Wealthy Canadians Praise PM’s Promotion of Plutocracy
Calgary – Policies that are gutting the Canadian middle class are awesome, according to the nation’s ostentatiously wealthy.
At a rally at 1:00 p.m. sharp on Halloween (Oct. 31), affluent activists are gathering outside the BMO Centre in Calgary to thank 2013 Conservative Party of Canada Convention delegates for supporting policies that suppress wages, gut retirement security, and place an unfair burden on middle-class families.
“How could I enjoy my grotesque wealth if average people wouldn’t fight over the scraps from my table?” Canadians For Inequality campaign chair Remmington Smythe said. “We want to thank Stephen Harper for helping make so many Canadians so delightfully poor.”
Smythe, an entirely fictional character, will be played by Calgary-based actor Wally Houn at the protest, which is organized by the Alberta Federation of Labour, the province’s largest worker advocacy organization. Organizers have hired costumed actors to portray Canada’s 1%, who will be holding protest-style placards with lighthearted messages that take aim at Conservative Party policies.
“Our protest may only draw one per cent of the number that you would see at one of those proletarian rabble gatherings,” Smythe said. “But trust me, we have one hundred per cent of the voice.”
The event is intended to satirize how Canada’s governing party has made decisions in the interest of corporations and prosperous individuals, and lavished supporters with lavish perks such as seats in the Senate. Organizers say that policies they’re taking aim at include the expanded Temporary Foreign Worker program, the selling of Canadian natural resources to state-owned foreign firms, and the attack on unions.
“These are very serious issues, but we wanted to tackle them with humour, rather than anger,” Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan said. “Sometimes satire is the best form of protest.”
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MEDIA CONTACT:
Olav Rokne, Communications Director, Alberta Federation of Labour at 780.289.6528 (cell) or via e-mail orokne@afl.org