Can Tim Hudak be trusted?

Toronto – February 27, 2014 – Since the release of his June 2012 White Paper, Paths To Prosperity – Flexible Labour Markets, Ontario Conservative Boss Tim Hudak has travelled the province demonizing workers and their unions as the main cause of job losses in Ontario.

With every by-election loss, Hudak would lash out and blame workers who dared to participate in the campaign as the reason his party suffered defeat. In Hudak’s world, everything was the fault of unions, and if you listened to him long enough, you would think unions run the entire province.

So why the sudden flip-flop on a central Conservative pledge to eliminate the Rand Formula? One would hope that Hudak and his party had reached the conclusion that Work For Less policies would do nothing to create jobs and boost the economy. But the fear is that Hudak's flip-flop has more to do with political expediency.

Hudak’s policies to scapegoat workers didn’t jive with voters who are struggling to make ends meet and are looking for good-paying, full-time work. Voters don’t want less – they want more. Ontario voters also think it's only fair for everyone who receives the benefits of a collective agreement in a unionized workplace to pay their fair share of union dues for those benefits.

So instead of continuing to campaign on his Work For Less proposals, Hudak has put them aside. But does that mean these policies won’t show up again if the Conservatives form a government? If they did resurface, it wouldn’t be the first time that a political leader said they wouldn’t do something during an election campaign, only to do exactly the opposite once elected. Remember the GST?

And what about Hudak’s other policies, like wage freezes, the privatization of the WSIB, selling public assets, contracting out the delivery of public services, lowering welfare rates, and cuts to public services?
Hudak’s contempt for workers and their representatives runs deep and now is not the time for Ontario's workers to relax and become complacent. If the Conservatives get elected we are certain that a Hudak government will turn its sights on unions and the end result will not be pretty. So we must remain vigilant and get out when election time comes to make sure that Tim Hudak's anti-worker agenda never sees the light of day.