Article content continued

You might agree with Rae that the doctors are only out for themselves. But what union isn’t? Does he suppose that teachers unions — which fought with his NDP government just as they’ve fought with every government since — are really only interested in the students? That police unions, which have pushed their benefits and compensation relentlessly higher no matter how much stress their demands put on municipal governments, think only of the public good? That firefighters in many communities aren’t grossly overpaid because of the union clout they carry? Or that the swollen bureaucracies in Ottawa and provinces across the land are better paid and pensioned than the private sector because their unions think solely about the well-being of the taxpayer?

Consider the Canadian Union of Postal Workers. The fact the Post Office still exists, in a world of email and social networks, is a peculiarity in itself. Logic would suggest it should be in the midst of a prolonged winding down, reflecting the collapse in traditional mail usage and the massive overstaffing represented by its 54,000 members. Yet as recently as last summer its members were threatening a strike over their pay demands. Canada Post said the uncertainty cost it $100 million in the third quarter of last year. Not a cent of it was in the interests of the public.

Rae has reason to be more cynical of unions than the average “progressive.” His term as premier is still tainted by the memory of “Rae Days,” when organized labour rebelled at his effort to reduce expenditures by forcing unpaid leave on public employees. The unions deserted him, and it’s Ontario’s Liberals who now benefit from union backing in return for friendly treatment from Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals. Ironically, Rae too subsequently moved on to the Liberals.