Vision
My vision for a winning labour movement is rooted in the lessons I have learned from workers across Ontario: on picket lines, in union halls, in workplaces, and in communities. Workers have taught me that our movement is strongest when we are united and working together.
We need to organize to win. That means sharing our strategies, learning from our set-backs, building power from the ground up, and ensuring that every affiliate and worker feels connected to a common goal–victory.
As Secretary-Treasurer, I have seen first hand that a strong movement needs strong finances. We can only fight effectively if we are financially secure and ready to resource campaigns. That's why I remain committed to transparent, accountable, and responsible leadership. Our collective resources must always back workers when it counts the most.
My vision is simple, but bold: A labour movement that puts workers first, uses its resources strategically, fights with unity, and confronts and defeats regressive governments that attack working people and communities.
Together, we can build the kind of OFL that earns workers’ trust, commands respect from employers and governments, and wins real gains for working people. Are you with me?
This is my six-point vision for building that movement.
Member-driven campaigns
We need to organize strong, focused, member-driven campaigns that defend and advance the issues that matter most to workers: good jobs, public education and health care, a sustainable environment, affordability, and housing. Crucially, these campaigns must be an opportunity for members to learn new organizing skills, build power in their workplaces, and unite with other workers in different sectors.
Building local power
We need to organize training opportunities that equip workers to hold decision-makers to account, not only at Queen’s Park, but in coordinated lobby days at the constituency level. These programs would help community groups, Labour Councils, rank-and-file workers, and local affiliate leadership build strong labour-community coalitions in their own communities and maximize pressure on MPPs to support their demands.
A real commitment to equity
We are committed to an Equity agenda not only because it is the right thing to do, but because it is essential to uniting workers from every background, community, and experience. When we fight together and refuse to be divided, we are stronger, more resilient, and more likely to win. Every OFL campaign and initiative must be guided by an equity lens, reflecting the priorities of the OFL's Equity Committees.
Support for striking workers
We need to organize more sustained and strategic support for striking and locked-out workers across Ontario: coordinated visits to picket lines and other solidarity actions that build workers' confidence, organize community support, and apply maximum pressure on the employer. This support should begin long before a strike deadline, in coordination with an affiliate's bargaining strategy, and continue until the workers win.
Support Labour Councils
We need to deepen the relationship among Labour Councils, the CLC, and the OFL: organize more coordinated activity, avoid duplication, and ensure Labour Councils have the support and resources they need to build locally. Enhance communications to amplify local successes to affiliates, mobilize regional support for local campaigns, and create a stronger and more connected network of Labour Councils across Ontario.
Open, honest & robust debate
We need to cultivate a climate of open, honest, and robust debate, if we really want to learn the lessons of our movement. The stakes are too high to keep doing things that don't work and expect a different outcome. Ford has won three majorities in a row and has managed to connect with workers. That raises a tough but necessary question: Where have we fallen short, and how are we going to fix it?
