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Keith Lovely of Coniston is a former executive with Local 6500 of the United Steelworkers in Sudbury.
I have been a member of the NDP since 1973. Since that time, I have worked in many elections and still give money to the party today. I am not a hit-and-miss member unlike some so-called spokespeople for the NDP who are continually in the news from Toronto criticizing the NDP even though they are not even members.
It has been my experience there have been times when (former Ontario NDP leader) Stephen Lewis from Toronto likes to tell us lowly people from the outlining areas what is good for us. I can recall in 1978, when USWA Local 6500 was on strike against Inco. The leadership in District 6 located in Toronto was against this strike. Inco had a large stockpile (of nickel); the membership in Sudbury was well aware of this, but voted to strike anyway.
Lo and behold, just a few weeks after the strike started, Stephen Lewis from his perch in Toronto wrote a scathing article in the Toronto Star calling members of the bargaining committee “Archie Bunkers” of the left and he criticized us for going on strike.
I was a member of that committee and recall we were all very angry because he never heard our side of the story. He listened to the District 6 director from Toronto and not Local 6500 in Sudbury. To this day, I personally have never forgiven Lewis for that article, even though he later apologized in the Toronto Star. It was too late and the damage was done.
Lewis was out of touch then and it continues today.
I see the Lewis clan is up to their old tricks again. They have come up with this hair-brained idea of the Leap Manifesto. This idea comes from Toronto, where I have seen bumper to bumper cars from downtown Toronto to Kitchener on a long weekend. What is the biggest user of fossil fuels? Cars?
Yet the Lewis clan attacks pipelines. Should I mention the City of Greater Toronto elected Rob Ford as mayor, who wanted no bicycles and more cars? I would like to know how many of the people who proposed this manifesto own cars.
I can’t imagine the NDP holding a convention in Oshawa and the Lewis clan proposing to shut down all car plants in Canada, which would result in the auto workers losing their jobs.
For the rest of this column, click here: http://www.thesudburystar.com/2016/04/29/sudbury-forum-lewis-clan-should-be-quiet