UNION READIES ANTI-TORY WAR CHEST
Fixed election date will let Unifor target PM
OTTAWA • Stephen Harper is wed to his timetable for a fall election next year, despite being urged to drop the writ early.
Some Conservatives have suggested going early because of the Mike Duffy trial, which is set to start dripping bad news (from Mr. Harper’s point of view) next April. The Prime Minister is said to be undaunted.
But there may be an equally compelling reason to go early — to disrupt the massive antiConservative advertising blitz planned by Canada’s largest private sector union.
There’s a new breed of highly politicized union in town — and they’re intent on doing to Mr. Harper what they recently did to Tim Hudak in Ontario.
Unifor was created last year from the merger of the Canadian Auto Workers and the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers unions, to lead the fight-back against the Harper government, according to Jerry Dias, the national president.
“The creation of Unifor was a response to the federal government and the unprecedented attack being faced by working-class people,” he said.
Federal politics has not yet experienced the power of a union formed with the express purpose of defeating one political party.
But in Ontario, the Progressive Conservative party attributes its successive defeats, at least in part, to the negative advertising paid for by the unions.
In the Senate Thursday, Senator Bob Runciman said unions spent $10-million in the recent Ontario election — all on a campaign to “Stop Hudak.”
Mr. Runciman was speaking during debate on a private member’s bill that would force unions to publicly disclose details of their political spending. The bill — C377 — was gutted by senators last year but is now back in the upper chamber and is a major irritant for unions.
The Ontario campaign may be a harbinger of what Conservative parties across the country can expect to face in the future.
In the Ontario election, the Workers’ Rights Campaign operated more like a shadow political party than a union, with its own war room, field organizers and campaign strategy. In previous campaigns, certain unions backed the Liberals; others supported the NDP. In 2014, there were strenuous efforts made to avoid splitting the anti-Conservative vote.
Sid Ryan, president of the Ontario Labour Federation, said the labour movement came together in a way he had not seen in 20 years.
The key difference between Ontario and federal elections is that third parties cannot advertise federally once the writ is dropped. But, thanks to fixed election date legislation, the unions know exactly when the next election is going to be — and can do pretty much what they please until the writ officially drops a month before voting day.
Mr. Dias dismissed speculation that Mr. Harper might call a snap election. “Nah, nah. He will drop a feel-good budget and then spend months on a travelling roadshow paid for by the taxpayer.”
Conservative MPs have suggested Unifor may have up to $40-million to spend trying to bring down Mr. Harper. (When Unifor was created last year, it said it had $50-million to spend on organizing over five years — $10-million a year to “organize” new members and attract citizens to social causes.)
“That’s utterly ridiculous,” Mr. Dias said of the idea of a $40-million, anti-Tory war chest. “There’s no question that pre-writ we can do all kinds of things. But to suggest we will spend $40-million is quite ridiculous. We certainly have resources and we are a very politically engaged organization in the defence of working people’s interests. But those decisions will be made by the national executive board,” he said.
Mr. Dias said the Ontario campaign provided a con-
Ontario showed we can mobilize
fidence boost for a labour movement that has been in decline for 30 years — only 16% of workers in the private sector are union members.
“Ontario showed we can mobilize and win,” he said. “We will certainly be involved where we can make a difference.”
Mr. Dias said that organized labour took a battering during the recession. “But here we are in 2014 and things have turned around significantly.”
Voices inside the Conservative caucus have urged Mr. Harper to call an early election to disrupt Unifor’s prewrit advertising buys.
Sources say the prime minister is concerned that breaking his own fixed election date legislation in a majoritygovernment context would appear opportunistic — particularly in advance of Mr. Duffy’s trial.
But in sticking with that timing, he is gifting his union opponents the chance to influence a federal election in a way we have not seen in a very long time.