By Susan Zachem

The Progressive Conservatives' victory in the June 3 elections in Ontario promises four more years of regressive policies and social program cutbacks, according to GCIU leaders in Canada.

The Tories, led by Premier Mike Harris, won 59 of the legislature's 103 seats with 45.1 percent of the vote, compared with 44.9 percent in 1995. In 1995, the Tories won 82 seats in a 130-seat legislature.

The Liberals, led by Dalton McGuinty, won 35 seats with 39.8 percent of the vote, compared with 31.1 percent in 1995.

The union-supported New Democratic Party, led by Howard Hampton, fell to nine seats and garnered only 12.6 percent of the vote. In 1995, the NDP claimed 20.6 percent of the vote.

GCIU Vice Pres. James J. Cowan said one of the tragedies of the election results was the loss of official party status for the NDP.

In a letter to Hampton, Cowan thanked the NDP leader for "speaking up for working people, their families, and their communities. The strategy, the message, and your leadership were superb and in no way responsible for the loss of some of our valued incumbents on election day."

Union families will pay a "high price" for the election results, Cowan said, "when the Conservatives' right-wing, anti-labor legislation is brought in."

Hampton, who retained his seat despite his party's defeat, said the NDP has "found ways in the past to be an effective opposition even when others have said we wouldn't have a voice and we'll continue to do that."

In his previous term, Premier Harris carried out most of his "Common Sense Revolution" program of tax and spending cuts that deeply divided the province and led to massive anti-government demonstrations by unions, educators, and allied groups. Harris slashed funds for education, health care, and other public sector services and enacted deep cuts in programs assisting the poor and unemployed. One of the Harris government's first actions was to reverse all of the previous NDP government's labor law advances.

The next four years promises more of the same protest as less than half the voters opted for Harris' campaign theme of "Blueprint for Jobs and Prosperity." He promised to balance the budget, cut Ontario's income tax rate by 20 percent, cut the education portion of property taxes by 20 percent, and create 825,000 jobs over the next five years.

In a report to the GCIU General Board's Legislative Committee, Toronto 100M Secy.-Treas. and General Board member George Novak scored Harris' "Blueprint." About half of Harris' promised jobs are "full-time self-employment jobs," Novak said. "Waiting for the phone to ring in your home is no substitute for the hundreds of thousands of stable, secure, well-paid jobs which have disappeared from our economy, and we can now expect much more of the same."

Novak said the promised future revenue cuts – on top of the $6 billion per year already made – "will add much more devastation to our essential services. It is guaranteed to lead to another round of slash and burn cutbacks as soon as the business cycle enters a downturn. Working families in Ontario will suffer greatly from this government."