Social democrats win in ontario
Rosenblum, Simon
"In the revolutionary year 1989," said Willy Brandt, "not only is the social democratic idea impelled toward reality—now also reality is impelled toward the social democratic idea." In a...
...Midway through the campaign—thanks in part to an aggressive NDP strategy—Liberal support began to collapse...
...Bob Rae and the NDP inherit a deteriorating economic situation that leaves little room for maneuver...
...While there is some validity to that analysis, it is also true that the NDP put forward a clear program for government...
...Our task is to set taxes fairly, to spend wisely, to fight inequality, to promote justice and to guard against institutional arrogance and the abuse of power wherever we may find it," Rae promised after being sworn in as premier...
...Even if conflict with the corporate sector is contained, there will clearly be limits to what the New Democratic government can do...
...Open warfare with the business community is, however, not inevitable...
...The New Democratic party, Canada's social democratic third force, moved from 19 of the 130 seats in the legislature to 74 seats...
...Not everyone saw it that way...
...they're the author's responsibility...
...And please remember that we can't return articles unless they're accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope...
...The collapse of the Meech Lake constitutional process, a controversy over an unpopular federal sales tax, and an impasse on native rights had created a cynical, even angry, electorate...
...Some social movements have already indicated that, insofar as they believe this government belongs to them, they will restrain their immediate demands and try to prepare workable programs that can be implemented during the next four or five years...
...In a sense the Liberals were victims of the times and a "throw the rascals out" mood...
...We will not consider manuscripts submitted simultaneously to several publications...
...One senses that, if the government is seen as fair and takes serious actions in key areas such as the environment, it will be given the benefit of the doubt...
...The New Democrats may not have campaigned primarily on their "Agenda for People," but neither did they run away from it...
...That's a reality...
...funding for 10,000 new nonprofit child-care spaces in each of the next two years • increases over four years in the minimum wage to 60 percent of the average industrial wage • upgrading of pay equity legislation to cover all women workers • raising the provincial share of educational costs to 60 percent over five years • limiting rent increases to the rate of inflation • increasing social assistance rates to the levels "where families no longer have to choose between paying the rent or eating" • construction of 20,000 nonprofit housing units a year Business opposition is predictable...
...The Editorial Board of Dissent is pleased to announce that at its last meeting it voted to appoint Mitchell Cohen as co-editor with Irving Howe and Michael Walzer...
...Check all your figures, dates, names, etc...
...It's your Ontario...
...3) Type your ms double-spaced, with wide margins...
...In a small way, his prophecy was confirmed by the surprising election of a majority New Democratic party (NDP) government in the Canadian province of Ontario...
...Support was based on a vague comfort with the government as opposed to strong support for its policies...
...The expectations of the Ontario people are difficult to gauge, but coming to power in the teeth of a recession will not make the NDP's task easy...
...If there's a delay, it's because a few editors are reading your article...
...Liberals, 32.4 percent...
...The Wall Street Journal did not understand how Ontario could vote for a social democratic government while Eastern Europe was rejecting communism: "It makes us wonder if some Canadians are still getting their European news by dogsled...
...An NDP government in Canada's largest and most powerful province raises the profile and credibility of the party across the country...
...The NDP's strategic statement capitalized on the public's alienation...
...2) Please don't write to ask whether we're interested in such and such an article—it makes for useless correspondence...
...After the election Premier Rae told business leaders: "The Ontario economy cannot grow, cannot thrive, without the active participation of a business community in this province...
...But his "red-scare" strategy was ineffective both because it was seen as the politics of desperation and because it was hard to OTTAWA, ONTARIO make the charge that the NDP is "radical...
...THE EDITORS 0 20 • DISSENT Reports from Abroad added to the debt constrains the ability of Rae and his colleagues to relieve suffering and reorder priorities in the province...
...Maclean's, Canada's national weekly, editorialized: "Voters recently defeated Ontario's Liberal government in what appears to have been a simple, unfocused protest vote...
...Corporate taxes, which accounted for 11 percent of provincial revenues last year, are expected to fall sharply from a projected $4.8 billion to under $3 billion this year...
...The Liberal government was also somewhat vulnerable...
...Some of the major planks of the platform—many of which generated apprehension among business leaders—were the following: • a minimum corporate tax and land speculation taxes plus inheritance duties on estates over $1 million • a publicly owned auto insurance system • comprehensive environmental legislation including the immediate passing of an Environmental Bill of Rights, the overhauling of air and water pollution laws to mandate zero discharge of toxic chemicals by the year 2000, taxation on environmentally unfriendly packaging, and a moratorium on new nuclear power plants WINTER • 1991 • 19 Reports from Abroad Welcome, Mitchell...
...Look at our last few issues to see if your idea fits in...
...New Democrats believe people matter more than the powerful private interests...
...5) We're usually quick in giving editorial decisions...
...Although the NDP has governed Manitoba for much of the last twenty years and Saskatchewan for much of the last forty-five years, coming to power in a province that accounts for 38 percent of Canada's gross national product is seen as a test of much greater magnitude...
...He knows that, in this situation, social initiatives can be financed only by business activity and the generation of wealth...
...NDP Premier Bob Rae is a cool and capable leader who will not be provoked easily...
...Tories, 23.5 percent...
...6) Please bear with us—we have accumulated quite a backlog of material, and you may have to wait for a few issues before you see your article in print...
...The results were NDP, 37.6 percent...
...David Peterson's Liberals have sold out to their big money friends: the developers, the landlords, the insurance companies, the tax freeloaders, the big polluters...
...But the timing proved to be bad...
...The summer election was universally thought to be a foregone conclusion—the incumbent Liberal government started out with 50 percent support in the polls...
...Firms will find it easy to expand elsewhere, whether in the United States or in neighboring Quebec, which has made it clear that it is open for business...
...Immediately after the election, the Liberals—who had proudly campaigned on a budget surplus— "discovered" new figures showing a $700 million deficit...
...No one, including the NDP, thought the Liberal majority was in jeopardy...
...Capital flight, especially in the context of free trade with the United States, is a danger...
...The Ontario government's ability to steer an ambitious agenda through a period of tough times will test its mettle and profoundly affect the prospects of the NDP as a national movement...
...Every dollar To Our Contributors: A few suggestions: (1) Be sure to keep a copy of your ms—the mails aren't always reliable...
...On minimum corporate taxes, land-speculation taxes, pollution controls, public auto insurance, nuclear energy, and deficit spending, the large corporations—to greater or lesser degrees and with varying degrees of popular support—are at odds with the NDP...
...4) Notes and footnotes should also be typed double-spaced, on a separate sheet...
...Or take a chance and send us your article...
...In Canada, the reaction of the business community was more restrained...
...No dot matrix submissions, please...
...We'll fight to make sure you count...
...As we're not an academic journal, we prefer that they, wherever possible, be dropped altogether or worked into the text...
...An expert in European social theory and author of the scholarly study Zion and State, Mitchell Cohen has been an active member of our board for some years and a frequent contributor to our pages...
...q WINTER • 1991 • 21...
...An unprecedented number of women—eleven—were appointed as ministers, taking such high-profile portfolios as Environment, Health, Education, Community and Social Services, and Management Board...
...Liberal Premier David Peterson tried to take the offensive in the last week, warning that "this is not the time to gamble on some cockamamie socialist view of how to run this province...
...The growth in transfer payments from the federal government, which accounted for 13 percent of Ontario's revenue last year, is being curtailed by the new federal budget...
...And with a recession setting in, the 1991-92 deficit threatens to be far greater...
...Its 50 percent support level seemed stable, but it was thin...
Vol. 38 • January 1991 • No. 1
