Elections are important and this one is significant. In the current period, however, a preponderant focus on electoral politics is misplaced. We need rejuvenated powerful unions and a strong sense of unity and solidarity among communities under attack. Such a social mobilization would actually generate the conditions where a serious left electoral force could make enormous gains.

Elections are often dominated by flashy announcements about new subway lines, but the immediate future of public transit depends on something else: keeping buses running. Yet ridership on many Ontario transit systems continues to lag. Without major investments in transit improvements, like more frequent service to win back previous riders and encourage new ones, we risk a car-led recovery.

Has there ever been a campaign so insipid? So incapable of rousing anyone but the most fevered reactionaries or conflicted social democrats? People will vote, of course, but almost certainly in depressingly low numbers. But they will cast their ballots out of little more than what they regard as biological necessity, and with not much more in the way of enthusiasm.

Astute political observers may have noticed that Mr. Kenney’s resignation speech was silent on the prospect of a political comeback. He may well even be contemplating throwing his well-worn hat into the ring of the upcoming race to lead the UCP again! The premier’s political career is done. Fantasyland carnival barker Kenney just doesn’t know it yet.

The housing policies being pursued by Ford’s government signal the continuation of his war on tenants. While the Liberal and NDP platforms share some features in common with Ford, they also differ in important ways. Of the major parties, the NDP stands alone in its commitments to affordable and non-market housing, but it is fair to question how much of an impact they could make in resolving an out of control crisis.

Only a socialist economy can fulfill workers’ legitimate demands and only a socialist economy can deliver democracy to the people, yet no one in Canada’s Parliament dares to advocate for genuine socialism. The vacuum on Canada’s political left presents an extraordinary opportunity for the Green Party of Canada. The time for eco-socialism has come. The time is now.

As the writ was dropped for the June 2 provincial election, the Ontario Health Coalition warned against unprecedented health care privatization and called for it to be a key election issue. We cannot go back to the same patterns inadequate care that existed before the pandemic. We must safeguard our principles and rebuild a health care system in the public interest to serve Ontarians for the next generation.

Canadians have so much to learn from Cuba, but every day the country’s revolutionary process is demeaned by our government officials and mainstream media. It is evidence of the moral and intellectual backwardness of our political culture that a country which presents a leading example in so many urgent policy areas is routinely ridiculed for its supposed shortcomings.

The 55-year-long fight for Palestinian freedom is no less just, no less worthy of our support. But Palestinians are occupied by our Israeli ally. They are not white. Most are not Christian, although Abu Akleh was Christian. The Palestinians doggedly refuse to give up. This makes them as heroic, maybe more heroic, than Ukrainian fighters. We are on the wrong side of history in Israel. Abu Akleh’s blood is on our hands.

It is the year 2025. The war in Donbas is over and the National Guard of Ukraine has emerged victorious against the Russians. What’s left of the Donetsk Basin is a scarred landscape of flooded mines, unexploded ordnance, and bodies yet to be buried. This is the story at the heart of director Valentyn Vasyanovych’s festival darling Atlantis, Ukraine’s official entry for the 93rd Academy Awards.