14

Going into the end days of Ontario’s terrible political sham it looks as if we may yet get… exactly what we went into the election with.

Liberal austerity supported by a craven and morally empty New Democratic Party.

Or the NDP gamble will fail even more than it has already and we will end up with a Hudak majority. A situation which would perpetuate the “strategic voting” for the Liberals idea forever despite the idiot notions of those in the ONDP allegedly opposing it.

It is time to repudiate this ugly and cynical politics entirely.

Constantly rationalizing voting for results that you do not want will result in results that you do not want!

It is really that simple.

At some point it has to stop and people have to reject this cynicism or we cannot ever win as leftists and we cannot ever advance a real socialist or social democratic agenda.

Writing endless pieces on rabble or in other forums calling for it to happen is no substitute for actually doing something to make it happen. Until people are willing to do something other than comment, frankly they are not doing much of anything.

Comment is easy.

Running for office and actually going door-to-door for socialist ideas takes real commitment.

It is very easy to call for new solutions while literally doing nothing to create them. It is also terribly boring.

The next time you see a call for a new politics in Ontario or Canada, ask the author what they intend to do in a real sense to achieve it. If they do not have a plan to create a real socialist alternative in an electoral context to the ONDP, then, frankly, why are they writing at all?

As an example of the emptiness of the constant compromise of the ONDP, with the promised electoral results used to justify the ONDP’s dramatic shift to the right seemingly not materializing some candidates and MPPs are starting to go off message and have begun campaigning on policies that their party does not actually support.

I had an email exchange (a pleasant one I might note) with an ONDP activist telling me that their Toronto candidate (who will remain nameless) is in favour of a $14/hour minimum wage and is telling people they are. They are saying the ONDP plan is at least an increase towards $14 NOW.

But no, it is really not!

The actual ONDP plan that the caucus would presumably be whipped into supporting were they to form government, is to raise it to $12 in 2016 and index it to inflation.

Now let us assume that this were to happen and that inflation were to remain approximately at the rate it was from April 2013-April 2014, which was 2.4 per cent.

The minimum wage would not reach $14 until 2023 under this ONDP plan!

2023! Nine years from now.

$14 NOW is a call for living wages NOW. Not what will no longer be living wages in nine years!

There is no substitute.

Yet, again, we are being told by most leftists to support this, or, even worse, the Liberals, to simply stop the Tories.

This call implicitly means abandoning minimum-wage workers and those living in poverty. It is a call to sacrifice them, and they are “living” under cruel and unsustainable conditions, in the interest, apparently, of others.

Calling for a vote for the Liberals or NDP directly does this. It is calling up front for a vote for poverty wages and poverty social assistance.

Justify it morally however you want, that is what is the result.

Poverty. For millions of Ontarians. That is who you are directly sacrificing by supporting these policies and campaigns.

Many are saying that the ONDP is finished. I think counting out the ONDP is wrong for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the appalling cynicism and emptiness of this entire election and the ONDP and Liberals.

Who knows? Politics is so empty anything can happen.

Sort of like Coke Zero taking off the ONDP yet might, though it looks very unlikely.

It is now a brand. Brands rise and fall.

There has never been an election where conscientious abstention was in order more than now.

If Hudak is a threat it is directly due to the Liberals and NDP pandering to the right wing narratives of the Tories and directly due to the NDP triggering this election for no valid ideological reason. No matter who gets elected, as the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty put it, we will get austerity.

Hudak’s potential election is only possible due to the Liberals and NDP. Calls to forget or sacrifice those living on social assistance and on the minimum wage for other wage workers or to get NDPers or Liberals elected are exactly that.

They are calls to leave these workers and people behind in the alleged interest of others.

When does this stop?

When do we show solidarity with them and ask not that minimum-wage workers and people in poverty vote “strategically” to “preserve”  what others far better off then them have, but instead ask the better off to vote with principle and show solidarity with minimum-wage workers and those living in poverty even if this means a sacrifice on their part?

Cynicism to trigger this election was the order of the day. Absolutely none of the parties care in the slightest about the poor or minimum-wage workers.

Maybe it is time to not care about them and whether they get reelected or elected to $100,000 plus a year jobs..

Reject austerity by rejecting your ballot and the process.

In this election, if you do not have a serious anti-capitalist option, consider not legitimizing the election itself.

Consider declining your ballot.