On October 19, voters will elect a new B.C. government. For many, the ballot will be disappointing at best, or terrifying at worst: a choice between four more years of achingly limited reforms from politicians who pour billions into the fossil fuel industry, or far-right politicians who promote bigotry and corporate profiteering. But in some ridings, the ballot includes candidates of the Communist Party of BC, fighters for expanded public health care, real solutions to the housing crisis, better public education, democratic rights, and full equality for women and 2SLGBTQ people. We stand in proud solidarity with the struggles for labour rights, justice for Indigenous peoples, climate justice, and global peace and solidarity.
Vote Communist!
EXPAND PUBLIC HEALTHCARE!
- Expand public health care to include pharmacare, optical and dental care, and mental health and addiction rehabilitation.
- Train family physicians and nursing staff for everyone, expand hospital beds, reduce surgery wait times, and improve conditions in long-term care homes.
- Create a permanent, safe, legal and regulated supply of illicit drugs, together with on- demand access to housing and mental health services and long term recovery support programs.
HOUSING IS A HUMAN RIGHT, NOT A PROFIT OPPORTUNITY!
When housing is a commodity for personal and corporate enrichment the result is a massive crisis.
We demand:
- End housing speculation!
- Limit rents to 20% of family income.
- Establish vacancy controls which tie rents to the unit.
- Build 100,000 units of new and renovated social and low-income public housing.
- Ban “renovictions” and “demovictions.”
- Abolish “sweeps” against unhoused people using tents for emergency housing needs.
BETTER PUBLIC EDUCATION
- Increase public education spending by $1000 per student.
- End funding and tax breaks for private and religious schools.
- Protect the health and safety of all students, staff and teachers during infectious disease outbreaks.
- Fully implement SOGI-123 (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity) policies in all school districts, and private and religious schools.
- Roll back post-secondary tuition.
FULL EQUALITY, DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS, SOCIAL JUSTICE!
- Restore funding to women’s centres and programs, provide safe spaces to people escaping
misogyny and domestic violence. - Take swift political against those who threaten the 2S/LGBTQ+ community.
- Build the universal, affordable, public child care system desperately
needed by working class families. Raise social assistance and disability rates by 100%. - Replace “first past the post” with Mixed Member proportional representation.
CLIMATE JUSTICE, NOT CARBON BOMBS
- Cut hydrocarbon emissions now! Prioritize renewable energy and conservation.
- Cancel taxpayer subsidies to the LNG industry.
- Implement just transition – retrain fossil fuel sectorworkers for other jobs at union wages.
- Free public transit for all. build an accessible province-wide transit system.
JUSTICE FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
- Support the “Land Back” demand.
- Ensure Indigenous inherent title to all traditional, stolen and unceded territories.
- No resource extraction and infrastructure projects on Indigenous lands without full consultation and approval.
- Stop violating Bill 41, the “Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act.”
- Indigenize the B.C. education curriculum, to foster solidarity and collaboration with Indigenous resistance struggles, and to promote inclusivity, cooperation, and justice.
RIGHTS AND JOBS FOR WORKERS
- Raise BC minimum wage to $23, fully adjusted to inflation.
- Security for workers affected by layoffs, including 100% recall rights and wage protection.
- Protect and expand union rights to picket during labour disputes.
- Full Labour standards protection for domestic, agricultural and migrant workers.
- Allow the right to strike around political demands.
HOW CAN WE AFFORD THIS?
- Roll back the tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations given in 2001 by the Campbell Liberals.
- Cut subsidies to the fossil fuel sector.
- Demand to shift federal military spending to civilian needs.
- Defund the police.
SOCIALISM IS THE FUTURE!
The profit-driven capitalist system is killing the planet. We call for socialism – a world without poverty and war, where working people democratically own and control the economy.
OUR CANDIDATES
