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.

The suave pro-Convoy Pierre Poilievre pulls crowds whose sheer size anoint him leader pending only the rubber stamp of the leadership election in September. Given that Singh’s NDP is unlikely to survive its guns but no butter deal, the transformation of Canadian politics into a US-style entrenched confrontation between an ostentatiously ‘woke’ neoliberal establishment and an enragée hard right can only accelerate.

In 2017, Dr. David Kattenburg filed a complaint against two wines made in the Israeli, West Bank settlements of Psagot and Shiloh. Dr. Kattenburg argued that, because those settlements are situated on Occupied Palestinian Territory in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, the wines produced in those settlements were falsely labelled as “Product of Israel.”

The recent leak of a draft decision by the US Supreme Court that overrules the iconic abortion rights case Roe v. Wade has reignited the abortion conversation, casting an ominous shadow here in Canada. It is vital for us to focus on the legal, political and societal differences between our two countries and be vigilant to not only preserve but enhance access to reproductive services.