A Toronto Councillor and the other CPC
One of the things we all have to get used to is that there are two "CPC" political organizations in Canada:
- the Conservative Party of Canada
- the Communist Party of Canada
I think it's safe to say that they share little else than initials.
I bring it up because Toronto is likely to get a gas-fired power plant to help stave off rolling blackouts, blackouts created in part because of energy shortages resulting from the closure of coal-fired power plants (as opposed to upgrading them to cleaner designs) by the provincial Liberals.
That plan is going to be met with stiff opposition by Toronto City Councillor Paula Fletcher, who once led the CPC in Manitoba.
No, not the the Conservatives. The other guys.
Paula Fletcher's motto:
From the Toronto Star (via Bourque):
Premier Dalton McGuinty says Toronto is getting a new gas-fired power plant whether the city likes it or not because otherwise it risks serious electricity shortages.
"We need to build new generation inside the city of Toronto. We can't duck this. ... It's either that or we talk about rolling blackouts," McGuinty told reporters at Queen's Park yesterday.
"In an ideal world, we could get to where we need to go through conservation and renewables like wind. But we don't live in that world. We live in this one."
Well, we don't all live in this one. Some of us live in another world, where the class struggle is still alive and well:
Where the US was responsible for 9/11:The most basic tenet of Marxism is that in all class-divided societies, the primary lines of division and conflict occur between the two main contending classes which stand in antagonistic contradiction to one another – in capitalism, between capital and labour. This is what gives rise to the “historic mission” of the working class as the ultimate ‘grave-digger’ of the capitalist system, a pre-condition for its own social emancipation.
Where central state planning is still the solution (even though it has never worked, anywhere, anytime):Using the events of September 2001 (the attack on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon) as a pretext, the Bush administration has unleashed the so-called “war on terror”. Communists condemn terrorist attacks against civilians, but we also stress that for decades, US administrations have conducted state terrorism on a vast scale against the peoples of many countries.
And where the murderous totalitarian dictatorship of the old Soviet Union is remembered with fondness, and its obliteration with regret:The contradictions faced by imperialism are producing the necessary objective preconditions for revolutionary action and eventually for the overthrow of capitalism as a global system. Ultimately, only a shift towards a socialist economy based on public ownership and rational planning offers a real opportunity to save the planet.
There are, of course, objective obstacles which continue to confront our party-building efforts, such as the impact of monopoly control of mass communications and media on the formation of mass consciousness. The main hurdle however continues to be the lingering impact of the crisis and overturning of socialism in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. This historic defeat profoundly shook the confidence of even progressive-minded working people.
Those people belong to the Communist Party of Canada. Those quotes came from their documents.
In opposition to Dalton McGuinty's plans to provide energy to Toronto is Ward 30 Councillor Paula Fletcher:
A spokesperson said Energy Minister Donna Cansfield would be issuing a directive to the authority within the next few weeks outlining various options on how to get more power to downtown.
Toronto Councillor Paula Fletcher (Ward 30, Toronto-Danforth) vowed to battle any big generation development in the port lands. "If you want to fight, let's get into it," Fletcher said in an interview.
Paula Fletcher is a former leader of the Communist Party of Canada (Manitoba), where the dictatorship of the proletariat is just one more election away. The trick is to keep winning elections, even if you have to use tricks to win them:
Elected leader of the Communist Party of Canada (CPC) in Manitoba, in April 1981, Fletcher served in the post for about five years.
Somehow the Toronto District School Board trustee--now moving on up to run for a council seat--didn’t consider it important to tell Ward 30 voters about her long-time commitment to the CPC.
According to The Skinny, a bio sent out by email inviting people to attend her Summer Solstice campaign kick-off "leaves a 37-year gap between her birth 51 years ago in Sault Ste. Marie, and her arrival in Toronto 14 years back."
A gap of thirty-seven years?
Worried that people might be leary of electing someone committed to nationalizing everything in sight, and making everyone a happy worker drone in a communist paradise?
Worried or not, Paula Fletcher was helped in getting her job at Toronto City Hall by none other than ex-counciller and federal NDP leader Jack Layton, who was the last person to hold the job of representing Ward 30. First, Jack Layton helped her win a job on the school board (yes, communists on the school board thanks to the NDP):
Layton’s Back Jack election signs and brochures heralded the Toronto Star’s backing as "top councillor in Toronto!" and merely included "Paula Fletcher for Toronto School Board" on the bottom.
In 2003, with the backing of the NDP, she was elected to City Council. Keep in mind that she belonged to the CPC here in Toronto as well, representing the Toronto communists on various organizations.
And now she will lead the charge in favour of rolling blackouts. Why? Who knows? Though she no longer maintains any official connection with the Communist Party of Canada, a party she belong to for over two decades (perhaps longer -- her bios are vague), I can't help but wonder if a part of her is still pining for the inevitable collapse of capitalism and the rising of the working class to overthrow their bourgeious oppressors in order to take control of the means of production.
The anger created by rolling blackouts might be the trigger for the communist takeover of Toronto!
