Workers Improvement Zone

Thanks to a tip from a reader (does that sound important or what?) on my previous post, I came across a mural-in-progress on Ellice Avenue near Banning Street depicting Karl Marx, the father (or would that be eldest brother?) of communism. The mural appears to be sponsored by the West End BIZ.


Unlike local socialist heroes like Jacob Penner, Joe Zuken, J.S. Woodsworth, or R.B. Russell, there is no direct connection between Marx and the city's West End or the city in general. But as the reader pointed out, his legacy is alive and well all across the province: the mural is painted on a building that's home to an outlet of the province's vehicle insurance government monopoly, while a block south is an outlet of the liquor government monopoly. Looming down Ellice, in the shiny new headquarters of the government's hydro monopoly. Comrade Marx would be proud that these "valuable services" have been taken out of the hands of individuals (who are too feeble to own their own liquor store, or choose what car insurance they want) and put into the hands of the people.

Or maybe Marx' image was placed there to remind so many aging West Enders why they fled to Canada from Europe in the first place.