BC FORUM News - from The Advocate, December 2014

Working people make their voices heard in municipal elections

By Diane Wood,
President, BC FORUM

The results from the municipal election are a wonderful way to welcome the New Year. Throughout the province, candidates who were endorsed by their local labour council are being sworn into office.

A preliminary analysis shows that labour councils endorsed a total of 265 candidates and helped to elect 166 of them. In other words, about two-thirds of the candidates who are supported by working people – and vice versa – will serve as mayors, councillors and school trustees for the next four years.

The preliminary number of winners does not include those who were acclaimed, nor does it include other progressives who did not seek endorsement but are on our side. This means the final results will be even more impressive.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing. There were setbacks in Victoria, Nanaimo, Surrey and Coquitlam. In some places, the campaigns were really nasty. In my home town of Burnaby, for example, there were persistent rumours that some candidates planned to inject children with a voodoo serum that would make them gay. This is a height of absurdity in election claims not seen since Christie Clark’s promise that LNG will deliver us to heaven.

But we made significant gains in Maple Ridge, Summerland, Saanich, Parksville, Port Moody and other communities.

And we elected majority councils in Burnaby, Courtenay, New Westminster, North Vancouver City, Pitt Meadows, Port Coquitlam, Prince George, Vancouver and more. Overall, we can be very pleased with the results that we achieved. I’m proud of the role that BC FORUM plays in elections, reminding our members and supporters to vote, encouraging them to support candidates who are on our side, and highlighting the issues that affect us.

Next year, we will face another important election. There have been rumours lately that Stephen Harper is considering calling a federal election as early as next spring. I personally think it is more likely that he will wait until the fall of 2015, but whenever it comes, we will be ready.

There are so many critical issues that affect older and retired workers and our families, and it’s clear that Stephen Harper is not on our side. Our children and grandchildren are held back by deep and persistent inequality in both incomes and wealth (see the articles in this edition of The Advocate for more information). Youth unemployment is shamefully high. Good, family-supporting jobs are few and far between. The relentless and continuing government attacks on unions are a big part of that.

To care properly for the sick and the elderly, home care, residential care and pharmacare should all be national programs. By pooling our resources, and by working together as we do in our unions, we can multiply our buying power, increase efficiency, and make it possible for many more Canadians to age in place and live their lives in dignity. A national pharmacare program, on its own, could both give us better access to drugs and save us billions of dollars every year.

There are two of Harper’s actions that, to me, demonstrate whose side he’s really on.

On the one hand, he will increase the retirement age, forcing all of our children and grandchildren to work to age 67 before being eligible for Old Age Security and the Guaranteed Income Supplement. Even though the parliamentary budget officer says these meagre public pensions are both affordable and sustainable, Harper says they cost too much.

On the other hand, he’s prepared to spend $12.65 billion over six years on an income splitting plan that will benefit just an already welloff 10 percent of Canadian families. In 2015, we have our work cut out for us. With your membership and support, we’ll be ready to help build a better Canada.