Angry in the Great White North

a heat-seeking missile in the Conservative arsenal

From the Toronto Star (via Bourque):

Premier Dalton McGuinty says Toronto is getting a new gas-fired power plant whether the city likes it or not because otherwise it risks serious electricity shortages.

"We need to build new generation inside the city of Toronto. We can't duck this. ... It's either that or we talk about rolling blackouts," McGuinty told reporters at Queen's Park yesterday.

"In an ideal world, we could get to where we need to go through conservation and renewables like wind. But we don't live in that world. We live in this one."

Well, we don't all live in this one. Some of us live in another world, where the class struggle is still alive and well:

The most basic tenet of Marxism is that in all class-divided societies, the primary lines of division and conflict occur between the two main contending classes which stand in antagonistic contradiction to one another – in capitalism, between capital and labour. This is what gives rise to the “historic mission” of the working class as the ultimate ‘grave-digger’ of the capitalist system, a pre-condition for its own social emancipation.

Where the US was responsible for 9/11:

Using the events of September 2001 (the attack on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon) as a pretext, the Bush administration has unleashed the so-called “war on terror”. Communists condemn terrorist attacks against civilians, but we also stress that for decades, US administrations have conducted state terrorism on a vast scale against the peoples of many countries.

Where central state planning is still the solution (even though it has never worked, anywhere, anytime):

The contradictions faced by imperialism are producing the necessary objective preconditions for revolutionary action and eventually for the overthrow of capitalism as a global system. Ultimately, only a shift towards a socialist economy based on public ownership and rational planning offers a real opportunity to save the planet.

And where the murderous totalitarian dictatorship of the old Soviet Union is remembered with fondness, and its obliteration with regret:

There are, of course, objective obstacles which continue to confront our party-building efforts, such as the impact of monopoly control of mass communications and media on the formation of mass consciousness. The main hurdle however continues to be the lingering impact of the crisis and overturning of socialism in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. This historic defeat profoundly shook the confidence of even progressive-minded working people.

Those people belong to the Communist Party of Canada. Those quotes came from their documents.

In opposition to Dalton McGuinty's plans to provide energy to Toronto is Ward 30 Councillor Paula Fletcher:

A spokesperson said Energy Minister Donna Cansfield would be issuing a directive to the authority within the next few weeks outlining various options on how to get more power to downtown.

Toronto Councillor Paula Fletcher (Ward 30, Toronto-Danforth) vowed to battle any big generation development in the port lands. "If you want to fight, let's get into it," Fletcher said in an interview.

Paula Fletcher is a former leader of the Communist Party of Canada (Manitoba), where the dictatorship of the proletariat is just one more election away. The trick is to keep winning elections, even if you have to use tricks to win them:

Elected leader of the Communist Party of Canada (CPC) in Manitoba, in April 1981, Fletcher served in the post for about five years.

Somehow the Toronto District School Board trustee--now moving on up to run for a council seat--didn’t consider it important to tell Ward 30 voters about her long-time commitment to the CPC.

According to The Skinny, a bio sent out by email inviting people to attend her Summer Solstice campaign kick-off "leaves a 37-year gap between her birth 51 years ago in Sault Ste. Marie, and her arrival in Toronto 14 years back."

A gap of thirty-seven years?

Worried that people might be leary of electing someone committed to nationalizing everything in sight, and making everyone a happy worker drone in a communist paradise?

Worried or not, Paula Fletcher was helped in getting her job at Toronto City Hall by none other than ex-counciller and federal NDP leader Jack Layton, who was the last person to hold the job of representing Ward 30. First, Jack Layton helped her win a job on the school board (yes, communists on the school board thanks to the NDP):

Layton’s Back Jack election signs and brochures heralded the Toronto Star’s backing as "top councillor in Toronto!" and merely included "Paula Fletcher for Toronto School Board" on the bottom.

In 2003, with the backing of the NDP, she was elected to City Council. Keep in mind that she belonged to the CPC here in Toronto as well, representing the Toronto communists on various organizations.

And now she will lead the charge in favour of rolling blackouts. Why? Who knows? Though she no longer maintains any official connection with the Communist Party of Canada, a party she belong to for over two decades (perhaps longer -- her bios are vague), I can't help but wonder if a part of her is still pining for the inevitable collapse of capitalism and the rising of the working class to overthrow their bourgeious oppressors in order to take control of the means of production.

The anger created by rolling blackouts might be the trigger for the communist takeover of Toronto!

In the world inhabited by Paula Fletcher and her friends and allies, anyway.