Reflections on the Election Results

The 2011 Canadian Federal Elections are now over and we, the working classes, are finally done watching the latest spectacle akin to the shuffling of deck chairs. The newspaper headlines and political pundits scream about a Harper majority and a Layton surge, the collapse of the Bloc and the Liberals, in desperation to make it sound like that last night was “historic” however, none speak about how little has actually changed. It has been demonstrated time and again in the last six weeks that the NDP, Liberals and the Conservatives differ very little in political program or vision, whether it be on the budget, military spending, law and order etc. The NDP has had to admit that it has in fact adopted the Liberal Party’s platform and have simply rebranded it with the buoyant smile of Jack Layton.

This simply marks a further shift to the right for all of the parliamentary parties, and demonstrates that even basic aspects of a radical program can be won. It simply demonstrates that the parliament exists to protect the interests of corporations and the ruling classes and it is our duty as revolutionaries to continue to show our rage at this system in the streets and organize in our workplaces, schools, and neighborhoods as to build our vision of democracy and society. If in fact these elections do tell us anything it is that working classes of Quebec completely and thoroughly reject the bourgeois nationalist project of the Bloc Quebecois.

Once again after so much ado, little has changed and this is reflected in the polls, which demonstrate that despite the “historic” nature of these elections that 38.6% of registered voters chose not to go to the polls. This is indeed a negligible 2.6% increase in voter turnout since the last elections, which continues to indicate that a large section of Canadians still remain dissatisfied with their options at the ballot box despite all of the media hype about an ‘historic election’ and a ‘NDP surge’. We recognize that the 38.6% of registered voters who did not vote did not also actively boycott the elections as we had called upon them to do, however, we do believe that we have been able to use to campaign to take the first steps in the building of a new revolutionary proletarian movement. - Boycott Sympathizer