Never too early to start exposing bad Liberal policy | What's Left
The honeymoon with the Liberal Party (federal and provincial) is dragging-on a bit for those who fight for social and economic justice. While much of the population continue to get their news from media sources enamoured with the new Liberal brand, substantive change is hard to come by. Advancing free trade agreements and hobnobbing with the world's financial elite aside, progressive changes to employment insurance, welfare programs, and investment in public services are lagging.
Sign-up for What’s Left This Week
In the labour movement, many point to the Liberal introduction of legislation to undo the Conservative’s anti-union bills C-377 and C-525 and retract unconstitutional decrees on federal union bargaining as positive steps, and they are. However, the decision to abandon these ideological initiatives was self-interested as much as anything, since this will save the government money and time fighting losing court battles.
When it comes to privatization however, the Liberals look mighty similar to the Conservatives when it comes to infrastructure spending. The mandatory P3 screen for infrastructure is gone, but the P3 incentives are still present making it likely that projects will take advantage of it. In addition, the Liberals are introducing a host of new financialization initiatives (such as asset recycling) which will drive privatization and profits for their banker friends (like the process of selling Hydro One in Ontario).
Socialists need to start identifying and calling-out these two-faced Liberal policies early and often. Otherwise, we will be stuck with the results of minimal change without having put forward any alternatives.