You can be forgiven if you’ve avoided thinking about the upcoming federal election all summer, but Labour Day is here. That means it’s time to return to the fall routine and start thinking about how you are going to cast your ballot.

You may have seen politicians working the barbecue circuit, vying for the support of workers and their families. They often claim to know what voters need. Let’s tell them what voters want.

After all, voting for the country we want is both a cherished right, and a significant responsibility.  And it’s under threat.

Lies, misinformation, and propaganda proliferating online are dividing and distracting people like never before.

We know that domestic and foreign actors will likely continue to foment division through contentious topics like immigration and the environment. We must remain united and focused on what truly matters: a present and future that leaves no one behind.

Not only are we facing an uncertain future, but the strides working people have made in the last four years are also in jeopardy. 

Canada’s unions are cutting through the noise with a simple message to voters: Canadians must elect a government that is committed to a fair Canada for everyone.

This is much more than a slogan but a clear call to action on five key areas that will shape the future of this country. Each of them centre on the health and well-being of Canadians.

Canada’s unions have successfully worked with governments and health experts to make universal pharmacare a ballot box issue this fall.

That’s because over 3.5 million Canadians struggle to pay for the medications they need. Private insurers and pharmaceutical companies have a vested interest in preserving a status quo that sees Canadians paying some of the highest drug prices in the world. Canada remains the only developed country with universal health care, without a universal pharmacare plan. A single-payer system would rein in drug prices and save Canadians over four billion dollars per year, according to the Parliamentary Budget Officer.

Also key to the well-being of Canadians is the assurance that they will be able to live in dignity in retirement. Following the Conservative party’s defeat in the last federal election, Canada’s unions lobbied for an expansion of public pensions and won a 50% increase to Canada Pension Plan benefits, along with top-up payments for 900,000 low-income single seniors and the restoration of Old Age Security and Guaranteed Income Supplement for those over the age of 65, down from 67.

We need a government that is committed to improving public pensions and protecting hard-earned private pensions when employers go bankrupt. 

We also need to talk about the economic health of our nation’s working people. With a rise in precarious, temporary, and low-wage work, more and more people are struggling to get by. We need to vote for a government that clearly defines what it will invest towards creating good jobs for all Canadians.

It’s also time for bold action that tackles our climate emergency while creating economic opportunities in green industries. We deserve a government that is committed to clean air and water, invests in public transportation, and supports workers and communities transitioning to a greener economy.

With hardline Conservative governments now running the majority of the provinces, we cannot forget what a decade of Stephen Harper’s Conservatives did to working people and their families and risk the rollback of hard-won social gains and the rewriting of the Canadian constitution.

Can Canadians afford a government that cares more about private corporations and tax cuts for the super-rich than it does about everyday working people? Can we risk electing a government that refuses to address the climate catastrophe? Can we accept a government that is prepared to exploit people’s fear and insecurity to fuel racism and intolerance?

This Labour Day, let’s recommit to standing together for an inclusive Canada where everyone prospers.

Hassan Yussuff is the President of the Canadian Labour Congress. Follow him on Twitter @Hassan_Yussuff.

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That means unions will be calling on Canadian workers to vote for candidates who support universal pharmacare, retirement security, climate action, equity and inclusion, and good jobs for everyone.

“Over the last four years, our work has resulted in impressive gains: expanding public pensions, protecting victims of domestic violence, investing billions in infrastructure projects, banning asbestos, and making pay equity the law,” said Hassan Yussuff, President of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC).

“While these have been substantial victories, we are only getting started. Low wages, precarious work and underemployment continue to hurt too many Canadians; fear and insecurity are fueling racism and intolerance, and climate change threatens the survival of our planet.”

“We will do our part to mobilize Canadians to choose candidates who will make Canada more fair for workers and their families,” said Yussuff.

“We will be urging every candidate to commit to creating good jobs. We will be pushing the political parties for climate action for a sustainable planet. We will be challenging hate and divisiveness with equity and inclusion.”

By launching a national campaign, “A Fair Canada for Everyone”, the CLC will be working with labour councils, federations of labour and unions across the country to advance the issues at stake for workers and their families.

“Labour Day is a national reminder that workers can come together to improve workplaces and communities, so it is a fitting time to launch our election campaign for a fair Canada for everyone,” adds Yussuff.

To read details about what unions are calling for in this election, visit faircanadaforeveryone.ca

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“This is a critical step on the long road to banning asbestos, and will, without a doubt, save lives for generations to come,” said Canadian Labour Congress President, Hassan Yussuff.

The new regulations, under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act 1999 (CEPA), prohibit the import, sale and use of asbestos, the manufacture, import, sale and use of products containing asbestos, as well as the export of asbestos and asbestos-containing products, with a limited number of exceptions. Combined, this is a historic step to protect the health of Canadian workers and the public, and to address Canada’s history as an exporter of this deadly substance. With these regulations, Canada now joins 55 countries that have banned the use of asbestos.

