Buzz Hargrove
Basil "Buzz" Eldon Hargrove (born March 8, 1944, Bath, New Brunswick, Canada) is the current National President of the Canadian Auto Workers trade union. He succeeded Bob White as president of the CAW in 1992. He also serves as a Vice-President on the executive committee of the Canadian Labour Congress.
In 1998, he co-authored the book Labour of Love: The Fight to Create a More Humane Canada with Wayne Skene. Also in 1998, Brock University honoured him with a Doctorate of Laws degree. He has received honorary doctorates from the University of Windsor in 2003, and from Wilfrid Laurier University in 2004.
Hargrove is seen as a supporter of social unionism, and has steered the CAW to become a more activist union, sometimes to the consternation of other unions.
Hargrove was the leading advocate of tactical voting in the 1999 Ontario provincial election in an attempt to defeat the Mike Harris government. Under Hargrove's leadership, the CAW moved away from its longtime unconditional support of the Ontario New Democratic Party, urging its members (and all voters) to vote for whichever candidate, NDP or Liberal, had the best chance of defeating the Progressive Conservative candidate.
Tactical voting not only failed to prevent the re-election of the Tories, it was blamed by New Democrats for the party's poor electoral performance, returning only 9 Members of Provincial Parliament, down from 17 in the 1995 election.
An attempt, following the 1999 Ontario election, to expel Hargrove from the Ontario NDP was defeated, but Hargrove's relationship with provincial leader Howard Hampton has remained acrimonious. Hargrove was also a long-time critic of federal NDP leader Alexa McDonough, calling for her resignation on several occasions. He mainly criticized McDonough for her effort at modernizing federal NDP's policy, and stated repeatedly that NDP should move left instead. He has been publicly supportive, however, of her successor, Jack Layton, and the CAW unequivocally supported the federal NDP in the 2004 federal election. Hargrove reportedly played a role in bringing Prime Minister Paul Martin and Jack Layton together to negotiate a budget agreement to keep the federal Liberal government in power in exchange for including NDP proposals in the 2005 federal budget.
For the 2006 Canadian federal election, Hargrove urged its members (and all voters) to vote for whichever candidate, NDP or Liberal had the best chance of defeating the Conservative candidate[1]. During the final days of the 2006 campaign, Hargrove urged all progressive voters in Canada to vote Liberal, which he claimed was the only party that could prevent the Conservative party of Canada from winning the election. He publically stated that "ideology does not matter" when the reporter asked about his position. Despite the qualification of his stated support for NDP incumbents and candidates in 40 "winnable" ridings, Hargrove's speech was widely reported by the media as an endorsement of the Liberals. No doubt his photo-op appearance with Paul Martin in matching CAW jackets contributed to this impression. He has been reported as saying that voters should support incumbent NDP MPs and NDP candidates in ridings "where they can defeat the Conservatives."
On January 18 2006, Hargrove made a controvertial speech at a Liberal rally in Ontario were he urged voters in Quebec to vote for the Bloc Québécois in preference to the Conservatives, calling Conservative leader Stephen Harper's view of Canada "a separatist view" and recommending "anything to stop the Tories" including, strangely enough, voting for another seperatist party. The statements forced Liberal leader [Paul Martin] defend Harper later in the day by saying "I have profound differences with Mr. Harper, but I have never questioned his patriotism".
Hargrove also attacked the principles of Albertans in the speech saying about Harper "His sense, is about Alberta, where the wealth in Alberta, everyone recognizes, is much greater than it is anywhere in Canada. The principles that (Harper's) brought up with, and believes in coming out of there, don't sit well with the rest of Canada." (Harper was actually born and raised in Ontario, moving to Alberta only in his twenties) [2], [3], [4]