Union In Politics

In this federal election Canadians have the opportunity to make major changes on the national stage and set the country in a new direction.

More than five years of Stephen Harper Conservative minority government has wreaked havoc on jobs, infrastructure, social programs and social and economic policy here in Canada.We've had enough and now is our chance to act.

On May 2, we need to vote for a change in government.

As union members, we have a chance to put candidates in office that represent the interests and concerns of working people and re-elect Members of Parliament who have shown their support on important issues.

In the following link you'll find a wealth of information that you can use when making the important decision of which candidate most deserves your support. There will be new information added regularly up until Election Day. Check back frequently for the latest!

Shift Change - Your Vote Matters!

Harper’s Contempt for Canadian Democracy:

Prorogued Parliament twice in 13 months.
Shut out the press, denying Canadians information about their government.
Multi-billion dollar national child care program cancelled.
Held in contempt of Parliament, a first for any government ever in Canada or even the Commonwealth.
Dramatically cut corporate tax rates and pandered to the big business lobby.
Slashed the budget of the Parliamentary Budget Office and silenced criticism on cost overrun by Parliamentary Budget officer Kevin Page.
Attempted to cut off funding for political parties in 2008 fall fiasco and nearly triggered the government’s own downfall.
Lengthy court battle over 2006 election spending fraud with Elections Canada – costing the public purse $1.3 million in legal fees.
Removed ‘equality’ for women from the mandate of the Status of Women and closed 12 offices.
Embarrassed Canada internationally in UN climate change negotiations by blocking new environmental accord to follow Kyoto.
Stuffed the Senate with right wing pundits despite calling for an elected senate in prior election campaigns.
Failed to act when International Cooperation Minister Bev Oda lied to a parliamentary committee.
Slashed funding for arts and culture by $40 million.
Abolished pay equity for federal employees.
Fired nuclear watch dog Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission CEO Linda Keen over Chalk River reactor closure and isotope shortage.
Denied Human Rights to equity seeking groups under the Charter by cancelling Court Challenges Program.
Personal attacks on diplomat Richard Colvin after he spoke out on torture of Afghan detainees.
Six out of 10 federal agencies get failing grade on access to information requests.
Negotiated free trade deals without public consultation with Panama, Jordan and human rights violator Columbia, while working on deals with South Korea, the EU, India, the Ukraine and Morocco.
Failed to implement Kyoto protocol.
Smeared reputation of Captain Sean Bruyea, including release of private medical documents, following Bruyea’s public criticism of the flawed “veterans charter” and treatment of new war vets.
Wasted $1 billion to host the G-8/G-20, including increased security and policing which sent hundreds of citizens to detention centres or to the hospital with injuries.

Source: CAW contempt for democracy poster

Harper's government has launched a full scale assault on our democracy. He abused an arcane rule to shut down our parliament for months, bullied and fired civil service whistleblowers, ignored lawful requests for financial information, created a handbook on how to disrupt parliamentary meetings and processes, and flooded the airwaves with vicious attack ads. His cronies have cheated election laws, altered official documents and used their public office to raise money for re-election. Harper needs to subvert democracy because he knows the Canadian people do not support his ideology. His contempt for the Canada we've built is best summed up by what he called us when meeting with a group of radical right wing Americans. He said: "Canada is a Northern European welfare state in the worst sense of the term." You can read that speech here.

For too long Canada has been ruled by the heavy-handed leader of a radical minority. At a time when democracy is on the march around the world, it's time to take back ours.

Canada: take back democracy

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Countdown to Kananaskis: let's keep the pressure on

We are less than 10 days away from the federal and provincial finance ministers' meeting in Kananaskis, Alberta. They will be talking about a proposal to provide retirement security for everyone by adopting a plan to improve the CPP.

It was the labour movement that forced this issue onto the national agenda. It was a tough sell at first but now the momentum is with us. We have convinced most of the ministers to support expanding the CPP. The country's mayors and city councillors have come out in favour of improved public pensions. Our public opinion polling shows this approach is also the overwhelming choice of Canadians.

This is fantastic news but those who oppose our plan are mounting a desperate counter-attack. The financial services industry is fighting hard against improving the CPP. Check out why on our website with Straight Talk on RRSP and Mutual Fund Management Fees.

Most finance ministers are with us. Alberta's Minister Ted Morton is opposed but he is feeling the heat. Our opinion polling shows that Albertans, much like other Canadians, favour an enhanced CPP. We must keep the pressure on him, and on Saskatchewan's Minister Ken Krawetz and New Brunswick's Minister Blaine Higgs, who are sitting on the fence.

We are on the cusp of something wonderful. Improving CPP today will buy retirement security for life tomorrow - which is priceless. We have to keep working to win this one on behalf of all Canadians.

Canadian Labour Congress
2841 Riverside Drive
Ottawa Ontario K1V8X7
Canada

What did the municipal election mean for light rail?

The election seemed to be all about light rapid transit–and it experienced a very rough ride. For many voters, they just started paying attention to the proposal when the federal government announced its contribution to the project just before Labour Day .... READ MORE

Report

Attended Council Meeting Tuesday August 10, 2010; agenda Items of interest were:

Rick Lonergan, President of CAW4304 re: GRT Railroad Crossing Policy
P-10-066, Amendment to University of Waterloo Undergraduate U-Pass Agreement
Grand River Transit Customer Service Report (T19-80)

Item #1:

Council disregarded this as a public health & safety issue as clearly stated by Rick. Wideman stated that this item was currently in the grievance process and should be taken to Operations. Whole agenda item appeared to have been discussed beforehand and decisions appeared pre-arranged.

Item #2:

Increase in student u-pass fare from $49.75 to $51.75 per school term for undergrads as of Sept. 1, 2010. Further increase from $51.75 to $52.94 per school term for undergrads as of Jan. 1, 2011.

U-pass ridership has increased from 450,000 rides in 2006 to 3.3 million rides in 2009. This represents 20% of all GRT ridership. Agreements with U-Pass partners will all expire by Aug. 31, 2011. New agreement proposals to be submitted to Regional Council in spring 2011.

Annual revenue increase is as follows:

$40,000 (2010) increase; 52,000 (2011) increase = $92,000 additional revenue from Contract Amendments.

Item #3: Slight increase in customer issues.

2009 - Ridership 16,599,974/Issues 3,337
2008 - Ridership 15,810,871/Issues 3,050

1,485/operational concerns
1,432/service delivery
343/Bus stop environment
77/fares

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Union In Politics

In this federal election Canadians have the opportunity to make major changes on the national stage and set the country in a new direction.

Countdown to Kananaskis: let's keep the pressure on

Updated: April 22, 2011 9:30

Updated:
April 22, 2011 9:30