Working people are justly angry at the Liberal government for protecting corporate wealth and privilege while wages and living standards are falling, real unemployment is rising and the real economy is tottering on the edge of another deep recession. But electing the Tories to punish the Liberals would be like jumping from the frying pan into the fire.

Working people can see what the Tory agenda will do to by looking at Mayor Ford’s actions in Toronto. Mass lay-offs, wage cuts, privatization, deep cuts to services, user fees, tax increases for homeowners and tenants, and an all-out attack on civil, labour and democratic rights – this is Hudak’s agenda for Ontario.

In August, PM Harper told Mayor Ford he hoped to “complete the hat trick” by turning Ontario Tory blue come the October 6 provincial election. Tory majorities in Ottawa and Queen’s Park would make Big Business cheer, but spell catastrophe for working people across the province.

A Hudak government will be Mike Harris on steroids, with the federal Tories as enforcers. Hudak’s Tories will drive down living standards, dismantle universal healthcare, education and social programs, eliminate public services and sell-off public assets. They will starve cities, divide communities, and fill up new super-jails with the poor, the young, Aboriginal peoples, migrants, women, trade unionists and protestors like those detained at last year’s G20.

Without any doubt, the Tories are the main danger in this election, and pose the greatest threat to working people and to civil, social, labour and democratic rights.

The best outcome of this election would be a minority government with the ballast on the left. Minority government is vulnerable to public pressure to adopt progressive legislation and block reactionary proposals. The NDP could provide some of that ballast, but working people can’t depend on the NDP without a strong left shift in its policies including unqualified support for the right to strike, for significant corporate tax hikes, and repeal of the HST. The same is true of the Green Party.

The election of Communists and other progressives committed to fight for a People’s Agenda aimed to meet people’s needs, not feed corporate greed, is the surest way to block the Big Business parties, their right-wing agendas, and their reactionary corporate sponsors.

The best outcome of this election would be a minority government with the ballast on the left. Minority government is vulnerable to public pressure to adopt progressive legislation and block reactionary proposals. The NDP could provide some of that ballast, but working people can’t depend on the NDP without a strong left shift in its policies including unqualified support for the right to strike, for significant corporate tax hikes, and repeal of the HST. The same is true of the Green Party.

The election of Communists and other progressives committed to fight for a People’s Agenda aimed to meet people’s needs, not feed corporate greed, is the surest way to block the Big Business parties, their right-wing agendas, and their reactionary corporate sponsors.