Whitby-Oshawa Conservative incumbent Jim Flaherty is getting the boot - in fact a whole bunch of boots.

In several communities across southern Ontario anti-Harper activists - many of whom have been laid off from their manufacturing jobs - are pooling their resources to send the Finance Minister and his government a message.

Auto workers in Brampton tried today to deliver their ‘Give Flaherty the Boot’ message about the plight of the local manufacturing industry, but were greeted by locked doors at Conservative candidate Parm Gill’s campaign office in Brampton Springdale.

Doors to the candidate’s office were shut tight when about 30 Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) union members arrived Monday afternoon carrying placards and the shoes of laid off workers. Gill was no where to be seen, but plenty of election supporters carrying his election signs were on hand to greet the local auto workers.

The workers marched to the office as part of the union’s ‘Give Flaherty the Boot’ campaign, being orchestrated in southern Ontario communities during the federal election race. It is intended to raise public awareness about what they believe has been the Conservative government’s -- and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s -- disregard for the job losses occurring in Ontario’s manufacturing sector.

Local workers gathered at a Brampton plaza parking lot at about 1 p.m. to hear remarks from union members, before walking a short distance en masse to Gill’s campaign office. They were carrying CAW flags and signs that read the ‘Conservatives could lower gas prices’, ‘lower the rising dollar’, ‘stop unfair trade’ and ‘save jobs but they choose not to’.

Union members arrived at Gill’s Kennedy Road office to find the candidate unavailable, the doors locked and a comparable number of Gill’s supporters wearing his election T-shirts and carrying his election signs.

Under the watchful eye of at least two police officers, demonstrators tried in vain to gain entrance to the office. They banged on the glass doors with fists and a sign, while surrounded by campaign supporters chanting Gill’s name.

A campaign worker told the media Gill was not presently available for comment, but may have something to say later in the day.

The two groups exchanged chants and words during the raucous episode that had some of Gill’s campaign team trying to calm a few overly exuberant supporters. Union demonstrators left a sign and several dozen shoes at the office doorstep before leaving.

“It shows that they (the Conservatives) don’t have a plan other than to block us from trying to get our message out,” said Mark Rediger, a local Chrysler plant worker who left dissatisfied with the response from Gill’s campaign.

Herman Pimentel is a CAW member and one of 150 workers at the local Simmons Canada plant who lost their jobs earlier this month. The mattress manufacturer opted to shutdown operations after 44 years and leave Brampton after contract talks with workers broke down.

“Our government stands idly by while we’re losing all those jobs,” he told CAW members gathered in the parking lot.

Each shoe on display represents a worker who has lost their job, CAW member James McDowell told the demonstrators. He urged members and the public to vote for politicians who support these workers and others in Ontario’s manufacturing industry.

The union contends Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservative government have failed to create a political policy to stop job losses in the industry or the disappearance of good paying jobs in the manufacturing sector.

“People like that are actually taking the food out of our mouths, the roofs off our house,” McDowell said.

Hundreds of pairs of boots are being collected from laid off workers in communities like Oakville, Chatham, Oshawa, Toronto and Kitchener as well as Brampton. The shoes will be presented to Mr. Flaherty next week.

-- Roger Belgrave is a reporter for the Brampton Guardian