PV Ontario Bureau
The Communist Party held its 32nd Ontario Convention in Toronto from November 23-24. Delegates from across the province gathered to discuss the nature of the corporate attack in Ontario and give direction to the incoming Provincial Committee, Party clubs and members.
This convention was the first in-person Ontario convention since 2019 and was especially important to unite the Party heading into 2025 with a federal election and a likely snap provincial election on the horizon. It is widely expected that Doug Ford will try to call an election before the federal election, making a late winter or early spring election likely.
The convention also renewed and strengthened the provincial leadership with new cadres, reflecting overall growth and renewal in the Party in the last few years.
Delegates discussed a thorough political report which outlined the danger of the Ford government and its agenda to reduce taxes for corporations and the wealthy, weaken labour rights, and defund and privatize social services, health and education. Ford’s government has consistently undermined labour, student movements, municipalities, environmental protections and Indigenous rights, ignoring legal and bourgeois democratic norms to consolidate power in favour of monopoly corporate interests.
Delegates adopted a political report which identifies the Ford Conservatives as the biggest political danger to working people in Ontario. However, the convention also noted that people can’t expect much different from the Liberal Party, which did not live up to its promise of reversing most of the cuts of the Harris years. Instead, the McGuinty and Wynne Liberal governments enforced 15 years of austerity through a slow boil strategy.
The Ontario New Democratic Party, now the official opposition but trailing the Liberals in the polls, has rejected mass labour and people’s mobilization and is instead trying to position itself as a more responsible steward of capitalism with a human face. Social democracy’s decades-long shift from a working-class base to the middle strata, including professionals and the petty bourgeoisie, has caused significant rifts within the party, and these have echoed to some extent into the labour movement.
The Communist Party in Ontario reiterates its strategy to build a genuine People’s Coalition built through struggle in the streets and workplaces with a parliamentary reflection. Only the extra parliamentary struggle can be decisive in stopping the corporate agenda at Queen’s Park at this juncture.
A People’s Coalition would be a broad, democratic alliance led by the working class to challenge monopoly power and promote public ownership and job creation, and fight for policies that can raise wages and living standards, take action to combat the climate and housing crises, and expand health, education, democracy and equality. This would be a coalition of movements whose interests collide with monopoly capitalism.
The convention had a detailed discussion about how the Ford government was advancing its privatization agenda in Ontario. The Tories are using new ideological tactics to mask privatization, such as talking about “publicly funded” services that are privately operated. A major tactic for privatization is using is not the outright takeover of public services by the private sector, but the expansion of already-private sections of public services. This includes the expansion of private parts of the healthcare sector because of the ageing demographics in Ontario, most notably long-term care and home care. Transit is another area that is seeing covert privatization, through Metrolinx which facilitates public-private partnerships.
The other privatization approach that delegates spoke about is the classic tactic of underfunding to the point of creating a crisis in a public service, in order to justify solving the crisis through privatization. This is clearly what is happening in education and in healthcare where the government continues to try and drastically expand private health clinics, which are now able to offer certain services only available in hospitals.
Other deliberations included the rapid expansion of gambling and sports betting in Ontario which has made the province one of the five largest iGaming jurisdictions in North America. This expansion gouges working people to fund the further enrichment of the government’s corporate friends, while sowing addiction and reaping other negative social costs.
Delegates also discussed an increasingly aggressive war on the very poor and homeless people, and people suffering from mental health and addiction issues. This includes Ford’s recent shutting down of safe consumption sites which is sure to cost lives in several communities.
In the opening address to the convention, the Communist Party’s Ontario Secretary noted that Ford dismissed affordable housing concerns this fall by telling the homeless to “get off your A-S-S and start working,” ignoring the fact many shelter users are employed, and that unemployment is at a seven-year high. This deflects from his government’s failure to address the housing crisis and risks increased state violence as Conservative mayors are pushing to dismantle encampments, violating constitutional rights.
The convention called for mass action now to demand a fundamental break from corporate austerity and to win progressive reforms such as those in the Communist Party’s “People’s Alternative for Ontario.” Delegates discussed the Party’s “People’s Alternative” policies and amendments to them as the basis for the Party platform in the upcoming 2025 or 2026 provincial election. The Party agreed to run candidates and fight for these policies in any upcoming provincial election.
Delegates also discussed and adopted a plan of work which focused on continuing to build the Party in the labour movement, to prioritize work in the peace movement, to build on solidarity efforts with Palestine and Cuba, and to expand and improve Marxist-Leninist education at the Party club level. The need to strengthen Ontario’s use and contribution to the Party press, both in print and online, was identified as essential for connecting with popular struggles and sharing the Party’s analysis. Delegates had a thorough discussion on how to best improve internal and external communications of the Party, and also identified the need to ensure more even recruitment and political strength across the Party. Part of the initiatives to address these weaknesses included the creation of an internal organizational newsletter and more organizational tools for clubs to use.
There was an extensive discussion on how to best strengthen the use of social media while maintaining the democratic centralist decision making that is requisite for ensuring clear organization and unity in action. It was agreed that the Party’s centralized online communications needed to be more active in order to communicate the analysis and policies of the Party in a principled and effective way to as wide an audience as possible. Stronger online communications should complement and not compete with the need to strengthen the Party’s work in labour and people’s movements where real organization and power needs to be built.
The convention elected a new Provincial Committee consisting of 16 members, which represents a significant transition of cadre with a large majority of the incoming committee being working age. New cadre on the Provincial Committee represents recent growth that has helped strengthen the Party’s roots and work in the trade union movement and in several clubs in the last few years.
The Provincial Committee elected an Executive Committee of six which includes three returning members of the outgoing Executive Committee and three new members. The executive includes people from Barrie, Windsor and Toronto and has strong connections to the labour and solidarity movements. Drew Garvie was re-elected as Provincial Secretary.
The 32nd Ontario Convention showcased energy, unity and strategic direction for the struggles ahead. With renewed leadership, strengthened analysis and policies, and a commitment to build the Party in labour and people’s movements, the Communist Party is prepared to challenge corporate austerity and fight for a People’s Coalition that prioritizes public ownership and workers’ rights. The road ahead demands solidarity and action, and the convention reaffirmed the Party’s readiness to build the fight.
[Photo: Ontario Communist Party leader Drew Garvie addresses the convention]
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