Labour pitch a worthwhile gamble for Ford
Ontario Premier Doug Ford recently announced the provincial minimum wage will be raised to $15 an hour starting Jan. 1, 2022. The decision was an important one, but it was something else that happened during the news conference that day that garnered far more attention.
It was the stunning visual of Ford, the Progressive Conservative Premier, being flanked at the dais by two prominent union leaders, OPSEU’S Smokey Thomas and Unifor National’s Jerry Dias. Wait, what?
Hell must have finally frozen over. Maybe we’ve reached the point of Armageddon. Was that the Four Knights of the Apocalypse I saw riding over yonder?
All joking aside, the mere sight of Ford, Thomas and Dias standing together caused plenty of consternation on the political left and right. The former couldn’t understand how two union leaders would endorse someone like Ford, whereas the latter couldn’t believe Ford would want to stand in such close proximity to them.
Ah, but there’s more to this story than meets the eye.
This is another classic example of people missing the boat on several fronts. They’ve either forgotten about past political history, were oblivious to an emerging modern political strategy — or, more than likely, both.
Conservatives and the working class have actually found common ground from time to time. It’s far from a natural alliance, and is often an uneasy, frustrating relationship. Each side has vastly different opinions about politics and economics, and have separate sets of goals, priorities and ambitions.
Nevertheless, what seems like an impossible alliance on the surface has been made possible during the march of history.
The old Progressive Conservatives and Reform Party both had support among Canadian blue collar workers due to red tory ideas and western populism, respectively. American union members occasionally supported liberal Republicans like New York’s Jacob Javits and Massachusetts’s Edward Brooke, and voted for GOP presidential candidates like Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. There’s also a pro-labour group in the U.K. Tories, the Conservative Workers & Trade Unionists, that’s had some notable success in reaching out to working people.
Ford, whose philosophy combines small “c” conservative sensibilities and populist thinking, fits in with this historical lineage. Yet, he’s far from the only modern conservative politician to have recently attempted to re-establish this old, long-forgotten link.
Conservative leader Erin O’toole promoted the need for closer ties with the working class during this year’s federal election. U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson used his one-nation conservative philosophy, which harkens back to a paternalistic society where social and economic programs help ordinary people, to win plenty of union votes in the 2019 general election. Former U.S. President Donald Trump’s pitch in the 2016 election to blue collar workers in the form of the forgotten man and woman worked wonders for his campaign, too.
Is it the right strategy to take, however? One of the main concerns of right-leaning thinkers is that any attempt to rebuild the Conservative-working class relationship could end up watering down the entire political philosophy. I’m certainly among them.
Yet, there’s no reason why this relationship can’t be restructured to give working people and card-carrying union members a bit of confidence that Conservatives can be allies sometimes, and not enemies all the time. It would also give Conservatives an opportunity to establish new ties with the working class that could result in more votes, seats and opportunities to form government.
Constructing a political bridge between Conservatives and the working class that won’t immediately fall apart is a tall order, indeed. If it’s going to succeed, the key is to spend far less time worrying about vast policy differences and focus instead on identifying some clear-cut, previously hidden or newly crafted similarities.
Ford’s decision to increase the minimum wage, which he had rejected when Kathleen Wynne was Ontario premier, is one example. Conservatives firmly believe in free markets and private enterprise, but the financial well-being of workers and their families can also be fiscally conservative in nature. How? The more economically secure they are, the more confident they will be to participate in a growing and flourishing economy through saving and spending their hard-earned money. Increasing wages on a small, gradual basis could achieve this goal.
Defending a country’s economic interests is another possibility. Most Conservatives reject economic nationalism and anti-free trade rhetoric, but they, like union leaders, don’t want to see the country obliterated when signing trade agreements. Hence, free trade and fair trade principles could work hand-in-hand to protect industries like forestry and the auto sector, create more good-paying jobs and ensure a country’s economy remains industrious, competitive and profitable.
There’s also a realistic vision for workers’ rights. Conservatives champion individual rights and freedoms, and there’s no reason the working class shouldn’t be a part of it. Emphasis on serious, thoughtful discussions on working conditions, maintaining strong lines of communication between workers and owners, and defending a democratic voting process in organized labour without pressure from outside sources, would all make sense.
It will take time, effort and a creative game plan to inject Conservatism with a pro-labour twist. If it ever comes to fruition, a re-established link between Conservatives and the working class would be one of the most important developments in modern political warfare.
THERE’S MORE TO THIS STORY THAN MEETS THE EYE.