The 1872 beginnings of the labour movement in Canada began with the Toronto Printer’s Union in an effort to reduce the workday to nine hours. A long forgotten historical note was that the lobbying of then Conservative Prime Minister John A. MacDonald led to the legalization of unions, undermining the efforts of noted Liberal capitalist George Brown.
As a one-time union worker (the PPWC) and safety chairman I appreciated the union efforts to keep our work place safe and our jobs protected. Those that came before us sacrificed much for us to have reached this point and their sacrifices have led to improvements for all Canadians.
A re-elected Conservative government will ensure that our highly trained and educated workforce will continue to be Canada’s key to success in a global economy. A Conservative government will continue to invest in skills and training that will keep our workforce adaptable and our long term economy sustainable and growing.
Programs like the Economic Action Plan created over one million net new jobs since the deepest part of the recession, among the best in the G7. Many of those jobs were union jobs.
I would like to salute those who came before us that helped give Canada the tremendous labour environment we now enjoy and I would like to share my appreciation for those many hardworking Canadians that keep our country going.
Happy Labour Day everyone!
Martin Barker
Conservative candidate