Prepare for Carnage!

The election victory for the Liberals means another government dedicated to the 1%. Carney has made it clear that he is in favour of tax cuts for the rich, cuts to public spending and programs, and reducing and eliminating environmental regulations and the rights of Indigenous nations in order to expedite oil and gas extraction. He intends to make our lives worse in order to boost corporate profits. Only mass struggle can stop him.

The election was dominated by Donald Trump’s threats of tariffs and annexation. For the last two years, the outcome seemed set in stone. The Conservatives under Pierre Poilievre were expected to take the election in a landslide.

But all that changed in a matter of months. Poilievre had built his campaign appealing to the widespread discontent at Justin Trudeau’s liberals and focused on the much hated carbon tax. Then Trudeau resigned and new Liberal party leader Mark Carney announced he would end the tax.

Poilievre floundered as his main talking points became irrelevant. He also bore the weight of his own, self-inflicted, support for the far-right which was seen as a mirror image of Trump’s politics.

The end result was a dramatic shift in support to Mark Carney and the Liberals—who are seen as much more competent managers of the economy in the face of possible recession and mass layoffs due to Trump’s economic warfare against Canada.

As we go to print, the Liberals have secured a minority government with the Conservatives in second place. Both parties have secured more than 8 million votes meaning the result is closer than the seat projection suggests.

People are justifiably terrified about the prospect of economic and jobs carnage as Canada’s largest trading partner continues to threaten the economic base of the country. Union leaders are projecting as many as 1 million job losses as a result of the tariffs.

But while many are breathing a sigh of relief that the far-right convoy politics of the Conservatives will not hold power, the neo-liberal politics of Carney will provide little help for working people. Indeed, the anger at the system will grow as it becomes apparent that the Liberals will maintain their position as stewards of the interests of the ruling class.

And at present, that discontent, in the absence of a broad left political project is swinging behind the right.

The banker’s banker

 

Carney is likely to see his approval ratings plummet in a fashion akin to Kier Starmer and the Labour Party in the UK.

As we have written before, Carney is wedded to the politics of the neo-liberal model and we should expect privatization, cuts to public services and bailouts for billionaires in response to the economic crisis.  

His more progressive campaign promises—such as billions for affordable housing—will languish, as they always do with the Liberals, and people will watch their lives become more precarious as they are squeezed to maintain profitability for the bosses.

This could benefit the far-right as it did under Trudeau – but this time with a potentially more competent conservative leader than Poilievre.

What’s wrong with the NDP?

The NDP, meanwhile, saw their worst showing in the party’s history, falling well below the threshold for official party status. Their decision to prop up the Trudeau government cost them dearly as did the trend towards voting strategically to stop Poilievre.

The NDP said many of the right things on the campaign trail but could not overcome the perception that they were just Liberal-lite. Jagmeet Singh’s campaign couldn’t decide on a direction. He began the race saying that he planned to become Prime Minister which was widely derided as a fantasy. His pivot to an argument that a large NDP caucus would be needed to keep the Liberals in check was equally as laughable since he and the party had supported the Libs for years.

And the NDP brass, which still maintains that the party needs to move to the centre to become ‘electable’ saw no reason to change course until it was far too late.

 

If the NDP had instead decided to lead a real fighting campaign for the things that matter to ordinary people - affordable housing, public healthcare, defending workers’ right to strike they would have stood a chance not to be swept aside by the two parties of big business and corporate interests.

 

But they would have had to make this decision long before the election and they seemed more comfortable in their pact with the Liberals, which helped not one whit to bring change needed by working class people.

The decimation of the NDP will mean, in the context of global economic crisis, that the left will have to find alternatives to build the kind of response needed to challenge the ruling class.

The traditional left electoral alternative is now even less secure and has less power.

This can be overcome. There is nothing automatic about working people shifting to the right. Working people in this country hated Trudeau because under his watch their lives became much harder—rents doubled, grocery prices skyrocketed, the climate crisis worsened.  

A true fighting left can provide the clarity and strategy to fight the attacks from the ruling class and in doing so build a political project that can shift loyalties to class based solidarity.  

Build the fightback

The fight against Carney has to start now. He is using the cover of Trump’s threats to push further to the right which will only mean increased hardship for the majority.

Carney has vowed to dismantle the already meager environmental protections to ensure more resource extraction to increase Canadian economic independence. The front line in that fight will be held by Indigenous Land defenders who will see their rights eroded as they fight to preserve their homelands.

There will be attacks on workers who will be coerced into taking concessions to maintain corporate profits. One of the first fights on this front will be the drive to privatize the postal service which is being pursued in both Canada and the US, and will be a massive hit to the 55,000 unionized workers unless challenged.
And the far-right will ramp up their attacks on immigrants and LGBTQ2S people as they seek scapegoats for the failures of the system.

 

The fight at the ballot box is over. The fight on the streets, picket lines, workplaces and communities to fend off the Liberals’ coming attacks must start now.