JULY 24, 1995 – Mike Harris has joined Ralph Klein and Paul Martin in the war against the poor. Within days of taking office, Harris announced cuts totalling $1.9-billion. Fully $500-million of these cuts come right out of the pockets of the poorest in the province, through a 21% cut in social assistance (welfare) payments. Harris is accumulating a war chest from the pockets of the poor to give to the rich next year. He intends to cut taxes 30%, and those tax cuts will disproportionately benefit the richest in the province. There is a concerted attempt by governments across…
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JUNE 12, 1995 – A horror movie has opened at Queen’s Park in Toronto. We’ll call it Return of the Living Dead. Its star is an impostor. He claims to be Mike Harris. We have actually uncovered that Mike Harris does not exist. He has been exposed as a monster we thought we had gotten rid of a few years ago. Mike Harris is – Brian Mulroney. We think. There is also a case to be made that the monster is in fact a disguised Preston Manning. The case for him being Manning is strong indeed. Just like Manning, he…
Comments closedMAY 15, 1995 – The NDP looks set to lose the June 8 election in Ontario. Membership in the party is down by thousands. “After the Social Contract negotiations in the summer of 1993, thousands of NDP members tore up their cards and quit the party. Membership has fallen by about one-third to about 22,000”. [1] Riding after riding has fewer workers prepared to go door to door than in the last election. Rae and the party leadership have no one to blame but themselves. There was euphoria in 1990 when the NDP won a majority at Queen’s Park. Many…
Comments closedMARCH 27, 1994 – For a few days, everything seemed possible. On March 11, 1994, Sid Ryan, president of the Ontario division of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, in a letter to CUPE Ontario Executive Board members, laid out a plan of action that had the potential to galvanize the Ontario labour movement. In the confidential letter, widely leaked to militants in the labour movement, Ryan spelled out exactly how serious the attacks on Ontario workers have been in the last two years. “A recent survey of 30 percent of CUPE locals has indicated a staggering job loss of…
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