U.S. Working Families Party founder Dan Cantor calls Stephen Harper a “menace”

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      The man behind what may be considered as the Tea Party to the left of the Democratic Party in the U.S. is no fan of Stephen Harper.

      Dan Cantor would like to see Canada’s Conservative prime minister gone after this year’s federal election, but the founder and national director of the Working Families Party, a progressive third party, acknowledged that achieving this could be challenging.

      “I think what’s tricky for the Canadians is that the NDP and the Liberals got to figure out how they’re going to unite against the right,” Cantor told reporters in response to questions from the Straight on Sunday (January 18).

      Described in New York Magazine as the “model of a grassroots political boss” for his role in establishing the WFP in 1998, Cantor spoke earlier at a public event organized by the Broadbent Institute.

      Dubbed “Organizing to Win”, the event saw Cantor talk about how progressive ideas resonate with people, and that this could be translated into political power.

      “They actually like a society that is fair, that actually doesn’t want to treat the Earth like a sewer,” he told a packed crowd at The Abbey tavern in downtown Vancouver.

      Operating in several American states—typically those that allow fusion voting, a system that allows a third party to nominate the same candidate as a major party and keep its own place in the ballot—the WFP has successfully endorsed a number of congressional, state, and municipal candidates.

      In states where fusion voting is not legal, the WFP works to influence results in many Democratic Party primaries.

      In New York, where the party started and which allows fusion voting, the WFP endorsed successful candidate Bill de Blasio for city mayor and several other winning candidates in the 2013 election.

      After the Broadbent Institute event, Cantor said that Canada doesn’t need fusion voting to change the country.

      Although having New Democrats and Liberals working together to defeat Harper is a nice idea for him, Cantor acknowledged that it’s “at the moment, I guess probably not” a possibility.

      “I don’t know enough to know whether that’s right or wrong, but I know this guy Harper is a menace,” he said. “So, you know, if there’s some way to actually defeat him that would be worth doing, and then fight later among themselves.”

      Asked how essential it is for political parties to unite in order to defeat the Conservatives, Cantor indicated that he doesn’t want to comment much on Canada’s internal politics.

      “But [from] the point of view of the U.S., it would be very useful if Harper could be defeated,” he said. “I don’t know if he can, but if he can be defeated, that would be good for all of us. However that could happen, that’s what I’m in favour.”

      Going into why he described the Canadian prime minister as a “menace”, Cantor said: “He would fit in well in the right-wing of the Republican Party. So we don’t want him in power in Canada; we don’t want the right-wing Republicans in power in the U.S.”

      Cantor also stressed one thing: “Our enemies are very strong, and we should figure how to treat each other with good will.”

      Never underestimating the right is a point he had made earlier in his speaking event, where he was introduced by Mira Oreck of the Broadbent Institute. The program’s format had journalist and author Rod Mickleburgh joining Cantor on stage to ask the American organizer questions about the work of the WFP.

      Cantor said on stage that it’s a difficult time to be in politics in both the U.S. and Canada.

      “I’m optimistic about the future even as I think that we have to be very sober about the power of our opponents,” he said.

      According to Cantor, the right has proven to be a determined foe.

      “The right has been seriously focused on reversing the gains of the 20th century almost as quickly as they happen,” he said.

      Citing an example, Cantor said: “In 1935, right after social security was passed during the Great Depression, the head of General Motors said, ‘It’s going to take us 75 years to reverse this, so we better get started.’ And they’ve been on it ever since then.”

      The battle is one over how the state can mitigate inequality in society.

      “The right has been 40 years denigrating the idea that we can make things better, trying to persuade people that at least in the U.S., maybe certainly your federal government agrees with this, you know, the state will always fail, therefore we should starve the state, therefore it will fail some more, and we can starve it some more,” Cantor said.

      According to Cantor, the right is actually vacuous.

      “The right has no actual answers to any actual problems,” Cantor said. “They’re trying to lower expectations. They’re trying to make people think that nothing can change, that all we can do is hope that...the free market...will somehow miraculously allow things to get better.”

      Comments

      1 Comments

      A menace?

      Jan 19, 2015 at 1:42pm

      In 2006, Canada was selling $34 million dollars worth of military hardware a year to Saudi Arabia.

      Today, it's $6 billion.

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