Dear friends,
The upcoming Ontario election is the most important one since 1995.
That year, voters chose PC leader Mike Harris to run the province, and run it he did – right into the ground. He laid off tens of thousands of public employees, slashed public services, and handed assets like Highway 407 over to the private sector for a fraction of their real worth. Even today, Harris’s tax cuts are the main reason Ontario has a budget deficit – even though we spend less per person on public services than any other province.
This year we have Tim Hudak, who says he’ll cut 100,000 public employees, privatize anything that isn’t bolted down, and cut corporate taxes so deeply that public services will never recover. Hudak would tear up seniority protections in collective agreements, cut your wages, and force unions to spend more time on administration and less time on servicing members.
Every OPSEU member will pay a high price if Tim Hudak is elected. We have to stop him. How you decide to do that is, of course, up to you. The main thing is to vote.
Recently I saw a button that said, “Bad governments are elected by good people who don’t vote.” Never were truer words written. If OPSEU members do not vote, we are in for a very bad government.
But if we do vote, we can make a big difference in the June 12 election.
OPSEU members represent about 1.5 per cent of all eligible voters in Ontario – more than 1,000 voters per riding. But these days, when half the population doesn’t even bother to vote, every ballot cast counts double. We have the power to shape the next government. And that power is magnified when we convince those we know that their votes count, too.
On June 12, the result depends on you. So head on down to your polling station and vote.
In solidarity,
Warren (Smokey) Thomas
President, Ontario Public Service Employees Union
For more information visit www.opseu.org/vote2014.