As you know Buzz Hargrove, the president of the Canadian Auto Workers, was pictured on Friday embracing Paul Martin and declaring that Martin deserves another term as prime minister. To be sure, he talked about the need for a minority government. But his e=enthusiastic endorsement of Martin - and his inducting remarks about Jack Layton - have given Martin a totally undeserved boost.

Hargrove’s support of Martin could contribute to a majority Liberal government - which in my analysis is the worst possible election outcome - even worse than a Conservative minority which would fall in a matter of months.

We need to write short, pointed letters questioning the wisdom of Hargrove’s support for Martin.

I know some of you are CAW members and you may disagree with this letter - my apologies but Buzz is just dead wrong on this and his statement must be countered.

Here are some excerpts from two stories (go to the links below for the full stories) on Hargrove’s statement:

• "The overwhelming majority of our delegates endorsed what the Prime Minister stands for here today," CAW chief Buzz Hargrove told reporters after Martin laid out his election themes before 900 union members at a convention in Toronto.
  
  
• Hargrove said he hasn't discussed his political stance with the NDP leader. "I haven't talked to Layton," he said. "I don't report to Jack." [No, apparently he reports to Martin.]
  
  
• Buzz Hargrove, president of the Canadian Auto Workers Union, gave Mr. Martin a warm introduction to his union's leadership conference in Toronto and told reporters afterwards he wants the Liberal leader to remain prime minister after the Jan. 23 election.

Here are some points to make in a SHORT, POINTED letter whose overarching message should be framed as: Paul Martin does not deserve our support based on his record. He is a Bay Street politician and the biggest real threat to the country is a Martin majority government.

[If you are a union member, identify yourself as such making clear Hargrove doesn’t speak for you.]

• Buzz Hargrove is full of his own importance - pronouncing on an election that he unfortunately doesn’t seem to understand. The biggest threat - because it is quite possible - is a Liberal majority government something Hargrove has just made more likely.


• The photo of Buzz Hargrove hugging Paul Martin is disturbing. Mr. Martin has shown himself over and over again to be hostile to the interests of working Canadians and their families. [combine that message with two or three of the following Martin initiatives/policies]:
  
  
  • Paul Martin the whole time he was finance minister was owner of Canada Steamship Lines which registered its ships off shore so it could pay a fraction of Canadian wages and pay no Canadian taxes. What is a labour leader doing endorsing such an hypocrite?
    
    
  • Paul Martin is largely responsible for opening the door to Medicare privatization by slashing billions from federal contributions and then repealing the Established Program Funding legislation that obliged provinces to spend federal transfers on Medicare;
    
    
  • as Prime Minister he refused to enforce the Canada Health Act against creeping privatization;
    
    
  • he gutted UI so that only 38 per cent of employees now qualify for benefits;
    
    
  • he eliminated the Canada Assistance Program that established some minimal national standards for welfare;
    
    
  • he deliberately kept unemployment at 8 - 9 percent throughout the 1990s as part of his despicable “labour flexibility” strategy of suppressing the pay and the bargaining power of working people;
    
    
  • he slashed funding for universities and as a result tuition fees have gone through the roof making it difficult if not impossible for the children of working families to go to university;
    
    
  • he eliminated low-income housing making Canada the only developed nation in the world without such a program;
    
    
  • Martin deliberately underestimated surpluses seven years in a row so that he would not have to reinvest in social programs and in 2000 he passed the most blatantly unfair tax cuts in Canadian history. Fully 77 per cent of the personal tax cuts went to the wealthiest eight per cent of Canadians;
    
    
  • More recently, of course, Martin absolutely refused to accept a deal with the NDP that would have seen continued parliamentary support from that party if the Liberal government simply pledged to halt the further privatization of Medicare - something which is supposed to be Liberal policy.
    
    
• Paul Martin is absolutely dedicated to Bay Street’s long term agenda, just as he was throughout his time as finance minister. Martin has already quietly signed an accord with the US and Mexico committing the country to a scheme called deep integration - the increasing “harmonization” of our social, foreign, and defence policy and food and drug safety laws with the US. He does not deserve our votes.
  
  
• By endorsing - and hugging! - Paul Martin, Buzz Hargrove plays into the Liberal’s strategy of scaring NDP voters to vote Liberal by promoting the spectre of a Harper government. That could make the difference between a Liberal minority and a disastrous Liberal majority. How does Hargrove think this is progressive?
  
  
• Paul Martin - who as finance minister deliberately drove down wages and salaries with his policies - can now boast that one of Canada’s most respected labour leaders endorses him. What on earth was Buzz Hargrove thinking?

Click here for Toronto Star story

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