Canadian Labour Reporter

has been set a little differently. The latest round of polls has put the NDP in the lead, though with the Liberals and Conservatives right on their heels. And because most union- friendly and labour organiza- tions have historically leaned to- wards the left, unions are coming at the election from a new and unprecedented place. "Unions have never confront- ed a political terrain like this; it's uncharted territory," said Larry Savage, director of Brock Uni- versity's Centre for Labour Stud- ies in St. Catharines, Ont. "The Conservatives are in third place and are the party unions would least like to see in government — and the party that has historically had a relation- ship with the unions, the NDP, is leading in national polls," Savage explained. The dynamic means unions are more politically active now than ever before. For Jerry Dias, president of the country's largest private sector union and its more than 300,000 members, Unifor's influence is not to be understated. The union's strategy thus far has been to support the candidate most likely to defeat the Conservative contender in that riding, as well as supporting all of the incum- bent New Democrats. "Our preoccupation is going to be getting out the message and making sure they get out to vote because there's no question we believe that if we mobilize our members then they can make a difference in this federal elec- tion," he said. The union also has a complete breakdown of where its mem- bers live, said Dias, which can be a valuable bit of information — if a Liberal was poised to win over a Conservative by x num- ber of votes, for example, the union would also know exactly how many of its members — or ballots — lived in that particular riding. And whereas some of the oth- er unions (including the United Steelworkers, Canadian Union of Public Employees and Ontario Federation of Labour) are push- ing blanket support for the NDP, Dias said Unifor is applying the strategy as effectively as possible. "You will find that the other unions are saying they support the NDP and our union says the same thing — but they won't have any boots on the ground in areas where they know the NDP has no chance," Dias said. "If there are ridings that are identified where the party has no chance, we don't have the prob- lem of saying that we support a Liberal to ensure that a Conser- vative doesn't get elected." Strategies Unifor's plan is in line with the Quebec Federation of Labour, which is also pushing for strate- gic voting. While this will likely mean supporting the NDP in orange-washed Quebec, it could have a major impact in populous Ontario, the province oft cited as the key to election victory be- cause it has 121 out of 338 seats for the taking, according to Sav- age. "When it comes to electoral strategy, the labour movement in Ontario is not as organized as it could be. An example is how some unions are supporting stra- tegic voting, and some unions are supporting blanket support for the NDP," he said, adding that unions have all but abandoned the Conservative party. One example is the Seafar- ers' International Union (SIU) of Canada, which supported the Tories in 2011 based on prom- ises for change to Maritime poli- cies. The SIU no longer supports the current Harper government — and in fact has requested a judicial review and has filed a challenge against the federal gov- ernment in court over temporary work permits issued to foreign sailors in Canadian waters, and allegedly taking work from do- mestic seamen. As of press time, the SIU had not yet officially come out sup- porting another viable party — though its president, James Given, indicated they would be looking closely at the NDP. Three's company? Though federal campaign fi- nance laws restrict trade unions and corporations from making direct political contributions, they are allowed to donate to third-party grassroots groups – such as the left-leaning Engage Canada (for which Unifor is a contributor) and conservative- friendly Working Canadians. The latter was established about a year-and-a-half ago on the notion that unions have too much influence on government, said its spokesperson Catherine Swift, ex-Canadian Federation of Independent Business exec and former C.D. Howe Institute board member. "There's no question the unions have ramped up their participation in elections. In Ontario it's been very notable for a number of years now and of course Ontario has the loos- est rules — it's basically the wild west. Third-parties can spend like drunken sailors, there's no limit to anything," Swift said. Among the small business and corporate contributors to Work- ing Canadians, Swift also counts union members on the roster. Partisanship aside, she said mandatory dues paid to unions shouldn't be spent on politicking. "We're doing what we can, nobody is forced to pay anything to us, we always have voluntary dues and I've always thought that was a point of pride," Swift said. "Mind you, there's a lot of new organizations that are in-sync and I feel like we need a voice like this." One short-lived conservative group, HarperPAC, aimed to do just that and level the playing field — before shutting down one week after its inception following a negative response from Prime Minister Stephen Harper's of- fice. Modelled after the U.S.-style political action committees, HarperPAC said it intended to spawn discussion around cam- paign and pre-writ advertising. "We have contributed to a new discussion about politi- cal financing in a fixed election era that is critical to our democ- racy," said Stephen Taylor, chief spokesperson for HarperPAC. "We were pleased to drive a very fevered discussion about the place of third-party money in pre-writ political campaigns. We note that this discussion only occurred once a right-wing ana- log of the left's PAC-style efforts emerged on the scene." "Like-minded Conservatives will continue to make sure that NDP, Liberal and union activ- ists are held to account going forward," Taylor said, adding that any contributions received would be returned to the re- spectful donors. Electoral reform Many provinces are following Ottawa and putting limits on third-party spending during elections. Alberta's newly elected NDP government banned contribu- tions from unions and corpora- tions in its very first draft of leg- islation, and the Ontario Liberals have hinted at electoral reform. In Quebec, contributions from corporations and unions are pro- hibited outright, and individual donations are capped at $100. Since regulation involving third-parties was introduced in Ontario eight years ago, they have more than tripled — from 11 in 2007 to 35 in 2014, accord- ing to data from Elections Cana- da. Greg Essensa, the province's chief electoral officer, has called for stricter rules surrounding third-party spending limits and improved compliance. Last spring's Ontario elec- tion saw trade unions donate a total of $965,316 (to a combina- tion of only the NDP and Liber- als) and corporations donated $5,978,954 across a number of el- igible political factions, with the highest contribution awarded to the Progressive Conservatives. 7 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2015 CANADIAN LABOUR REPORTER NEWS < from pg. 1 Third-party groups on the rise: Elections Canada "Unions have never confronted a political terrain like this — it's uncharted territory."

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