Communist party leader brings campaign to Edmonton
by Trish Audette
Edmonton Journal
October 10, 2008
EDMONTON - There is no chartered plane for the leader of Canada's Communist party.
There are no stump speeches at places like the Winspear Centre or smiley television advertisements. There aren't even hotels.
Miguel Figueroa couch-surfs his way through the election campaign. He flies long distances, but takes the Red Arrow between Calgary and Edmonton. His entire election budget comes from the money he and his members -- fewer than 1,000 coast-to-coast -- can raise. The government formula that gives each political party $1.75 per vote received in the last election only works for parties that captured more than two per cent of the popular vote, which the Communist party did not.
No corporation kicks in funding.
"The small parties, we just don't have the resources," Figueroa says.
Just days before the election, the 56-year-old is catching a cold. He has not spent much time in his Ontario riding of Davenport, where he placed fifth of seven candidates in 2006.
But wearing a pin that reads, "People before profits," he is eager to discuss big-picture party platforms and insists there is still room on the political landscape for communism.
"We're here. The rumours of our death are highly exaggerated," Figueroa says, laughing.
But foremost, his party's current political priority is to see Prime Minister Stephen Harper get the boot for his record as a "right-wing, pro-war and pro-U.S. government" leader.
"On the face of it, it seems to be ironic," Figueroa admits, because promoting so-called fringe candidates can be seen as further splitting voters on the left. But he says the Communists are careful not to run candidates in ridings where, say, 100 votes could make a huge difference. "We certainly wouldn't want to be responsible for helping get a Tory elected. Our participation in the campaign helps to strengthen the anti-right movement."
"We're scrappy, we call things for what they are. We have a very sharp anti-corporate, anti-capitalist edge."
That edge calls for nationalization of Canada's energy sector, including the oilsands.
"It seems like a radical idea, even utopian," but Figueroa bets many Canadians want to reap more of the industry's benefits.
His party also wants higher minimum wages and a shorter work week which, he says, will spur job creation.
Figueroa found his way to communism after his parents separated and his mother became a welfare recipient. Run-ins with Quebec bailiffs and losing all the family's belongings to debt collection had a "radicalizing" effect, he says.
"There was something about the party that had a lot of maturity," he says. He is philosophical about communism's history in general, calling the 20th century experience "first-wave socialism."
"I feel very strongly there will be another wave," he says, pointing to the current financial crisis on the world markets as an example of how "unfettered capitalism" is not working.
A sign of change for the party has been how people respond to its existence. There is little anti-communist sentiment among young people, for example, as the party's membership gets younger.
He says new Canadians, particularly immigrants from Latin America and Asia, are joining.
"Of course, there are those who come from Hungary or Seoul and they're critical of everything that's happened," he says. But in Eastern Europe, for example, "this prize of the restoration of capitalism hasn't really delivered the goods."
Twenty-four Communist candidates are running across Canada, mostly in urban ridings.
Just two Communists are competing in Alberta ridings: Naomi Rankin in Edmonton-Mill Woods-Beaumont and John Devine in Calgary-East.
