Liberal Establishment Politicians Come to the Aid of Conservative Prime Minister Harper to Scuttle the Coalition Policy Accord.

Right wing Liberal grandee John Manley is helping Prime Minister Stephen
Harper wreck the NDP-Liberal-Bloc Coalition. (Globe and Mail December 5, 2008)

John Manley is a right-wing corporate establishment lawyer, a former Finance Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister. Manley helped Prime Minister Harper condemn Canadian soldiers to another two years of bloody combat in the US-NATO war in Afghanistan.

Manley is a close associate of Paul Martin. Martin as Finance Minister from 1993 to 2002 rang up massive federal surpluses that were returned to big business in a series of tax cuts while systematically capping and rolling back funding for unemployment insurance and social programs.

Today’s media is reporting that Liberal Scott Brisson, a Martin protégé is working behind the scenes with the hapless Conservative Finance Minister Jim Flaherty to cut and paste a Lib Con budget for presentation to Parliament on January 27th . Their aim is to scuttle the Policy Accord signed by Layton, Dion and Duceppe and replace it with a conservative right wing budget with a liberal face.

Michael Ignatieff, true to himself is seizing upon the confusion and disarray in Liberal ranks to sink “his friend Bob Rae” by-pass the Liberal rank and file and propel himself into the leadership of the Liberal Party.

Such are the morals and ethics of Liberal establishment politicians who in a heart beat betray the coalition documents they just signed and turn their backs on the hardships confronting the working people and the unemployed.

The NDP and organized labour and the left must publicly condemn the establishment Liberal betrayal of the coalition policy accord and call upon the 161 MP’s from all opposition parties to renew the pledge given to the 62% of Canadians who support them that they will act together to defeat Harper on January 27th. and implement the policy accord.

The coalition policy accord falls far short of what the working class needs and much more will have to be fought for.

What are the supportable points of the NDP-Liberal-Bloc policy accord? What does the economic stimulus package of the policy accord say?


NDP-Liberal-Bloc Economic Stimulus Package

The top priority of the new Government is an economic stimulus package designed to boost the domestic economy beginning with (but not limited to):

Accelerating existing infrastructure funding and substantial new investments, including municipal and inter-provincial projects (such as

transit, clean energy, water, corridors and gateways). This would certainly include addressing the urgent infrastructure needs of First Nations, Métis and Inuit;

Housing construction and retrofitting; and

Investing in key sector strategies (like manufacturing, forestry and automotive) designed to create and save jobs, with any aid contingent on a plan to transform these industries and return them to profitability and sustainability.


Rapid Support for those affected by the Economic Crisis

The new Government is committed to ensuring that the federal government has the appropriate programs in place to assist those most affected by the economic crisis so that all citizens will be in a position to fully participate in the economic recovery to follow, including the following measures:

Facilitate skills training to help ensure Canadian workers are properly equipped to keep pace with the rapidly changing economy, while respecting provincial jurisdiction and existing agreements;

Amend the current law establishing a new crown corporation for employment insurance in order to guarantee that all revenue from EI premiums provides benefits and training for workers. Eliminate the current two week waiting period;

Lower the minimum required RRIF withdrawal for 2008 by 50 per cent;

Reform bankruptcy and insolvency laws to better protect pensions; and

Implement an income support program for older workers who have lost their jobs in order to help them make the transition from work to receiving retirement benefits.


Other Priorities to Stimulate the Economy

Support for culture, including the cancellation of budget cuts announced by the Conservative government.

Support for Canadian Wheat Board and Supply Management

Immigration Reform

Reinstate regional development agency funding to non-profit economic development organizations.


Families

As finances permit, we are committed to moving forward with improved child benefits and an early learning and childcare program in partnership with each province, and respectful of their role and jurisdiction, including the possibility to opt out with full compensation.


Working with our North American Partners

We will work with our North American Partners to pursue a North American cap-and-trade market with absolute emission targets, using 1990 as the base year.

Layton, Dion and Duceppe put their signatures to the above.

The Manley-Harper collaboration works for another type of coalition – a right wing majority Parliamentary coalition working on behalf of finance capital.

Canadian workers have had experience with a Conservative Government in power during a depression. When an unemployed delegation in 1935 went to Ottawa seeking help, Conservative Prime Minister Iron Heel Bennett replied that he would not subsidize idleness.

The Harper Reform-Alliance-Conservatives are the true inheritors of Iron Heel Bennett’s legacy. A Conservative Government in power during a depression in the 21st Century is the wrong Government for the working class, the farmers, the unemployed and oppressed.

Support the Coalition! Support the Coalition Economic Stimulus Package.

On January 27th. defeat the Harper Conservatives.

Left Turn Canada!