In the world inhabited by Paula Fletcher and her friends and allies, anyway.
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Comments
Toronto elects communist party leaders to their city council!?! I say go with the rolling blackouts - Toronto is a lost cause. In fact, maybe we could turn off the power forever and claim we're just trying to meet Kyoto targets?
Posted by: Dean at January 31, 2006 01:12 PM
Dean,
Turn off the power to Toronto to meet Kyoto targets. That is funny!
I think it is time to force Election Canada to put the full name of every party on the ballots and every media organization should refer to political parties in their full names only!
Posted by: mikeh at January 31, 2006 01:58 PM
So who is the bright light in the Conservative Party causing all this CPC confusion?
Please don't tell me it's a Liebrano plot.
Posted by: Ron at January 31, 2006 02:16 PM
Once again we have to ask Ron, what the hell are you talking about??
Posted by: Platty at January 31, 2006 02:59 PM
Ive only seen the Conservatives abbreviated with a C the liberals aren't known as the LPOC or LPC. Why cant the Conservatives just be C?
Wouldn't the liberals have similar problems with the libertarian party? (is there such a critter?)
Posted by: Curtis at January 31, 2006 02:59 PM
Either last election or the one before (probably the earlier one) I read that the Communists' national leader had been a Toronto school trustee in the days before directly electing the mayor when municipal voter turnout was very poor, like <15%. (It's since increased with the new citywide mayoral vote.) I knew there was no way she had run as a Communist, and so I came down firmly on the side of forcing party politics onto municipal elections. I was also reminded of this when Boob Rae was running [ruining?] Ontario when Jack and Olivia and the other leftists running suddenly lost all of their orange signs and began claiming that they had no connection to the NDP. So this isn't the first time this has happened.
Posted by: andycanuck at January 31, 2006 03:52 PM
Everyone has the right to stupidity ....
....but to continue to be so at 51 ??!!
Posted by: wIMPY cANADIAN at January 31, 2006 03:53 PM
Either last election or the one before (probably the earlier one) I read that the Communists' national leader had been a Toronto school trustee in the days before directly electing the mayor when municipal voter turnout was very poor, like less than 15%. (It's since increased with the new citywide mayoral vote.) I knew there was no way she had run as a Communist, and so I came down firmly on the side of forcing party politics onto municipal elections. I was also reminded of this when Boob Rae was running [ruining?] Ontario when Jack and Olivia and the other leftists running suddenly lost all of their orange signs and began claiming that they had no connection to the NDP. So this isn't the first time this has happened.
Posted by: andycanuck at January 31, 2006 03:55 PM
Note to self: do not use the mathematical "less than" sign in html-reading comment sections.
Posted by: andycanuck at January 31, 2006 03:58 PM
The only thing gas-fired power plants are good at is raising the price of natural gas to heat homes, and similarly raising the price of electricity.
Posted by: Paul O at January 31, 2006 04:06 PM
Platty, I'll try to explain. We are a culture that likes to reduce lengthy names to capital letters, for example, Canadian Union of Public Employees = CUPE.
There was a time when someone wanted to name the party. Conservative Reform Alliance Party = CRAP but decided against it for obvious reasons.
I was just wondering why hadn't somebody considered CPC as possible confusion with the Commies. Shows a lack of attention to detail don't you think?
Posted by: at January 31, 2006 04:20 PM
Steve, well done.
Hate to say it, but there is a grain of truth in Ron's CPC point. The Communist Party of Canada (1924) have been around longer that the newly re-defined Conservative Party of Canada (2004)
But there is also some truth in that the Communist Party of Canada should have it's headquarters located in Drumheller, Alberta.
And perhaps the Conservatives can be faulted in assuming that there are still some people around who continue to find relevance in a failed political ideology that has lead to death and torture millions of around the planet.
(Stalin killed more people in 1930 (Ukraine) that Hitler did in all his years of power in Germany.)
Posted by: Pete at January 31, 2006 06:13 PM
How many candidates did the Communists run in the last election. I feel that its somewhere south of 12. I doubt very much the other CPC stole enough votes to change the outcome of any riding.
Posted by: Curtis at January 31, 2006 06:24 PM
So let me get this straight... Stephen Harper can change his opinions on issues (e.g., presumably he no longer thinks Canada is a second-tier socialist country in decline), but others can't? Somehow the fact that Coun. Fletcher was leader of the Communist party in Manitoba 20 years ago is relevant now? Can't she have changed her opinions?
Posted by: thickslab at February 1, 2006 10:35 AM
Sure, you can change your mind. most people do.
However, politicians feel that its worth mentioning, when they change their minds. She didn't, she swept the communism under the rug. Its not like she changed her mind, but because she realized her views where unfashionabl. Like a green dress, not a real green dress, that's cruel.
Posted by: Curtis at February 1, 2006 11:28 AM
Well, Curtis, then perhaps someone here can actually ASK her whether she still supports communism or whether she's changed her mind? You know, pick up a telephone and call rather than writing blog comments about it?
Posted by: thickslab at February 1, 2006 12:44 PM
 
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