PUT PEOPLE & THE PLANET BEFORE PROFIT
Working people in Ontario cannot afford any more pro-corporate policies at Queen’s Park.
The Ford government has enriched corporate developers, landlords, and retail and grocery monopolies while dismantling the protections and supports that working Ontarians rely on. While corporations rake in record profits, workers are left struggling with skyrocketing rents, suppressed wages, and gutted public healthcare, education and social services.
Housing affordability is at an all-time low, and homelessness is on the rise.
The Ford government’s removal of rent controls on new units and his refusal to build public housing have fuelled a housing crisis that affects millions. Ford’s attempt to use the notwithstanding clause to undermine the charter rights of people living in encampments shows once again that this government is a threat to democratic rights. Meanwhile, his government’s privatization of hospital services has degraded care, raised costs, and worsened the staffing crisis.
Ford’s environmental policies are a catastrophic failure. With unmet emissions targets and attempts to hand over Greenbelt lands to developers, this government has proven it will always sacrifice our planet’s future for corporate gain.
To distract us, Ford uses scapegoating and dog whistles, targeting immigrants and trans people to deflect blame for worsening inequality and economic hardship. The very real problems we face are not caused by marginalized communities — it’s the system that puts corporate profits ahead of our needs.
Pro-Corporate Policies Must Be Defeated
Ford’s Conservatives must be defeated. However, replacing them with the Liberals, New Democrats, or Greens will not defeat the corporate agenda. The Liberals continue to prioritize corporate interests, promising only a gentler version of austerity. The Greens’ emphasis on “green capitalism” offers market-driven solutions, ignoring the fact that the climate crisis can’t be solved within the same system causing it. While many working people support the NDP, it is increasingly focused more on becoming a “responsible” alternative to the Liberals than on confronting corporate power.
We need to move beyond choosing between managers of capitalism every few years. Before and after the election, we must fight for a People’s Alternative.
A People’s Alternative for Ontario
This election and beyond, we must demand policies that put people first:
Raise Wages and Living Standards
- Hike the minimum wage to $25/hour.
- End public sector wage suppression.
- Enact price controls on food, fuel and basic necessities.
- Ensure workers’ rights to organize, regardless of industry or immigration status.
- Provide a guaranteed income, raising disability and social assistance to livable levels so no one is forced to live in poverty.
Housing is a Human Right
- Build 200,000 publicly owned social housing units and enforce rent controls to lower rent to 20% of household income.
- Establish vacancy controls which tie rent to the unit.
- Stop “sweeps” against unhoused people forced to live in tents.
Expand Public Healthcare
- Reverse privatization and fully fund public healthcare to end wait times.
- Expand universal public health services to include long-term care, mental health, pharmacare, dental and eye care.
- Reverse Ford’s cuts to safe consumption sites and fund free, accessible addiction rehab programs.
Climate Action Now
- Transition to publicly owned green energy.
- Guarantee jobs for workers from fossil fuel sectors.
- Invest in free, robust, municipal and inter-city public transit.
- Enact strict legal limits for pollution and emissions, especially from industrial sources.
- Respect Indigenous sovereignty and UNDRIP principles of free, prior and informed consent to development affecting Indigenous land and water.
Education for All
- Deliver a new, needs-based funding formula for public education
- Incorporate the Catholic school system into a single, secular, quality, public school system.
- Eliminate tuition fees and cancel student debt.
Full Equality & Democratic Rights
- Enforce pay equity laws to eliminate the gender wage gap, and introduce employment equity programs.
- Strengthen civilian control of police and prosecute police misconduct.
- Enforce and strengthen anti-hate legislation.
- Stop confusing anti-zionism with antisemitism.
- Recognize Indigenous self-government and self-determination.
- Immediate cleanup of poisoned Indigenous land and water.
- Support the language rights of Franco-Ontarians.
- Enact Mixed Member Proportional Representation (MMP) for elections to ensure every vote counts.
An Economy that Puts Workers First
- Create a full employment strategy with expanded manufacturing industries, investment in social housing, public infrastructure, and public ownership of key industries.
- Pass plant closure legislation to prevent relocation due to U.S. tariffs or corporations moving to low-wage jurisdictions.
Who Should Pay?!
Tax the super rich and make corporations pay their share. Double the corporate income tax rate to 23%. Reduce funding and demilitarize the police. Fight to reduce federal military spending and dedicate the money to civilian needs.
Fight for Fundamental Change
Policies like these won’t be won by voting. We need a movement capable of winning far-reaching reforms. This requires uniting Indigenous nations, youth, students, immigrant and 2S/LGBTQ+ communities and all those harmed by the Ford government’s corporate agenda in a coalition with the labour movement at its core.
Global Crises Demand Fundamental Change in Ontario
We are not just facing problems in Ontario— we live in the global crisis of capitalism. Wildfires, floods, rising prices, and stagnant wages all point to a system that prioritizes corporate greed over human needs. The ruling class, here and abroad, props up ultra-right politicians to divide us, erode democratic rights, and protect their power. Meanwhile, Canada’s doubling of military spending diverts resources away from solving these crises, fueling genocide in Palestine and edging us closer to global war.
Ford’s government is the local arm of these global trends, serving corporate Ontario while trampling living standards, democracy, equality, and the environment.
Build the Movement for Socialism
Voting Communist sends a clear message that Ontarians demand transformative change. But the fight doesn’t end at the ballot box. To overcome the crises we face, we must challenge capitalism itself. Only socialism can create a society where people and the planet are prioritized over profit – a world without poverty and war, where working people democratically own and control the economy. Socialism is urgently necessary and voting Communist helps build the movement for socialism.
Unite and fight for a better future! Together, we can defeat the corporate agenda and build a society where working people are in control of their lives and the decisions that shape our world.
VOTE COMMUNIST TO PUT PEOPLE AND THE PLANET BEFORE PROFIT
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