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Six guest writers set the tone for the upcoming election campaign During the last election campaign Jean Chrétien said he would govern for Main Street, not Wall Street. Did he keep his promise? Six guest writers give their perspectives on the Chrétien government and the decline of Main Street's significance in Canadian political life. Pat Capponi is the author of Dispatches from the Poverty Line, a series of open letters on being poor in Mike Harris's Ontario. I don't see much difference between Wall Street and Main Street. Main Street tends to run people like me out of the neighbourhood (something about property values). Wall Street snickers at my résumé. What I hear from that promise is the same thing I heard from Harris in Ontario--to govern for the taxpayer. From what the polls tell us, taxpayers feel well-served enough to vote for Chrétien again. The rest of us--the unlucky, the unemployed, the disabled, the single mothers, the elderly--we stopped counting some time ago. Our disenfranchisement, our lack of power, is as real as our hunger. All I see is an editorial cartoon: Main Street bending over, Wall Street unzipping its pants, and poor people getting screwed with every stroke. Lawrence Solomon is the editor of The Next City, a Toronto-based magazine focusing on issues in contemporary urban society. Mr. Chrétien didn't take many shopkeepers on his Team Canada missions abroad, he took Corporate Canada--private companies such as Bombardier and SNC-Lavalin, and public ones such as Hydro-Québec. These corporations, accustomed to the good life at the public trough, are all too often in the business of exporting environmental harm, from nuclear plants to mining ventures. When at home, the Crown agencies provide indirect subsidies to big business at the expense of small businesses and their customers. Main Street needs the breakup of Crown monopolies and an end to government's relationship with big business. As long as political patronage dominates public life, inhabitants of Main Street will be second-class citizens. André Pratte is a journalist at La Presse and the author of Le Syndrome de Pinocchio, an essay on lying in Canadian politics. Contrary to what they promised during the 1993 campaign, Mr. Chrétien's Liberals governed the country according to the economic principles that had (mis)guided Mulroney's Conservatives. They gave priority to reducing the deficit, explaining that this would lead to an economic climate conducive to job creation. I will let others to decide whether this is "governing for Wall Street." What is clear is that, in doing so, Mr. Chrétien took the Main Street of Canadian politics. A street paved with lies. Chrétien said Canadians will remember the Red Book as "the moment when they started to believe in their institutions again." In fact, the Red Book was one of the most subtle political lies ever conceived. A lie carefully disguised as frankness. A program so vague that it is practically impossible to decipher exactly what was promised. In the 1993 campaign, the Liberals promised "jobs, jobs, jobs" and no cutbacks in social programs. But looking for confirmation of those promises in the Red Book is like trying to pin a piece of Jell-O to your lapel. That's what the Red Book was: a big chunk of strawberry Jell-O. Success was assured. Who doesn't like strawberry Jell-O? Shane Smith is a writer and business manager at Vice Magazine, a national underground pop culture monthly. The last half of this century has seen the rapid erosion of all political power, supplanted by an uncontrolled economic hegemony. The formation of supra-national entities such as the European Union have made the concept of the nation-state obsolete. The Cold War was won when Americans realized they didn't have to bomb the Soviet Union--they could just buy it. Today even conflict (such as the Gulf War) is more about commodity streams than any high ideals of sovereignty. In this global climate of economics dictating public policy, how can we blame poor Jean for not fulfilling a campaign promise as corny as that? In the words of the almighty Wu Tang Clan, "Cash Rules Everything Around Me." Wise up.
"Main Street," like so many political buzz-words, means "give me your votes... I'm one of you." How better to get onside with the masses than to join Main Street. Unfortunately, this political journey with the people lasts no longer than the election. Afterwards, Main Street takes on a whole different meaning--just ask former Liberal MP John Nunziata. He stood for Main Street even after he was elected. His reward? He was thrown out of the Liberal Party and had his riding association dissolved on direct orders from Jean Chrétien. So much for Main Street. Normand Baillargeon is a UQAM education science professor and a weekly columnist at Le Devoir. There came a moment, shortly before calling the election, when Jean Chrétien was wracked with doubt. He called up his public relations officer for advice. "I'm worried sick," Chrétien said. "Last time, I did what you said: I promised to govern for Main Street rather than Wall Street." The PR man burst out laughing. "Complete success, like I promised," he said when he regained his composure. "Of course. But then I thought: people are going to start catching on. Sure, we made them swallow the idea that the debt was created by exorbitant spending on social programs; we persuaded them that our corporations are overtaxed. But today there are 5.2 million Canadians living below the poverty line and 700,000 more poor people in the country since the last election. When I think of all the jobs we eliminated, and wages still stagnating... they've got to start noticing we don't give a damn about them, especially if they put all that together with the banks' and big corporations' record profits. And don't you remember my performance on TV with that... what do you call it again?... citizen, yes, that's it, unemployed citizen? I'm just a bit worried about the whole thing." The PR flack's tone was soothing: "Don't sweat it, Jean. Believe me, if you just follow the formula you can screw them and they'll graciously provide the vaseline. And remember: if it's not you, it's going to be another guy doing exactly the same thing." "I know. After all, I have as few ideas as anyone else. We'll send these idiots to the polls smack in the middle of the Stanley Cup playoffs--that can't hurt. We really do live in the greatest country in the world." *** So there's going to be an election. Jean Chrétien or Gilles Duceppe? Jean Manning or Preston Charest? The plague or the cholera? Choose your clown, elect your masters. Now, more than ever:Vote, stupid. --Compiled by Jacquie Charlton |
Main Street my ass
Civil rights activist Howard Galganov is head of the Quebec Political Action Committee. He is running for office as an independent in the Mont-Royal riding.