The Alliances Behind the Canadian Alliance

The election of Stockwell Day as leader of the Canadian Alliance has created an interesting situation in Canadian politics. His main support for leadership of the party came from Mike Harris' Ontario Conservatives and Ralph Klein's Alberta Conservatives. In some circles, this is being interpreted as a sign that Day can succeed in "uniting the right" in Canada and maybe unseat the Liberals as the ruling federal party. Some are even suggesting that the main agenda for the working class is now to stop the push from the right. In practical terms, this means that they are calling on the working class to line up behind the Liberals as the "lesser of two evils", since no other political party has a realistic chance of forming a government.

It makes little sense to analyze the Canadian Alliance in terms of where they fit on the "left-right" spectrum of Canadian politics. In the 1993 federal election, similar calls were issued to oppose the "right-wing" agenda of the Conservatives and support the Liberals, who were supposedly less "right-wing". Once elected, the Chretien Liberals went even further than the Conservatives in pushing the anti-social offensive. Again in 1997, the threat of a "right-wing" Reform Party breakthrough was used to justify lining up behind the Liberal "lesser evil". That government implemented the Reform Party policies of a balanced budget and paying down the debt. In other words, no matter how they present themselves, there is no ideological difference between the "right" and "left" wings of the bourgeoisie. Once elected, they implement identical policies, those policies dictated by the monopoly corporations. The "threat from the right", therefore, comes not just from the Canadian Alliance, but also from the Liberals and others.

The convergence of the Ontario and Alberta Conservatives behind Stockwell Day means one of several things. It could mean that the constituencies which they represent, that is Eastern and Western finance capital, have overcome their economic differences of the past four decades and are combining forces to jointly dominate the entire Canadian economy. If that is the case, then the Canadian Alliance will definitely form the next federal government, regardless of which forces may oppose it. Or it could mean that these two sections of finance capital still have irreconcilable differences and are vying for control of the Canadian Alliance, while trying to solve the problem that there is no truly national party in parliament. A third possibility is that the bogeyman of a strong "threat from the right" is being cynically promoted to prevent opposition to the Liberal government from developing.

Regardless of which scenario plays out, the working class can gain nothing by lining up behind the Liberals. The Liberal-labour alliance has blocked the development of a strong working class movement for the past 50 years. Its aim is still the same today. Lining up behind the Liberals will actually increase, not decrease, the threat from the right. The only viable option for the working class is to reject the "left-right" politics of the bourgeoisie and take up its own, independent politics, the politics of building a society fit for human beings.