This election isn't about nothing, it's about our future

"While we might not like going to the polls, we need to seize this opportunity to tell the government what we need to rebuild. We need investments in green technology to create good jobs to address climate change and boost our economy. We need to put money and resources back into health care, community services, and other areas of the public sector that neoliberal policies at the federal and provincial levels stripped away. The need to pay workers living wages and full benefits has never been clearer. Without this, we will see potentially catastrophic consequences." — Larry Brown, NUPGE President

by Larry Brown, NUPGE President

Ottawa (03 Sept. 2021) — Labour Day weekend, for many of us, signals the end of summer. Vacations are over, and children are headed back to school. Days are getting shorter, and if we listen closely, we can hear the whispers of the approaching autumn wind. Whether we like it or not, here we are.

As a labour movement, during this pandemic, we have been fighting a strong campaign to ensure Canadian workers and their families have the supports they need to weather this storm. It has taken persistence. We are pushing back on those actors — employers, provincial governments, and political parties — who wanted to start talking about austerity measures before we were out of the first wave of COVID-19. The pressure we put on the Prime Minister and the federal government to find ways to support front-line workers and their families, who put so much at risk to keep our economy running, worked to varying degrees. And we know there is still more work ahead.

At a time when we should be focusing on strengthening the economy, creating good jobs to put people back to work, and helping communities recover, we have been thrown into an unnecessary election.

And, while we may not have wanted this election now, we are here. And we need to take it seriously. There are huge stakes in electing a new government.

As much as we’ve survived the last 17 months, we have many days ahead of us in this economic and social recovery. There are major issues that do not slow down because of a deadly virus, and in fact, they have been getting worse. So, the decision we make on September 20 will have a major impact on those issues.

There are 2 possible roads that can be taken: a road that reinvests in people, our land, and our resources, or one that follows the wealth train putting the bottom line ahead of people. All of this in the context of the climate emergency.

We’ve just seen examples of this over the summer: for one, you have wildfires raging through our communities. A new white paper written by a team of scientists and practitioners from shows that

It also states that

And that’s just the wildfires.

Shifting weather patterns that result in flooding or drought have a direct impact on our natural resources, like farming.  Droughts affect food prices. Prices keep rising. It becomes harder to source local food. This means it costs more for families who are struggling financially to make healthy food choices. Not having healthy food choices, or the means to access them, impacts health and quality of life. And that’s just one example.

Climate change and income inequality are inextricably linked.

Income inequality rivals the climate crisis for being the biggest challenge of our lifetime. Canada is lacking good, stable jobs in which you can earn enough to care for a family. Retirement savings are out of reach for so many. The severe job loss during the pandemic has forced people to tap into any savings to stay afloat. Others have had to take on more precarious work to pay their bills. They are still struggling.

And while people are struggling, especially now, banks and CEOs are gathering their profits. This election we see political parties promising to crack down on companies and the wealthy who avoid paying their fair share of taxes. But we’ve heard that in every election. We know this revenue is essential to investing in strong social programs and public services that people rely on. Something must be done.

If it weren’t for the pressure put on the federal government, resulting in many of the resources people received (CERB, funds for hiring, business loans, front-line workers’ wage increases), we would be in a much more desperate state. We can be proud of the role we played in making that happen.

In fact, the federal government assistance has been so helpful that, as research by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) has shown, many provincial governments have not had to dig as deep into their budgets for the pandemic recovery. Despite this, we are bracing ourselves for the never-ending call for austerity, for cuts and layoffs to the services and people who got us through these difficult months.

While we might not like going to the polls, we need to seize this opportunity to tell the government what we need to rebuild. We need investments in green technology to create good jobs that address climate change and boost our economy. We need to put the money and resources back into health care, community services, and other areas of the public sector that neoliberal policies at the federal and provincial levels stripped away. The need to pay workers living wages and full benefits has never been clearer. Without this, we will see potentially catastrophic consequences.

To get there, we need to elect a government that won’t just promise to do things but who will act. Act to care for vulnerable communities — for Black people, Indigenous people, and people of colour, for people with disabilities, and for middle- and low-income families — not just look after the wealthy.

In this election, our choices must be smart and considered. We don’t want to go back to the way things were before COVID, or the way they were 50 years ago. This isn’t a “nothing” election; our future is at stake.