In recent months, prominent human rights authorities and advocates have all concluded that Israel is guilty of the crime of apartheid. It is therefore incoherent for the NDP to echo these findings and simultaneously participate in a group promoting “co-operation” with Israel. It’s time for the party to formally disassociate from the Canada-Israel Interparliamentary Group.

Almost a century ago, US Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis observed: “We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.” That could be updated: “We can have a world that is livable for humans or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of the few; but we can’t have both.” That’s the real choice on the ballot. The rest is just talkity-talk.

One of the most profound changes over the past 40 years has been the ever-increasing concentration of wealth in the hands of a tiny number of individuals. This increasing dominance of billionaires—and how it renders us powerless to protect ourselves in the most basic ways—should be front and centre in the current federal election campaign. Instead it’s barely even identified as an issue.

Klein has produced a compelling call to arms, reminding us that the mobilization needed today is well within our capabilities, that we accomplished something much more difficult through our collective efforts during World War II, and that Canadians are ready for today’s battle. What’s lacking is political leadership.

Based on the notion that the private market can always do things better, the doctrine of privatization has become so pervasive that it is rarely questioned or challenged, becoming a driving force in our politics. The benefits of privatization are routinely asserted with great confidence, although rarely with any proof. In fact, the evidence suggests the opposite: that privatization is costing us dearly in financial terms.

The rationale that the wartime emergency made government ownership acceptable could be resurrected today. The possibility of producing electric utility vehicles at a nationalized GM Canada plant would open up truly exciting possibilities if we can get beyond our knee-jerk rejection of government entering the marketplace.

Let’s be clear: enormous amounts of money are being spent in the global battle to lobby governments and sway public opinion on climate change in the roughly dozen years we have left before it’s too late to stop the world’s descent into climate hell. But the vast majority of this money is spent by the fossil fuel industry, according to research by Drexel University’s Robert Brulle.

A UN-appointed expert met with dozens of opposition activists as well as church and human rights groups, and concluded that the Maduro regime has made “major mistakes including excessive force by the police.” But de Zayas also found that popular support for the Chavez revolution remains strong. And he accused anti-government demonstrators of having “attacked hospitals, nursery schools, burned ambulances and buses in order to intimidate the people. Is this not classic terrorism?”

The transition off carbon could be less painful, since, with proper investment, a green technology future promises to be, in the words of NDP elder statesman Stephen Lewis, “the greatest job creation program on earth.” It’s time we considered the possibility that saving the planet is as important as placating a bunch of New York bondholders.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement offers sweetheart legal protection for some of the richest people on Earth, making it easy for them to sue us for uncapped amounts, in closed tribunals adjudicated by lawyers with a financial interest in siding with the rich foreigners. Not even revulsion for Donald Trump will provide enough lipstick to pretty up this pig.