Editorial

Oppose the Politics of Polarizing the Electorate

On October 22, Prime Minister Jean Chretien dissolved Parliament and issued a writ for a November 27 federal election. Almost immediately, leading Liberals admitted that they have adopted a strategy of polarizing the electorate between themselves and the Canadian Alliance. They plan to appeal to supporters of the NDP and Conservative parties that the only sure way to stop the "right-wing" agenda of the Alliance is to vote for the Liberals. So, having officially adopted the Alliance fiscal policy of tax cuts and paying down the debt in last week's mini-budget, the Liberals have now officially embraced the Alliance politics of polarizing the electorate as well.

Chretien has made no secret of the fact that he favours a two-party system such as the ones which exist in the United States and Britain, where a party of the "Left" alternates in power with a party of the "Right". If the Liberals and Alliance succeed in polarizing the electorate in this election, then the resulting collapse of the NDP and Conservatives could very well lead to such an arrangement, at least outside of Quebec. There have already been defections of NDP and Conservative members of parliament to the Liberals and Canadian Alliance, and some leading NDP politicians have been reported as favouring a merger with the Liberal Party. A minority Liberal government could also hasten such a process, as NDP and Conservative MPs would be forced to side with either the Liberals or the Alliance on a day-to-day basis in the House of Commons.

Canadians have made it clear for many years that they do not support the narrow, self-serving and sectarian politics which is pursued by the mainstream parties in Parliament. They have demonstrated that when ordinary people of various political stripes sit together to discuss concrete problems they can achieve unity around solutions. The politics of polarization being pursued by the Liberals and Canadian Alliance is a politics of disunity and of deepening divisions amongst the people. It is the politics of "divide and rule", perfected by the British colonialists, which serves the interests of the ruling elite at the expense of the people.

Despite the Liberal rhetoric, this election is not about alternate visions for Canada. The mini-budget demonstrates concretely that the Liberals and Canadian Alliance have the same vision for Canada, a vision in which the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Rather, this election is about polarizing Canadians and creating such deep divisions amongst them that they will be incapable of opposing the Liberal-Alliance vision for Canada. It is about the ruling elite regaining control of the electoral process and re-establishing the political equilibrium it requires to perpetuate its rule, its privilege and its wealth. The Canadian people must reject such a vision and such elections if they hope to make any progress in building a modern, democratic Canada which represents the interests of the vast majority of its citizens.