Here in Canada, Industry Minister James Moore made it clear last month that he feels no responsibility to feed hungry children. Andrea Levy outlines some of the key challenges and prospects the Left faces with respect to food production, distribution and consumption.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first comprehensive interview with Noam Chomsky about the ecological crisis and what is to be done. It was held in prior to Chomsky’s Montréal lecture in October 2013 (hosted by Canadian Dimension) and has been edited for length and readability. We are delighted to share the interview with you.

“I’m just one voice, but I would use it to speak out on these issues within the caucus. I think it’s very easy to be cynical about politics and frustrated that we don’t get the kind of change that we want from the political system. But there’s a huge role to play for activists and writers and labour and all kinds of groups to create the public awareness and the public debate that will push political leaders to act….”

When it comes to environmental neglect, Canada is outdistancing the competition. We have earned six consecutive “Fossil of the Year” awards, a dishonour bestowed by a coalition of 700 NGOs upon the country that contributes most to impeding progress on UN climate change negotiations.

The defeat of the Charest Liberals after more than nine years in power can only be welcomed. It was past time for Quebecers to say good riddance to an anti-democratic, environmentally hostile government ever ready to accommodate the demands of transnational capital. Overall, however, the 2012 election is far from a good news story.

The photo ops of the Canadian prime minister petting panda bears and cuddling kittens have all been calculated to humanize Stephen Harper and project an image of someone who gives a damn about the environment and the well-being of other species. But no amount of spin can conceal his escalating war on nature and wildlife in the interest of the oil and gas industry.

Growth, conventionally defined as the ever increasing flow of goods and services on the market, is a mantra that continues to be embraced by nearly the entire political spectrum, even though, in the contemporary period, the biophysical, social and economic “limits to growth” have been identified as an urgent problem for over 40 years.

The need for a dietary revolution is incontrovertible. But if the moral appeal falls on deaf hearts, the ecological argument should clinch the case.

We might have hoped that by the 21st century hunger would be a scourge of the past. But the problem is actually worse now than it was a decade ago.

The routing of the Bloc Québécois should in no way be read as a sign of the waning of national aspirations in Québec, as many anglo-Canadians seem to believe – including some, like Stephen Lewis, who ought to be politically savvy enough to know better.