Howard Hampton as the only alternative

Provincial New Democratic Party Leader unveils electoral platform and new strategies

The choice is simple: if the voters want everything privatized, they can vote for the Tories. If they want to keep public control over services as important as energy supply, education and healthcare, they can vote for us, for the NDP. If they don't know what they want, they can vote for the Liberals."
In this interview, Ontario NDP leader Howard Hampton explains his political platform for the next election and in particular the differences between his party and the rest.
According to the NDP leader, "the Liberals are still in a stage where they talk, and only talk, about being progressives and strengthen the public control over sectors such as education and healthcare, but they have neither the will to pay for them, nor specific plans to do so."
Hampton makes an example of the dispute on public funding for private schools, where "leader McGuinty says he opposes it but Liberal MPPs like O'Brian and Kwinter openly declare to support it."
Similar occurrences "can be found in many other sectors. Take healthcare, for instance: Liberals declare to oppose privatization but then, talking about hospitals in Brampton or Ottawa, say that the option can be considered. The same goes for tests like MRI or CAT scans."
Hampton reminds that "their only worry is that such privatizations could accelerate therapies for a few to the detriment of poorer patients."
Commenting on the announcement that a Liberal cabinet would raise the minimum wage in Ontario to $8 per hour, Hampton underscores that "this will be a gradual raise, over four years. If you consider that the minimum wage has been the same for the past eight years, that actually means that Liberals would keep it stable for a long, long time. I feel sure that even Ernie Eves concurs with such a proposal. I've been saying it for awhile: the two of them are equivalent."
The NDP leader feels that such a policy "does not pay, and in the long run, before the end of the next campaign, it will create problems for the Liberals."
Hampton says they are ready for the election, which he expects for next spring: "There are two main reasons for this. By postponing the election to October, the Tories would have to cope with two crucial problems. In summer they will not be able to supply the energy required, power bills will go up, and citizens will get angry. Then, in a few months 10,000 Ontario families will get a letter from a university announcing that their children are good students but there's no space in university for them. Fighting an election in those conditions would be fatal to them."
Hampton foretells that the provincial budget will be presented during the first week of April and the election will be called by the end of the same week. The election would therefore take place some time in mid-May, "before the energy blackouts and the universities troubles."
The NDP campaign will be an uphill battle, trying to convince voters of the need for change in Queen's Park and that their party, and not the Liberals, are the only alternative.
Hampton does not feel worried. He believes that "the first part has already been done, as the Tories themselves convinced people of the need for change. The main bone of contention is the series of privatizations that brought only increased fees." He lists "the privatization of the energy sector, the sell-out of Highway 407, and user fees for healthcare."
In these conditions, the NDP leader, there can be only one alternative: "if the voters want everything privatized at once, they can vote for the Tories. If they want everything privatized slowly, they can vote for the Liberals. If they want to defend and improve public services, they can only vote for us, for the NDP."
Hampton also dismisses the Liberal slogan about "Eves changing policy every day. Eves' policy is very clear: he wants to privatize. What's less than clear is the Liberal position."
Hampton notes that the election of Jack Layton as Federal leader of the NDP greatly helped the party: "He's a very popular leader, especially in urban areas, and that is good."
Hampton rejects the concerns of some critics who say that a strong NDP gives an advantage to the Tories by dividing the opposition. That was the reason for the so called 'strategic voting' in the last elections, i.e. the concentration of votes in favour of the strongest opposition party, in this case the Liberal Party, against the ruling party.
Hampton denies this: "That's false. Every time the NDP obtained good electoral results, the Tories suffered."
There is a lot of optimism in Hampton's voice when he highlights the powerful effect on the voters of the hikes in the power bills.
More powerful than Walkerton?
"Most assuredly. Walkerton was important, but every voter gets a Hydro bill every month."
Tories are aware of this as well, and are now in a quandary: polls are not very encouraging at present, but by waiting they will have to face the energy bills issue.
And the day of reckoning might get worse.

Publication Date: 2003-03-23
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=2509