Voter turnout is an important indicator of a political system’s legitimacy and well-being. For the better part of a century, Saskatchewan had one of the highest levels of voter turnout among the provinces. This pointed to a considerable support for, and engagement in, the political system on the part of Saskatchewan citizens. Those days are now behind us.

The regrettable reality is that there is almost no room for an honest debate about Canada’s role in perpetuating the Russia-Ukraine conflict, or on how the war can end, writes CD columnist Yves Engler. We are too busy banning films that dare to portray ordinary Russian soldiers as human beings.

Canada and the US are continuing their pressure campaign on Mexico’s widely popular Morena government. While in the past Ottawa and Washington targeted President AMLO’s progressive mining, energy, and agriculture policies, this time, they slammed a judicial reform plan that would allow Mexican voters to elect their own judges, including to the Supreme Court.

Before our next federal election comes in the next year or so, and even before November’s pivotal US presidential vote, British Columbians will go to the polls next month, and if the ugliness already being seen out here on the so-called Left Coast is any indication, reporters could be in for a bumpy ride.

Russia isn’t creating these divisions in the West, they’re attempting to exploit them for geostrategic purposes. But what the Tenet indictment exposes is that the far-right is where the money is. They’re the ones calling the shots. Anyone who suggests both ends of the political spectrum are equally susceptible to foreign exploitation is obscuring this reality.

Coming so close to November’s US presidential election, not to mention Canada’s pending federal election, the Russian disinformation revelations could have an effect similar to that of the 2016 Wikileaks dump of Hilary Clinton’s hacked campaign emails. This time the revelations could instead taint Trump and help to cement perceptions that he is a Russian asset.

One policy terrain on which Wab Kinew’s NDP has been unambiguous is law and order. Building on its already dubious legacy on this file—both during its time in power between 1999 and 2016 and while in opposition between 2016 and 2023—the Manitoba NDP is accelerating a reactionary program of policing and jailing driven largely by the interests of cops and the city’s business community.

I hate politicians who try to tell me what I can and cannot say. I hate governments that threaten to lock me up for something I haven’t even said yet but might just be thinking of saying. There, is that enough hate for you? Could it be enough to run me afoul of Ottawa’s latest scheme to regulate the Internet and get me arrested under Bill C-63, the Online Harms Act?

Suffice it to say that the Liberals have thoroughly messed up Canada’s media, which leaves them wide open to attack by the Conservatives on this front. All the Opposition needs do to score some major gains is not screw up too badly. Unfortunately for them, argues CD media columnist Marc Edge, they seem to be botching the job already.

Whether the hard right or the liberal centre holds power, working class communities are facing an implacable enemy. We can’t build the united movement the situation demands if we periodically put our struggles on hold to campaign for the more moderate representatives of the very agenda we need to defeat. We must remain sharply focused on building a socialist alternative for the years ahead.