Yussuff said that it will be crucial for protection from exposure to extend to everyone living in Canada, including those living in First Nations housing filled with asbestos-ridden vermiculite insulation.

“Because these diseases have a long latency period, the danger is not over, but this is the beginning of the end. Now we need the provinces and territories to show the same leadership that the federal government has shown and move quickly to take stock of where asbestos is, harmonize regulation around disposal and remediation, and ensure a comprehensive response,” he said.

“We can all breathe easier. The introduction of these regulations in a timely manner is the result of years of advocacy and hard work by people dedicated to safer, healthier workplaces. Today, I celebrate and thank the government for giving the next generation of Canadians a better future, free from the pain and suffering caused by asbestos,” said Yussuff.

A robust enforcement strategy to ensure compliance with these new regulations will be important to a successful implementation and to addressing the legacy of asbestos-contaminated workplaces.

“We look forward to continuing to work with the federal government on the broader whole-of-government strategy to protect Canadians from the harms of asbestos,” added Yussuff.

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“What I found [at Asbestos]… was a Quebec I did not know, that of workers exploited by management, denounced by government, clubbed by police, and yet burning with a fervent militancy. I was later to describe the strike . . . as a “turning point in the entire religious, political, social and economic history of the province of Quebec.”

_{P. E. Trudeau, Approaches to Politics. 2010}

The conservative Union Nationale was the government of Quebec. The Premier, Maurice Duplessis, was known as “Le Chef,” ruling the province with a strong hand. Supporters benefited from patronage, those in opposition were punished.  His time in office has been called La Grande Noirceur (“The Great Darkness”).  He championed a rural Quebec working with the Catholic Church to protect the population from the evils of Communism and militant Unions that would jeopardise American industrial investment.

In 1937 his government enacted the “La loi du cadenas” / “Loi protégeant la province contre la propagande communiste”, (Act to protect the Province Against Communistic Propaganda or as it was known the ‘Padlock Law’). This act made it illegal to use a dwelling to propagate Communism or Bolshevism. A violation would allow the Attorney General to padlock the building for up to one year.  A person guilty of involvement in prohibited activities could be jailed for thirteen months.  (In 1957 the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the law.) So when the miners struck their employers they also were taking on the right wing provincial government of Duplessis.

The miners wanted a wage of $1 per hour, union security, a pension, and action to check the spread of lung choking ‘silicosis’ caused by exposure to asbestos.  They did not have to wait long for premier to respond to their demands. On February 23 their strike was declared illegal and Duplessis dispatched a battalion of provincial police to the small town of Asbestos. For over two months calm in the community was preserved with almost a holiday atmosphere as people strolled about with music entertainment for the workers and their families but all that was soon to change.

Quebec supplied 85% of the world’s asbestos and the American Johns Manville Company began to hire replacement workers. The police supported them by intimidation and threatening the miners, breaking up their picket lines, even padlocking a church to prevent the miners from meeting there. The strikers fought back setting up roadblocks to prevent the “scabs” from entering the town.  On March 14 someone set off an explosion on the railway track leading into the plant and a company official was beaten by the workers.

Duplessis called the strikes “saboteurs” and “subversives.” At the picket lines the police attacked the strikers with tear gas and fired warning shots into the air. Strikers responded by dragging police from their cars and beat them. On May 6 a heavily armed provincial police force arrived arresting several strikers and beating them in the process. However, now there was a photographer for Time magazine as a witness making the strike worldwide news and the brutality of the police the central issue. Journalist Gérard Pelletier labelled them “Hitler’s elite troops.”

The culture that had allowed the Union Nationale to rule with an iron fist was cracking. Young intellectuals like future Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau came from Montreal to the support of the miners. The traditionally conservative union movement of the “Canadian Catholic Confederation of Labour (CCCL),” originally set up by the church to keep workers away from communist and radical unions, was itself fighting back against their employers and the government. Workers cheered militant union leader Jean Marchand when he spoke. Even the traditionally conservative Catholic Church found it was in sympathy with the strikers raising support to sustain the miner’s families.

The strike ended on July 1^st with Archbishop Roy mediating a settlement. While Quebec was starting its Quiet Revolution the workers would have to wait.  Many were not rehired, those that were continued to work in one of the most dangerous workplaces in the world. Trudeau, Marchand and Pelletier, would go on to play profound roles in shaping the political developments of Quebec and Canada. As for asbestos the health and safety struggles of 1949 continue to play out as it has taken Canada until this year to start banning it proposing the prohibition of the use, sale, import and export of asbestos and products containing the hazardous material.

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