BRIAR PATCH: What to Do About the Federal Election-Pt. 1 & 2

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What to Do About the Federal Election - Part One of our federal election roundtable

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by Briarpatch Staff • May 12, 2015 • Politics

Note: we invited a prominent NDP member of parliament to join this roundtable discussion. She initially agreed to participate but then backed out of it saying that she was uncomfortable with some of the discussion. Part two of our election roundtable will be published online May 20. If you appreciate this kind of unique content, please subscribe.

Given how ideologically extreme the Conservative Harper government is, and how much systemic damage it has done during its three terms, many people believe this federal election is of grave, historic importance. Do you agree?

Erica Violet Lee is a nehiyaw (Cree) Indigenous feminist, a youth organizer for Idle No More and #MMIWG2S, and a philosophy student at the University of Saskatchewan. All portraits: Leya Anderson.

Erica: I think that every election feels like a chance to start with a “clean slate,” but the systems that underpin Canada’s electoral processes don’t reset. I remember being a kid and getting into politics, and not being happy with Liberals like Martin or Chrétien, but compared to the sheer extent of the damage that Harper has done via legislation like the omnibus Bill C-45, those Liberals seem like a walk in the park. Liberal governance is generally viewed as “business as usual” for Canada, but recall that it was a Liberal government that brought in the two per cent funding cap for First Nations education. So many of the parties hold similar views at this point. It will take a lot more than an election to start to undo 150 years of colonialism.

Syed Hussan is an organizer and writer in Toronto who works with undocumented and migrant people, in defence of Indigenous sovereignty, and against war and capitalism.

Hussan: An election at the federal level determines who gets to continue making the decisions for a settler-colonial capitalist state. No elections will determine the resurgence of the communities that I care about most: these include undocumented people, migrant workers, sex workers, Indigenous communities, and those impacted around the globe by Canadian policies. Our collective futures won’t be determined in these elections. But I do accept that if Harper [were elected for another term], it would be a shift in the historical pattern of the baton going back and forth between the Liberals and the Conservatives.

Nora Loreto is the author of From Demonized to Organized: Building the New Union Movement (2013). She is the editor for the Canadian Association of Labour Media (CALM) and lives in Quebec City.

Nora: For thousands of Canadians, another Harper victory will mean the further elimination of the social programs that they depend on. The Conservatives will finish what they have started: to eliminate fundamental services (like door-to-door mail delivery and the CBC), encourage destructive resource extraction, undo collective bargaining rights, impose increasingly harsh criminal sentences, declare more war, and apply their so-called antiterror legislation. Canada will be fundamentally changed if they win. If we think of the broader structures that oppress many people, I agree with Erica and Hussan: defeating Harper will not bring about systemic change. But I fear that another Harper victory will lead to more death and misery among marginalized and struggling people.

Meanwhile, the Liberals take lessons from how far right the Conservatives can push. Defeating Harper is also part of a broader strategy to give confidence to parties ostensibly on the left that progressive policies can win elections.

Derrick O’Keefe is a writer, activist, and dad based in Vancouver. He is a co-founder and editor of Ricochet Media and the author of Michael Ignatieff: The Lesser Evil? (2011).

Derrick: I do think Harper winning again would be grave and demoralizing. This would be true especially for the fight against pipelines and climate change. If we can’t take out Harper now, after all the scandals and corruption, what hope is there for a government not in the pocket of Big Oil? But I’m afraid in many ways his government and the right-wing movement it grew out of has already made its historic impact on Canadian politics and society. Harper’s cohort, those who founded the Reform Party and then effectively refounded the right-wing establishment party, have been remarkably successful, even if they haven’t been able to implement or even campaign on their more extreme, socially conservative positions.

