Canada: NDP will abet big business in imposing its class war agenda

[Hannah Bell]

Make no mistake, whichever party or combination of parties emerges as Canada’s government in the aftermath of the May 2 election, it will serve as the spearhead of an intensified big business assault on the rights and social position of the working class.

The just-concluded federal election campaign has been political theater, with the politicians and corporate media straining to exaggerate the small policy differences that separate the four major parties—the governing Conservatives, the Liberals, the NDP and the Bloc Québécois.

All of the parties have taken up big business’ cry for “austerity,” pledging to balance the federal budget within four years. All oppose any reduction in the $23 billion military budget even though Canada is currently spending more on its military (even after discounting for inflation) than at any time since World War II.

All are adamant that there is no money to finance Pharmacare or fund a national public works program aimed at repairing the country’s crumbling infrastructure and ensuring full employment. None proposes to raise taxation on the rich and super-rich although the taxation rates on the wealthy’s swelling incomes have been slashed by governments of all stripes for well over a decade. Indeed, the richest 1 percent of Canadians have long paid proportionately less of their incomes in taxes than the poorest 10 percent of income taxpayers.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/may2011/cndp-m02.shtml


it's global war