Van Kesteren cheerleading TPP agreement

Motor Wheel,  Eaton Springs.  more recently, H E Vanatter, Superior Tool and Die, Siemens, and Navistar.  You remember them. They were once automotive-related firms, household names in Chatham-Kent, where local residents proudly laboured at good paying jobs, supporting their families. Now they are history, all victims of Conservative inspired free trade deals.

You may also be familiar with this name: Dave Van Kesteren. Our local Conservative MP since 2006, who in a Chatham This Week piece in January, 2014, announced that he would run again in 2015. In that interview he stated, “I have to make sure I’m making a difference and I believe I am.” Well he is making a difference, but not in the positive way he suggested in that interview.

According to a report entitled Chatham-Kent Labour Market Analysis, prepared by the Chatham-Kent Workforce Planning Board, in 2011, the manufacturing sector of the local economy shed the most jobs, 3200 to be exact, between 2006 and 2011. In fact it fell from the largest local employment sector to third during that time. Of those jobs, more than one third were in the automotive area.

Now, the Harper Government, enthusiastically supported by Van Kesteren, is well on the way to concluding the Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Agreement, which if consummated, according to most analysts, could kill the remaining jobs in our local automotive sector.

I am not suggesting that Van Kesteren is single-handedly responsible for this trend. I am suggesting that there is little evidence that he stood up to defend his constituents. His recent statements on the current deal show him to be nothing more than a cheerleader, standing on the sidelines, waving good-bye to our remaining manufacturing jobs.

During his time in office, since 2006, Van Kesteren has shown that he cannot be depended upon to defend his constituency. So it’s time to elect somebody who will and I suggest that Tony Walsh and the Tom Mulcair team would be a good choice.