It seems very likely that the new Liberal leader to be elected March 9, is more likely to call a federal election than to face a non-confidence vote March 24 when Parliament reconvenes. March 16 is the earliest date that an election could be called according to Elections Canada rules, but it will almost certainly be called during the week between March 16 and March 24.
The politics in this campaign will be very important because of the US attack on Canadian independence, on the people’s sovereignty, on the economy, jobs and security, and on the US drive to increase Canada’s funding for NATO to 5 percent of GDP and to “modernize” NORAD with Canada paying 40 percent of the costs.
The US tariffs are intended to force the federal and provincial governments to submit to US demands, and up to now the federal government has responded by diverting $1.3 billion to beef up unneeded border security. The tariffs will have immediate impact on the auto industry with plant closures and mass layoffs within a week. Other industries, which are similarly intertwined as a result of the USMCA free trade agreement, will face similar layoffs and closures. Further, economists are already warning that these tariffs will result in a deep recession, which means widespread and permanent job losses for many, and cuts to living standards for all.
Defending Canadian independence and peoples’ sovereignty means: pulling out of the USMCA free trade deal, NATO and NORAD; adopting a trade policy of multilateral and mutually beneficial trade with the world; adopting an independent Canadian foreign policy of peace and disarmament; acting now to expand EI to cover all the unemployed, for the full duration of unemployment, at 90 percent of previous earnings;
People’s needs, not corporate greed and war
Since the Republicans took control of the US Congress and Donald Trump became President, the danger of a global war has increased significantly. Trump’s announcement that Gaza would be annexed by the US military, with the Israeli military organizing the forced removal of all Palestinians is ethnic cleansing and the latest crime against humanity committed by Israel and the US in Gaza.
Trump’s proposed annexation of Canada is also illegal under the United Nations Charter and international law, and it violates the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP) which affirms the right of Indigenous peoples to self-determination and self-government. So is his proposed annexation of Panama where his government wants control of the Panama Canal, and Greenland where they want a bigger military base near the Arctic and access to Greenland’s rich and rare mineral resources.
Trump’s negotiations with Russia are not about peace in Ukraine, but about guarantees of US access to Ukraine’s rich mineral resources when the fighting stops.
Likewise, Trump’s drive to annex Canada is about gaining control of rich energy and minerals, forests and lumber, fresh water, food, land and more, largely on the historic and unceded territories of Indigenous peoples. It’s also about gaining access to the Arctic, to the new trade routes opening up with climate change, and to US militarization and control of the Arctic and the countries that border the Arctic – like Russia.
Trump’s 25-percent trade tariffs on goods imported from Canada will lead to massive layoffs and plant closures, bankruptcies, widespread and permanent unemployment and poverty, because almost two thirds of Canada’s trade is with the US. This is the result of free trade agreements which almost completely integrated Canada’s economy and foreign policy with US policies. Our economies are so integrated that the impact of the tariffs will trigger a deep recession that will also affect US industries, jobs and workers, and will not be offset by equivalent tariffs on US goods imposed by Canada.
Shamefully both the Liberals and Tories have always supported free trade and corporate control in North America. The first proposal came from Liberal Prime Minister Louis St Laurent in 1948 with the Abbott Plan which first subordinated Canada’s economy and trade policies to the United States. Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney pushed the Free Trade Agreement through after a major fight with the labour and people’s movements in the lead-up to the 1988 election, and then again in 1992 with NAFTA and the addition of Mexico.
Liberal and Conservative governments have all supported the free trade deals ever since, including the NDP and BQ in Quebec which have focused on particular amendments. The Communist Party is the only political party to have consistently opposed free trade and called for Canada’s withdrawal.
Trump’s campaign to “erase” the Canada-US border is the next step in continental free trade, which was never just about trade. Canada-US free trade was always about imposing a North American corporate constitution over workers in North America, in which supra-national corporate bodies had more power than national governments, with US imperialism in control. That’s who Trump represents.
It’s also who Alberta Premier Danielle Smith represents on Team Canada with her efforts to protect US oil companies at all costs from any Canadian tariffs levied in response to Trump’s growing list of tariffs.
Imperialism – a dying system that workers need to topple
The drive to the far right in US foreign and domestic policy is a reflection of US imperialism’s declining influence and power internationally. It is not the US, but China whose economic growth is breaking records and whose international trade and influence is expanding.
Imperialism is a decaying system, but still very powerful and very dangerous. Trump’s demands that Canada – and other countries – accept annexation by the US and also agree to raise military spending to 5 percent of GDP annually, are demands that lead to war. In Canada, 5 percent of GDP will increase military spending by $73 billion annually and reduce spending on healthcare, education, childcare, housing, job creation and environmental action by the same amount. Similar increases to military spending and cuts to social spending will have comparable, or worse consequences around the world.
Working people across Canada are outraged by Trump’s attacks and are showing it at sports events, letters to the editor, phone-in shows, the buy Canadian and boycott US imports campaign, at demonstrations, in proposed actions by City Councils, and more. This is the people’s sovereignty making itself seen and heard across the country, and what Parliament should be listening to and acting on.
Instead, the government is trying to appease the Trump administration, by rushing to spend $1 billion on needless additional border security that will be paid for from cuts to socially necessary spending on things like healthcare, education, housing, job creation and the environment. Parliament and the provincial and territorial governments across Canada must be compelled by mass labour and popular action to stand with the working people, and condemn, oppose and expose the continental corporate forces that Trump is speaking and acting for.
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has taken his political lead from Trump and the quasi-fascist movement he has built in the US, and is now caught in the crosshairs of the massive public opposition to Trump’s attack on Canadian independence and the people’s sovereignty. Working people need to know that Elon Musk’s endorsement of Poilievre and the Conservatives to form the next government is a true picture of where Poilievre and the Conservatives stand on the critical issues of Canadian independence and people’s sovereignty. It’s not with the people who live and work here.
The role of the labour and progressive movements to defeat annexation and war is crucial. Building a broad coalition with labour at the core to oppose the sell-out can force Parliament to act in the public interest and for policies that will strengthen Canadian independence and the people’s sovereignty.
The Communist Party calls on the Prime Minister and Parliament to act now to:
- Withdraw Canada from the USMCA free Trade Agreement
- Adopt a trade policy of multilateral and mutually beneficial trade with the world
- Withdraw from NATO and NORAD and cut military spending by 75 percent
- Adopt an independent Canadian foreign policy of peace and disarmament
- Use these funds for socially useful purposes including healthcare, childcare, education, housing and the environment, and to build a strong Canadian economy including primary industry and value-added jobs in secondary industry and manufacturing
- Oppose the “Canada Free Trade” called for by US and Canadian corporations and opposed by labour, which would abolish interprovincial trade rules that protect workers’ health and safety, regulate provincial trade issues, and support programs like Canada’s supply management system which Trump wants to get rid of
- Act now to expand EI to cover all the unemployed, for the full duration of unemployment at 90 percent of previous earnings
Central Executive Committee
Communist Party of Canada
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