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WHERE'S STOCKWELL? - Canadian Alliance leader avoids the voters
(This article is from the Sept. 1-15/2000 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.)
By Kimball Cariou
LEADING UP TO the Sept. 11 byelection in Okanagan-Coquihalla, Canadian Alliance leader Stockwell Day is spending as little time as possible in the riding. Organizers of election forums have expressed frustration at Day's decision to be in the riding for only six or seven days of the campaign. At press time, Day had agreed to take part in only two all-candidate meetings, including one organized by a Chamber of Commerce.
His absence has also angered voters, many of whom are upset that their support is being taken for granted. Day and his handlers claim that the Alliance leader has a "responsibility" to be taking his right-wing message across the country.
Official functions in Ottawa are also a higher priority for Day than the byelection. For example, Day preferred to meet with Mexico's president-elect Vicente Fox in mid-August in his role os Opposition Leader, even though he has yet to be elected to Parliament.
Many observers point to a bigger factor in Day's schedule than pressing duties elsewhere: the CA's attempt to minimise public criticism of his contempt for hard-won social equality rights, and of his pro-corporate economic policies. Since Day's victory in the CA leadership race, protesters have turned up with signs, slogans, and tough questions at many public appearances.
Despite the corporate media's crude portrayal of Okanagan-Coquihalla as redneck country, many local residents are deeply alarmed at his views. First Nations organizations and other democratically-minded people in the riding strongly oppose the Alliance's denial of inherent aboriginal treaty and land rights upheld in recent court rulings. Similarly, there is strong support in the riding for women's reproductive rights, even though the anti-choice movement is well organized and vocal in the area.
The defence of Canadian sovereignty is another key issue, especially given Day's support for corporate globalization and closer integration into the US economy. The Council of Canadians branch in Penticton, hoping to give voters a chance to compare the views of all eight candidates on such issues, has organized one of the public forums which Day has decided to avoid.
Apparently fearing a poor showing, the NDP took weeks to field a candidate, finally nominating Jack Ellis a few days before the Aug. 21 deadline. Another candidate running a vigorous campaign is Jack Peach of the Canadian Action Party, which is focussing entirely on just two issues - opposition to corporate globalization, and using the Bank of Canada to control the money supply. The leader of Quebec's pro-marijuana Bloc Pot party flew in to join the race, and three candidates are running as independents.
But the strongest opposition to Day has come from Green Party leader Joan Russow, whose roots in the riding include environmental and peace campaigns in the 1960s and '70s. Russow is running on a detailed progressive platform (see www.green.ca), and has an excellent track record on issues of social justice, opposition to NATO's war against Yugoslavia, and the struggle against the MAI and other globalization treaties.
The lively Russow campaign is running a "Spot Stockwell" contest during the byelection. Voters get 10 points for sighting Day in the riding, 25 points for asking him a question, and 50 points for "getting a coherent answer." Anyone getting 100 points can pick up a stuffed prairie dog at Russow's campaign office, 419 Main Street, Penticton.
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