By Elizabeth Rowley, Leader of the Communist Party of Canada
The stakes in this election are very high for working people. What’s hanging in the balance are hundreds of thousands of jobs, and the wages and living standards of working-class families across the country. Medicare and social programs are also on the table, along with Canada’s foreign policy, economy and trade policies, the environment, and people’s sovereignty and democracy.
While Trump’s tariffs, endorsements and threats of annexation are the greatest foreign interference ever seen in a Canadian election, they also expose the rot and violence of US imperialism as it moves towards fascism and global wars of conquest, genocide and control.
Tory leader Pierre Poilievre is Trump’s man in this election: a right-wing populist whose party has linked up with far-right religious and political groups to move politics far to the right like Trump and MAGA in the US.
While pretending to fight for workers – “but not unions” – the Tories will deliver big dividends for big business and attack the rights and living standards of working people, women, youth, seniors, Indigenous peoples, people of colour, refugees and migrant workers, the 2SLGBTIQ community and more.
Liberal leader Mark Carney has a long history representing ruling class interests in Canada and internationally. He plans to deliver big dividends to big business with tax cuts, cuts to social programs and spending, and big increases to military spending including NATO, NORAD, militarization of the Arctic and expanding Canada’s military industrial complex “to create jobs.”
The NDP has rarely criticized Liberal government policies since 2021, while making criticism of Israeli genocide a capital offense by its own members. The Bloc Québécois leadership see the current struggle with Trump as an opportunity to negotiate new deals between Quebec and the US. The Green Party, which opposed NATO until 2023, now supports NATO.
This is the grim reality facing working people this election, and likely after as well.
Instead of voting for “the least worst,” voters in the ridings across Canada where Communists are running, can vote for candidates who will fight for their interests, and for policies that will deliver multilateral and mutually beneficial trade with the world, not free trade with the US; people’s sovereignty and democracy, not US threats of annexation and job destroying tariffs; peace and disarmament, not war and austerity; a Palestinian state, and an end to genocide; rising wages and living standards, and EI reform that raises rates to 90 percent of previous earnings for the full duration of unemployment, not recession, inflation and unemployment; price controls, not price gouging and unprecedented profiteering; strong public services like the CBC and Canada Post and expanded social programs and Medicare, not privatization on the heels of a thousand cuts; and real action on climate change, which includes nationalizing energy and natural resources.
Withdrawing from NATO would free up an annual payment of $61 billion which is 2 percent of GDP this year, and $150 billion if NATO membership costs rise to 5 percent of GDP. Withdrawing from NORAD would free up $38.6 billion, canceling the F-35 fighter jets would free up $73.9 billion, and canceling the 15 warships would free up $300 billion. Cutting the current military budget by 75 percent would save even more. This is money that should be used to fund universal social programs and public services, build social housing and public transit, raise wages and incomes.
Investing in peace or in war: that’s the real choice in this election that will move the country in one direction or the other. We fight for peace and prosperity, and oppose war and austerity.
These are just some of the policies Communists are fighting for in this election. They and others are the reason that votes for Communist candidates are rising, and interest in socialism is also rising. This is what worries Poilievre who, like Trump, continues to suggest that socialism and fascism are the same thing, citing the Nazi Party’s name and claim to be a socialist party as evidence. It’s a crude attempt to stampede workers and youth to the far right and to the Conservative Party, Canada’s MAGA movement today.
These lies conflating socialism and fascism are a threat to democracy, to labour and democratic rights, and to an informed electorate, as the results of the US election clearly demonstrate. The rise of fascist movements around the world, and the election of fascist parties in Europe, South America, Asia and elsewhere should sound alarm bells everywhere.
Canadian Communists have been elected and re-elected federally, provincially and to city councils and school boards across Canada over many decades, introducing and fighting for policies that improved the lives of working people everywhere.
The election of Communists as part of a strong progressive block in the next Parliament would make a big difference in the struggles that will surely follow this election. A strong progressive block including Communists, would be the best outcome of this very important election campaign.
Remarks to the Parliamentary Press Gallery on March 28, 2025
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