Canada’s election saw major blue-collar labour shift to Conservatives

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From a Windsor battleground to Winnipeg’s working-class, blue-collar workers across Canada changed their colours in the federal election.

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Despite losing the war, with the Liberals winning their fourth straight government mandate, the Conservatives actually picked up seats and won more than enough battles in Monday’s election to remain a significant force.

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And with an earthshaking shift in the political landscape, they did it in part by stealing labour votes.

The Conservatives managed to take several seats from the Liberals, who now continue as a minority government. But more surprisingly, multiple former orange NDP strongholds once propped up on union shoulders turned Tory blue.

“The Conservatives were very much targeting the labour vote and saw an opportunity to get support of blue-collar workers,” Lydia Miljan, a University of Windsor political scientist, told the Star.

“They did that in a number of ways. One was to really attack the NDP for being inconsistent on labour and pointing out some of the personal qualities of Jagmeet Singh that weren’t really working class.

“They were calling him the Maserati Marxist and things like that. It’s kind of childish, but it’s sort of low information stuff that gets into people’s minds.”

The NDP, with its identity built on being the party of labour, was decimated in a catastrophic slide from 24 seats to seven. The organization, co-founded by the Canadian Labour Congress, lost its official party status.

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Singh announced on election night he was stepping down as NDP party leader after falling to third place in his own British Columbia riding.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre might also face a perilous future after losing in his own Ottawa-area riding, but the party picked up 20 more seats than it had going into Monday’s election.

Those gains included the ousting of two incumbents in the Windsor area for a historic sweep of Essex County.

Not that long ago, every provincial and federal riding in Windsor-Essex was NDP territory. The party’s tenure in each riding ranges from one term to decades. But from 2015 to 2019, a blanket of orange covered the region.

Windsor West is the only provincial riding in the region that remains NDP territory, with the others now Conservative strongholds.

It was the turn of the federal Conservatives to stage some major upsets on Monday.

In a tight race and unexpected twist, Conservative Kathy Borrelli won in Windsor-Tecumseh-Lakeshore by ousting two-term Liberal incumbent MP Irek Kusmierczyk.

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Before Kusmierczyk was first elected, the riding had been NDP since 2004, and even earlier prior to name and boundary changes.

But one of the most devastating Conservative blows landed in the key battleground riding of Windsor West.

Conservative Harb Gill toppled the NDP’s Brian Masse, who fell to third place after reigning over the riding since 2002.

It’s the first time in the riding’s six-decade history that voters installed a Conservative member of Parliament.

Masse was among multiple MPs to go down with the NDP collapse, which allowed the Conservatives to seize many formerly orange ridings, including London-Fanshawe for the first time ever.

The Tories also took the working class riding of Elmwood-Transcona in Manitoba, which was NDP for 33 of the last 37 years.

They flipped multiple Liberal ridings as well, such as heavily blue-collar Hamilton East — Stoney Creek. It’s the first time a Tory won there.

They’re speaking the language of labour

But those losses were far more devastating to the NDP, which gave up seven seats to the Liberals and 10 to the Conservatives.

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The NDP still had huge union support, including an endorsement from the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).

But the Conservatives spent the last couple of years chipping away at that base.

While the existential threat of U.S. President Donald Trump — his trade war, and threats of annexation — dominated election debate, other issues were in play.

People were angry, sparked by a long list of grievances, from rising food costs to the Trudeau government’s carbon tax.

The Conservatives zeroed in on that bitterness, painting blame for it on the Liberals and arguing the NDP were powerless to do anything.

“Clearly, they were speaking to people where they lived,” said Miljan. “They were focused on economic issues, and people were feeling the cost of living. I think their strategy and timing played very well for them.”

The endorsements poured in: a longshoremen’s association in Halifax; a steelworker’s union in Sault Ste. Marie; electrical workers in Windsor.

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At least 14 unions and labour organizations across Canada endorsed the Conservatives.

United Association Local 67, representing plumbers and pipefitters in the Hamilton area, was among the first to get behind Poilievre.

“We don’t need handouts, we need work, safe streets, a strong dollar, affordable homes and the freedom to responsibly own and use our legal firearms,” Local 67 business manager Nathan Bergstrand said at a Poilievre rally in Hamilton.

Conservative promises of more respect for workers, better paycheques, training programs, and killing the carbon tax resonated among blue-collar ranks.

The slogans didn’t hurt, either.

“Their platform and even some of their campaign slogans — ‘boots not suits’ — really focused on, ‘How can we elevate the working class? How can we get job opportunities for young people?’” said Miljan.

“They had a suite of propositions in terms of training for younger people going into the trades. I think that did help them at the end of the day, because they’re at least speaking the language of labour.”

twilhelm@postmedia.com

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