Why do you think the Harper Conservatives have been able to maintain significant support for their policies and for their record in Canada?[/b]

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Why are Canada’s Political Parties so Uninspiring? - Part two of our federal election roundtable

[ http://briarpatchmagazine.com/articles/ ... ninspiring ]

by Briarpatch Staff • May 20, 2015 • Politics

What do you think of the range of political perspectives represented by Canada’s major political parties (Conservative, Liberal, NDP, Green)? Is it adequate?

Erica Violet Lee is a nehiyaw (Cree) Indigenous feminist, a youth organizer for Idle No More and #MMIWG2S, and a philosophy student at the University of Saskatchewan. All portraits: Leya Anderson.

Erica: Not at all. One of the projects we’re working on right now is providing a candidate and party information sheet, that shows how the stance on each policy lines up with Idle No More and struggles for Indigenous sovereignty. The Conservatives and Liberals are nearly indistinguishable, especially in terms of environmental policy, which I find funny, because Trudeau has a tattoo of the Earth inside a Haida raven on his shoulder. I guess love for canoeing and outdoorsiness doesn’t translate into recognizing the need for a harmonious relationship with the land.

As for the Green Party, few women that I’ve worked with from that party were speaking about Idle No More, and Elizabeth May stood up and claimed that white environmentalists face the same violence as Indigenous communities. So that’s not exactly the anti-colonial change that we need, either.

Syed Hussan is an organizer and writer in Toronto who works with undocumented and migrant people, in defence of Indigenous sovereignty, and against war and capitalism.

Hussan: If there were an anti-capitalist, anti-colonial party that was pushing forward a new nation to nation relationship with Indigenous communities, was redefining land as something we belong to and not something that belongs to us, a party that refused to participate or support the displacement of people in the Global South, and rejected white supremacy, patriarchy, and transphobia – it would be a good start. Especially if it restructured parliament so that elected representatives went back to their constituencies to present all the bills being discussed in parliament, seeking community input from their electorate – and then voted based on what their community members told them to.

But you know what, I couldn’t vote for it – along with at least two million residents of this country who are undocumented, or migrant workers, or students, or refugee claimants, or permanent residents that are also barred from voting.

I don’t think adding more parties to the roster will create the many worlds we dream of and need. It might be too early to tell, but I fear that is what the Syriza victory in Greece might teach us all again.

Derrick O’Keefe is a writer, activist, and dad based in Vancouver. He is a co-founder and editor of Ricochet Media and the author of Michael Ignatieff: The Lesser Evil? (2011).

Derrick: I think we’re really suffering from the absence of even something like the New Politics Initiative, which was a network set up 15 years ago to challenge the NDP to refound as a party more oriented towards social movements. We don’t even have an organizational vehicle for this discussion, let alone a truly left party like those that exist for instance in Quebec, much of Europe, and throughout Latin America.

The other thing that’s happened to narrow the political discussion is that the old left-wing within the NDP’s parliamentary caucus has gone silent. This “message discipline” of a party that tries to portray itself as a “government in waiting” means we barely hear from someone like Libby Davies when Israel attacks Gaza, to give just one example.

Nora Loreto is the author of From Demonized to Organized: Building the New Union Movement (2013). She is the editor for the Canadian Association of Labour Media (CALM) and lives in Quebec City.

Nora: No, not even close. While the NDP and Liberals seem to be fighting for the winner of “Most enlightened centrist party” the Conservatives are a runaway freight train (or oil pipeline?) toward totalitarianism.

If I have any advice for the NDP it’s that Canadians need an audacious, progressive party that isn’t bullied into moderating their policies by Stephen Harper. Offering people a progressive vision of Canada through enlightened social policies would go a long way to securing a victory for that party. Unfortunately, I don’t think NDP strategists are listening to the right voices. Or, they’re listening to the Right voices, not the ones of their own grassroots members who yearn for a progressive party that would make them proud again. These kinds of electoralist calculations feed this widespread cynicism.

Very few people seem to have strong faith in any of Canada’s political parties. Even campaign volunteers and longtime party members often privately admit to being uninspired. Why do you think that is?

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