Parties & Leaders

The Communist Party: Darrell Rankin

[ The Communist Party of Manitoba ]

It can't be easy being a Communist party election candidate.

Many voters don't know your party exists. Some consider your party's name a put-down, an affront to the democratic process. And your odds of winning are practically negligible.

But Darrell Rankin, longtime leader of the Communist Party of Canada - Manitoba, says it's not difficult to convince candidates to run for the party.

"Most candidates look forward to [elections]," says the 50-year-old perennial candidate. "We're working to improve our vote and our support."

Those enthusiastic candidates are running in only six ridings this time around. The entire party has less than 500 members and a campaign budget of only $3,000, which Rankin says will be spent mostly on leaflets and travel to Brandon to support the party's only candidate outside Winnipeg.

Still, Rankin is optimistic about the party's chances, saying he believes it's only a matter of time until the voting public embraces Communist ideas.

"Many of our ideas are not shared by other parties. We are not worried about that," Rankin says. "The same was true when the Communist party pioneered the demand for Medicare and unemployment insurance. Today, all parties support those programs."

The Communist party supports a more democratic government process, Rankin says, although he acknowledges that some voters – especially business owners and people in the highest income-tax bracket – would not find the party's policies on taxation and nationalization democratic.

"Our party is the most democratic of any party out there. Our policies would benefit the most people in the province," he says, adding aboriginal people, women, and marginalized or disenfranchised groups are those with the most to gain.

Indeed, all of the party's candidates are aboriginal or Metis, except Rankin himself, and one-third of them are women.

The party's 10-point platform includes raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy, ending child hunger and poverty and establishing proportional representation.

The Communists want more attention paid to the state of Lake Winnipeg and to aboriginal land claims. And, the party says, "a Communist MLA will not accept more than the average wage and benefits of a Manitoba worker."

So while actually winning in a constituency might be an impossible goal, Rankin bides his time and considers getting the party's ideas in front of the public a step in the right direction.

"It's time for our ideas. We're at a crossroads in this province," the leader says. "The other parties don't have the kinds of ideas that will avert catastrophe."

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