small businesses to survive be­ cause of the added cost of labour for those businesses already operating on tight margins. This view is short sighted because it focuses entirely on expenses and ignores opportunities for revenue generation.

Take, for example, a neighbourhood bakery. The bakery owner needs a certain number of employees to staff the shop. Those employees represent a fixedcost; regardless of how much sales revenue the bak­ 10 SOCIALIST ACTION JULY 2017 The NDP managed to reach a four-year agreement with the Green Party to form a minority government with 44 seats. This may prove to be unprecedented. Previous minority governments in Canada have not held together for more than two years. The parties in­ volved remained in election mode. If a left agenda is to go ahead, it will have to proceed quickly.

As elsewhere in Canada, workers and the poor in B.C. have been suffering. Students are burdened with debt, people have been priced out of their homes, renters face unprecedented rent increases, seniors face pover­ ty in retirement, workers work harder for longer hours without a wage increase, and precarious employment abounds. Not surprisingly, the desire for change is widespread.

The NDP pledged to increase the minimum wage to $15/hour, freeze ICBC (government car insurance) rates, freeze B.C. Hydro power rates, eliminate medical insurance premiums, improve renters’ rights, stop the runaway prices of real estate, reinstate the Vancouver School Board (trustees were fired by the Liberal gov­ ernment for refusing to implement cuts), and intro­ duce $10/day childcare. The NDP also promised elec­ ery generates, the cost of paying employees remains the same. If you increase the mini­ mum wage, the cost of operating the bakery increases. But the increase in minimum wage also means that workers across the board now have more money to spend at the bakery.

Indeed, higher wages lead to increased de­ mand. For an efficiently run business, higher demand should translate into a higher vol­ ume of sales, thus offsetting the increase in the fixed-cost of labour. In fact, the higher demand might even create an opportunity to expand the business, requiring additional staff, thus contributing to an increase in em­ ployment. For examples of colossal corporate expansion based almost entirely on catering to low-income earners, look no further than Tim Hortons and Dollarama.

Indeed, a higher minimum wage is actu­ ally more likely to bolster the economy and be particularly beneficial to small business because low-income earners—who spend rather than save their earnings—will have more money to spend on leisure and non-ne­ cessities, stimulating local economies in the process.

Certainly, not all businesses will be able to keep their head above the tide of a $15/hour minimum wage. Some will drown. But to em­ ploy the “sink-or-swim” mantra so beloved by proponents of laissez-faire economics: if certain businesses are unable to adapt to the new market reality of a higher minimum wage, let them drown. Their fitter counter­ parts—those who can pay a decent wage to workers—will survive, and working people, not to mention society as a whole, will be the better for it. n ... Not Our Revolution (continued from page 6: “This Is Not Our Revolution”) tem and its attendant racism, sexism, imperialism, and other oppression. As Lenin put it, our model is to be “tribunes of the people,” speaking against every wrong and laying bare the unpleasant truths of our society.

Modern capitalist parties are more like corporate brands than substantial political organizations; the success of Donald Trump should make that painfully clear. We cannot win by associating our­ tions.

The NDP also pledged to stop construction of the Kinder Morgan oil pipeline, to put the Site C Dam be­ fore the B.C. Utilities Commission for review, and to de­ liver carbon tax rebate cheques to citizens. The party also promised to create 96,000 jobs in infrastructure spending including on new roads, schools, hospitals, and carbon emissions reduction up-grading. While it is a tall order for a minority government, it reflects the mood in the province.

Towards the goal of creating a stable legislature, the NDP signed a “confidence and supply” agreement with the Green Party whereby the Greens pledged to sup­ port the NDP for four years in parliament. The Greens have agreed not “to move, nor vote non-confidence” for the next four years, to have all their elected members at all sittings of the House, and to vote in favour of all confidence motions, including the overall budgetary policy of the government.

At the time of writing, the official transition of power to the NDP with Green Party support is expected to be­ gin in early July. The position of Speaker of the House will be difficult to fill, as the speaker breaks tie votes in the legislature. If the legislature dissolves, the province would head towards another election. It could result in a sweeping victory for the NDP.

This is the first time in decades voters in B.C. en­ dorsed a left program, albeit one that seeks to reform capitalism in crisis, rather than opt for socialism, but it will be an important experience. Workers and the poor in B.C. have decided that austerity has to end and a sweeping set of changes must be put into place to turn the economic situation around. n Don’t close schools — By JOHN ORRETT Toronto Star columnist Martin Regg Cohn reported on May 16 that Ontario’s school boards might close as many as 300 local schools. Many are in rural areas. He writes that the “elephant in the (class) room” is the fact that Ontario has four different school boards: Eng­ lish Public, English Catholic, French Public, and French Catholic—and that this is costing the public a lot more than a unified school system would.

The fear of losing Catholic votes makes the subject “taboo” for the ruling Liberal Party, the official oppo­ sition Conservatives, and the labor-based New Dem­ ocratic Party. Gilles Bisson, NDP Member of the Pro­ vincial Parliament, calls the Catholic school issue the “third rail” of politics in Ontario.

This is despite the fact that opinion polls show a ma­ jority of Ontarians are in favor of amalgamating school boards and ending a blatantly discriminatory system that funds schooling for one religion, while denying it to all others.

In 2010, the NDP Socialist Caucus presented a policy paper to the Ontario NDP Task Force on Education that showed how $500 million was wasted annually by bussing students to schools far from their homes, duplicating school boards and administrative servic­ es, and failing to rationalize of the number of schools in parts of rural Ontario with shrinking student popu­ lations.

Catholic Schools are anachronistic and discriminato­ ry. The separation of church and state is an ongoing is­ sue in Ontario. Public funds should not go to religious or private schools of any kind.

The millions of dollars saved would be better spent improving schools for indigenous students, which are in a deplorable state, and providing much needed early childhood education and special needs programs. n selves with a brand that is not clearly based on the working class and its allies and oriented toward goals that are in their interest. Even the halfwayhouse of the Green Party is no way to build a massaction-oriented socialist movement.

As groups like Our Revolution and DSA turn more of the anti-Trump sentiment into ground work for the Democrats, their role—and the legacy of Ber­ nie Sanders—will be in rebuilding this discredited capitalist party, not in building toward working-class power and socialism. We need to do the op­ posite—build an independent party of workers and the oppressed. n