Sir: It would be a fair assessment to suggest that there is not a single person in this city that has not had a family member, a neighbour or a friend employed by Navistar in Chatham at some point over the years.
For over a hundred years, International Harvester, in one form or another, was one of the best paying, secure and largest employer in our political riding.
That is why the irony of a large, single Conservative re-election sign is so rich.
As voters drive down Richmond Street by the vast industrial wasteland of what was once Navistar, they can’t help but see only a Tory sign asking for their vote. This is the same government and local Member of Parliament that did so little to save some of the best-paying middle-class jobs the municipality has ever known.
There is an arrogance on the part of the Harper Conservatives to think that their indifference has been forgotten locally, especially when you consider the large number of former Navistar employees that waited so long for their settlements or worse yet, are still waiting for their rightful compensation from a corporation that was allowed by our federal government to “skip town.”
It is no secret that when oil was riding high and our dollar was purposely tied to it, Harper (and Van Kesteren by extension) did not see the loss of manufacturing jobs as a concern to the bigger picture. Now, in the middle of an election campaign, they are both pandering for votes from the same people and families they abandoned when they might have helped.
The Conservatives must believe that the thousands of people that made their living at the “Harvester” and those from local spin-off industries have short memories.
Truly, with Harper’s Pacific (free?) Trade deal on the Asian horizon and with his own admission that it has the potential to negatively impact the car and truck industry in southwestern Ontario, why would anyone believe that the Tories genuinely support the people that work in Canadian manufacturing?
The sight of this one, big, blue Conservative sign in the middle of a vast empty field on Richmond Street speaks volumes.
In closing, as a one time Harvester employee and member of an extended family tied to Navistar for generations, I can’t help but look down the road and wonder if the people in Leamington feel the same way about the Heinz closing?
Dan Kelly
Chatham
