By Tyson Riel Strandlund, YCL-LJC member and Communist Party candidate
None can deny that under Christy Clarke and the Liberals, things were not good, especially for youth. Faced with depressingly low wages, high tuition, and some of the most expensive housing in the country, British Columbians voted in an NDP government in 2017 supported by the Greens that they hoped would lead to positive change. After a little over three years of such leadership, it is evident that the capitalist class is no less in control than before. In fact, it may be that their grip is tighter than ever. Those who point to positive pieces of legislation enacted by the NDP risk missing the forest for the trees.
In May of 2017, at the time of the NDP’s ascension to the BC Legislature, the average rent of a one-bedroom apartment in Victoria was $1074/month. Today, that number has leapt to $1668, and wages have not kept pace. As far back as 2015, the estimated living wage in Victoria was already over $20 per hour, and yet Horgan still has no plans for us to reach even the $15 threshold until June of 2021. Horgan’s own salary, with yearly increases that would be life-changing for most people, reached $210,945.96 this year. Horgan meanwhile boasts (unjustifiably) of his minuscule tax increase on certain upper incomes: incomes of (conveniently) $220,000 or more. When the pandemic began, Horgan announced a landlord bailout of $500 per unit, to ensure that whether or not working people had money to eat, landlords would still get their pound of flesh. The fact that the premier, too, owns “investment property” in Victoria has for the most part not generated much controversy.
In 2001, the then-current Liberal government implemented major tax cuts to corporations and top-income earners. Is restoring formerly-existing tax rates too radical a measure for the social democrats? The rich have continued to get richer under this government, while the poor have shouldered enormous costs. The re-implementation of pre-2001 tax levels, on the other hand, would provide no less than $2.5 billion to the budget. Just imagine! $2.5 billion to spend on social housing, on support for workers affected by COVID-19, on schools and adequate safety measures for students, teachers and staff, on free public transit – so what’s the hold up? Is this a government for working people, or is it for big business? Is Horgan a leader or a landlord?
During Horgan’s election campaign in 2016-2017, the future trajectory of this government (and the supporters they most valued) was made crystal clear in their cash-for-access fundraising events with unnamed “resource industry leaders” that Horgan tried to casually gloss over. In the case of his meeting with the Toronto Board of Trade in 2016, attendees paid $5000 per plate for “breakfast.” On another occasion, Horgan charged $10,000 for “dinner”. During his campaign, I asked John Horgan what these corporations and investors expected from him for such a high price. “Nothing!” he told me. “Nothing?” I asked. “Do you really expect the people of this province to believe that these otherwise savvy businesspeople were just giving away money, no strings attached?” Evidently he did not like this line of questioning, as he quickly grew visibly angry, raised his voice in flustered denial, then turned his back to me to speak with someone else.
It was obvious to me then that John Horgan and his careerist social democrats had no intention of following through with stopping Site C, the Trans Mountain Pipeline, the logging of our remaining old-growth forests, reform of our undemocratic electoral system, or simply to help working people in the face of growing corporate power and exploitation. For some of us however, the unfortunate experience of the past few years was necessary to prove this, not least of all Horgan’s cowardly and despicable approval of the RCMP raid on unceded Wet’suwet’en territory at the behest of corporate, capitalist interests — a raid in which officers were given the green light to use lethal force on Indigenous land defenders, and were instructed to “use as much violence toward the gate as you want”. John Horgan’s NDP are moreover directly responsible for the existence of “man camps” which endanger the lives of Indigenous women, girls, two-spirits, and their communities with nearby resource-extraction projects. In an inspiring act of resistance and defiance of this government, Indigneous youth occupied the BC Legislature early this year, sleeping on the steps – despite the cold – wherein YCL and Communist Party members, myself included, proudly stood alongside these courageous young warriors, humbly providing what supplies we were able to contribute and helping hold space amidst a heavy police presence – a presence that curiously disappeared as white supremacists and fascist thugs skulked and circled the dark edges of the site at night. Allies and supporters came out in great numbers for this historic show of resilience, demonstrating that they would not fall for cynical manipulations which attempted to pit Indigenous rights against “the economy”, or attempts to sow confusion around the nature and roles of elected and hereditary chiefs. John Horgan’s NDP have proven time and again that when it comes to Indigenous people, to young workers and students, to the health of our planet, and to so much more, they will choose big business interests every time. Evidently, fewer and fewer are falling for the empty promises of social democracy.
The timing and undemocratic nature of this pandemic power-grab election should be the final nail in the coffin — but Horgan is unafraid. And who can blame him? Despite elements of increasing class consciousness, many working class people supporting the NDP have grown complacent – obedient even – to a premier who can exploit us, abuse us, lie to us, endanger us, break his agreements with other parties, use the colonial police force to violently carry out the goals of resource-extraction interests on unceded territory, and yet continue to remain on course for a majority government. This Premier has grown arrogantly accustomed to calling the shots, and he shoots from the hip. This government is a danger to the public, especially to vulnerable communities and to youth. This is why I personally have decided to take John Horgan to task myself, and to run against him in the riding of Langford-Juan de Fuca, as one of three Young Communist League members running. A majority government will only free his hand to carry out his increasingly reckless program, which is why the Communist Party of Canada is calling on the people of this province to deny him that chance and to punish him at the polls on October 24th by voting for the most progressive candidate — if you’re lucky, a Communist candidate. Historically, the NDP has been at its “best”, so to speak, when it had a strong communist and workers’ movement to challenge it from the left. If there is any hope of moving things in a progressive direction in this election, one thing is certain, and that’s that it won’t be thanks to an unchallenged NDP majority headed by a self-serving and unaccountable opportunist.