BC FORUM News - from The Advocate, Winter 2015

Goodbye Mr. Harper Hello Mr. Trudeau

Canadian voters reject “politics of fear and division”

CLC hopeful for progressive change under new Liberal government

The Canadian Labour Congress has congratulated Justin Trudeau and the Liberal party on their election victory, and urged them to act quickly on key priorities for working Canadians.

“Canadians have soundly rejected the Conservatives’ politics of fear and division and have voted for change.

“We look forward to working to ensure the Trudeau government delivers on the real change it has promised for working Canadians,” said CLC president Hassan Yussuff.

Yussuff highlighted key Liberal campaign promises he hopes the new government will act upon swiftly. Those included:

• Providing Canadians with a more secure retirement by enhancing the Canada Pension Plan, restoring the eligibility age for Old Age Security and the Guaranteed Income Supplement to 65, and increasing the GIS by 10 percent;

• Expanding training and apprenticeship opportunities to help Canadians – particularly young Canadians – find and keep good jobs;

• Significantly increasing infrastructure funding, including new, dedicated funding for public transit, social infrastructure like seniors and child care facilities, and green infrastructure;

• Beginning to turn back more than $36 billion in Conservative cuts to health care by investing $3 billion over the next four years to improve home care, mental health services and access to prescription drugs;

• Repealing the Conservatives’ fundamentally flawed, ideological anti-labour bills C-377 and C-525; and

• Immediately launching a national public inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women.

Yussuff also raised significant concerns about the Liberals’ position on C-51 and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

“The Conservatives’ so-called anti- terror legislation C-51 is an affront to Canadian values and our Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” said Yussuff.

“Repealing the legislation, not just tinkering with it, is the only way to adequately safeguard Canadians’ rights and freedoms.”

On the TPP, Yussuff called on the incoming government to make the full agreement details public.

“The new government must take action to protect our supply management system and Canadian jobs – including auto sector jobs – that are under serious threat from the TPP as it stands,” he said.

Yussuff also urged the government to strengthen its position on child care and bring in an affordable child care system for all families.

“We encourage the incoming government to work constructively with the labour movement, to ensure Canadians see positive change,” Yussuff concluded.