In the months leading up to the announcement of the deal between Trudeau and Singh, it was the unions who pushed the hardest for its conclusion. The NDP voted with the government in support of these authoritarian powers, which, now that the taboo on their use has been broken, can and will be deployed against working-class opposition to capitalist exploitation and war. The Trudeau government responded to the Freedom Convoy by invoking the draconian Emergencies Act, which arrogated sweeping repressive powers to the state, to disperse the occupiers. It also followed just weeks after the occupation of downtown Ottawa and blocking of border crossings by the fascistic Freedom Convoy, which was instigated by, and enjoyed the backing of, powerful sections of the ruling elite. It was finalized almost exactly one month after the imperialist powers succeeded in goading the reactionary Putin regime into invading Ukraine. The timing of the agreement was of enormous political significance. It has also endorsed Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s program of “post-pandemic” austerity designed to make the working class pay for the hundreds of billions of dollars handed over to big business with no strings attached when COVID first emerged in 2020. With its “confidence and supply” agreement, the NDP also gave its stamp of approval to the dismantling of all remaining COVID protection measures as demanded by the far-right “Freedom” Convoy. This includes the purchase of 88 F-35 fighter jets and the spending of tens of billions to “modernize” the Canada-US joint North American Aerospace Defence (NORAD) to wage “great power” strategic conflict and a supposedly “winnable” nuclear-war with Russia and China. The unions and NDP are also fully on board with massive hikes in Canadian military spending. To date, the union-NDP backed Liberal government has provided the far-right regime in Kiev with over $8 billion in military and financial support since the war began in February 2022. In keeping with this agreement, and with the full-throated support of the unions, the NDP has backed all of the provocative actions Ottawa has taken, first in instigating, and then in prosecuting the US-NATO war in Russia in Ukraine. In announcing this parliamentary and governmental alliance, which stops just short of a formal coalition, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh said it was aimed at guaranteeing “political stability.” This is confirmation-straight from the horse’s mouth-of the correctness of the World Socialist Web Site’s assessment that the union bureaucracy played a pivotal role in facilitating the March 2022 agreement under which the union-sponsored NDP has pledged to keep the Justin Trudeau-led minority Liberal government in office through June 2025. The Bruske-led slate of candidates, known as “Team Unite,” proudly declared on the “achievements” section of their campaign website, “We helped broker the confidence and supply agreement between the Liberal government and the NDP, ensuring electoral peace until 2025.” CLC President Bea Bruske addressing the CLC's 30th constitutional convention in Montreal
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