This is a page from the 2021 Canadian federal election.
Looking for the 2026 BC Local General Elections? Click here.

Janis Zroback

Communist candidate for Victoria
For A People’s Recovery from Capitalist Crisis

Read more

Misc. topics

Housing is a Human Right!

Janis Zroback's promise

Build one million units of affordable social housing, create hundreds of thousands of new green jobs in construction and manufacturing. Enact a federal housing policy that recognizes housing is a fundamental human right, and make housing a public utility.

Unlike the NDP we are not afraid to take on the corporate landlords. Our interests are not theirs.

Dismantle the “Security State"

Janis Zroback's promise

Stop the drive to a police state in Canada. Repeal C-59 (formerly C-51) and all other undemocratic and repressive “anti-terrorism” legislation. Rescind the “border security declaration” which allows U.S. troops to enter Canada during “emergencies.” Disband the RCMP, CSIS and CSEC

They are the most violent instruments of the Capitalist state, spying on First Nations, Communists, and other dissidents.

Make MPs earn minimum wage.

Janis Zroback's promise

In "The State and Revolution", Vladimir Lenin says that representatives of the workers state should receive 'average workman's wages' and be subject recall at any time, by popular vote.

Let's End Opportunism and Careerism.

Divest from Fossil Fuels

Janis Zroback's promise

Cut military spending by 75%. Halt the construction of CF-18 Jets. Set hard GHG emissions caps with fines for offenders. Halt the construction of all new Pipeline Projects. Halt all fracking operations. Phase our Tar Sands projects and transition to a Green Economy for the people

Create training programs with subsidized wages and benefits for workers to sign on. Invest in renewables.

Build a People's Democracy

Janis Zroback's promise

Abolish the Senate. Dissolve the role of the Governor General and Oust the Monarchy from Canada. Build a People's Republic based on Proportional Representation, with MPs recallable by Popular Vote. Build a House of Nations to settle all matters of national development.

Canada is not one nation, Canada is many nations, entangled in a Colonial hierarchy

Build Green Public Transit

Janis Zroback's promise

Invest heavily to create jobs through renewable energy and conservation programs. Substantially expand urban mass transit, eliminating bus and transit fares. Legislate stringent vehicle emission controls. Build and fund high-speed rail as a better alternative to highways and airlines.

Climate Vengeance

Janis Zroback's promise

Replace cap-and-trade and carbon tax with strict legal limits for pollution and hard caps on emissions, especially from industrial sources. Reduce emissions to zero by 2050. Impose strong penalties for corporations which break the law including jail time for corporate executives.

Peace & Disarmament

Janis Zroback's promise

Withdraw from NATO and NORAD. Oppose the weaponization of space and make the Arctic a zone of peace. Sign the Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty. Scrap the purchase of fighter jets, warships & drones. End military exports and invest in Search & Rescue and Environmental Protection.

With each passing hour, we move toward the brink of a new hot war. The capitalist media tells us that war is simply a fact of life. They teach us to support military interventionism across the globe. We must reject this brutal teaching.

World War is a product of capitalism. Canada puts billions of dollars into building warships and fighter jets, while our infrastructure crumbles, while people are deprived of the means of life, especially First Nations communities which are kept underdeveloped, impoverished.

We live in an age of Imperialism. Vladimir Lenin described it as “the Monopoly stage of Capitalism”, in which the world is dominated by Trans-National Corporations which are waging a global struggle for the constant re-division of the world and its resources.

This global struggle is driven by the cancerous need for Capitalism to expand. The natural result of this constant re-division of the world, is total war. WWI was an example of this. It was a war driven by nationalistic interests, between European powers and their colonies.

Canada is a member of NATO – a military alliance of developed capitalist countries, which demands each member state contribute at least 2% of their GDP to build military bases for the subjugation of the global south. The USA alone has hundreds of bases worldwide.

We’re told that Russia and China are the big bad guys of the world –“evil empires” – but the USA spends more on their military than both of these countries combined, and then some. Russia and China have nothing that even closely resembles this military expansionism.

We must break from this death-spiral. Canada must stop being a toady of the United States. We must pull out of NATO. The Communist Party will Defund, Divest, and Demilitarize – so we can build a better world.

Shorter Workweek, Higher Wages

Janis Zroback's promise

Let workers share the benefits of AI and other new techn in the workplace with a 32 hour work week for 40 hours pay. Raise the minimum wage to $23/hour across Canada, and legislate a minimum four weeks statutory paid vacations and 14 employer-paid sick days annually.

Productivity of Labour has increased by 40% over the past 30 years, yes our wages have stagnated or even fallen during that time. Why is this?

A lot of has to do with the policies of Neoliberalism, which is a recent trend in capitalism in which the owning class has taken back the hard-won gains of the workers. Publicly owned infrastructure has been systematically sold off into private hands. Our transit system has withered. Unions have been disbanded and jobs shipped overseas to underdeveloped countries, so that the owners of industry could pay poverty wages to the workers. Retirement is becoming a thing of the past. Even our "free" healthcare system, which is often held up as sacred, is started to be sold off to private interests, with sectors like housekeeping and food service first on the chopping block.

A critical concept in Marxist economy is what Karl Marx called "the Law of the Tendency of the Rate of Profit to Fall." Very basically put, Profit is the share of money that the Capitalist takes after paying out Wages and operational expenses. Where does the money come from? Money is a way of counting Value, which comes from the Labour of the Wokers (this is the Labour Theory of Value). When the Capitalist makes a Profit, they are taking most of that Value (Surplus Value). Only a small piece of it goes to the Worker in the form of Wages. Got it? So Profit is essentially the unpaid Wages of the Workers! This is why we say that Labour under Capitalism is exploitive. In order to keep their class position afloat, the Capitalist must continue to Profit off of our Labour.

Marx considered his discovery of the Law of the Tendency of the Rate of Profit to Fall as one of his most important discoveries. The mechanics behind it are a bit too dense to be covered here. However, it is the reason that Capitalism goes through cycles of Boom & Bust. The Great Depression was a major example of a "bust" period in Capitalism.

All of the economic reforms made since the Second World War have been attempts by the Bourgeoisie to keep the Capitalist system alive - but they only delay the inevitable. Now as the system winds down toward another bust, the Capitalists are taking all of our money, drowning us in debt, and taking away our hard-won economic gains and welfare. We must fight back against this. It's Class Struggle, pure and simple. Less money for us, means more money for them. So let's make them pay.

Biography

submitted by the candidate or their team
Hospital worker, reader & music lover. Settled on unceded Lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ territory for 5+ years. Fighting for the liberation of oppressed peoples , for peace and disarmament , for cooperation, and a sustainable prosperity for all. Let's build the future together.

Some problems require revolutionary solutions.

See Janis Zroback's election promises

Reason for running

submitted by the candidate or their team
I'm running because I feel the burnout of my fellow front-liners, my late-millennials and younger generations. I see the imminent danger of the climate collapse and threat of fascism. I want to show people that another path is possible and liberation is not some distant dream

Share this profile

votecommunist.com