(The following article is from the September 16-30, 2008, 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, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)


A message from Miguel Figueroa, leader of the Communist Party of Canada

     The October 14 federal election will mark a crucial moment in our country's history. This is an opportunity to move Canada in a fundamentally new direction - to create jobs, rebuild our decimated industrial base, and improve living standards for working people; to extricate our country from a disastrous war of occupation in Afghanistan; to save our public health care and education systems from the curse of privatization; to stop and reverse the devastation of our national and global environment; and to prevent Canada's complete absorption into the empire to our south.

     Is such a new direction possible? Yes, it is!

     The first step is to defeat Harper and his Conservatives, and their pro-corporate, anti-people policies which they have already begun to impose with a vengeance over the past three years.

     Harper and his band of neo-cons represent the most right-wing, pro-war, and pro-U.S. government in our history. They are in the pockets of the biggest transnational corporations, oil companies and banks who are amassing obscenely-high profits at the expense of working people and our environment.

     The Tories have stood idly by while food and energy prices skyrocket, because that's in the interests of their friends in Big Business. They have sabotaged international efforts to reverse global climate change caused by fossil fuel emissions, because that's what the oil and gas monopolies want.

     And they have driven our country further down the road of war and militarization to satisfy the Bush Administration in Washington and the military-industrial complex.

     And this is only the tip of the iceberg. Imagine what's in store if the Conservatives succeed in their bid to gain a majority! That's why their defeat at the polls on October 14th is so crucial.

     The Communist Party and its candidates will be campaigning for fundamental change, for real change that will place people's needs first, not the profit interests of the corporate elite.

     We need policies to improve the living standards for workers - especially the poorest paid - by increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour, by preventing plant shutdowns and runaways, and by reducing the working week to 32 hours without any loss in take-home pay.

     We need to stop and reverse the creeping privatization of Medicare, public education, pensions and other vital social services.

     We need to tax the windfall profits of the oil monopolies and use those billions upon billions to lower retail prices - especially for home heating. We must launch a massive investment program into renewable energy, to greatly expand urban and inter-city mass transit, and to safeguard our environment. And we need to nationalize the oil and gas industry in Canada as peoples in many other countries have done so successfully.

     We need a new, independent foreign policy based on peace and cooperation, and respect for international law, not on war and militarization.

     We invite you to find out more about our "people's alternative" for Canada by visiting our website, http://www.communist-party.ca, or by contacting our offices and candidates across the country.

     The future of our country is at stake in this election! It's time to dump Harper and the Tories.

     For the rights of workers and the unemployed, for women demanding full equality, for youth and students, Aboriginal peoples and national minorities, on October 14th, you can send a powerful message for real change by voting Communist.

     Take Canada in a fundamentally new direction - put people before profit!