The level of political consciousness of unionized workers in Weimar Germany was very similar to that of current progressive workers and equity advocates. Tragically, German progressives failed to take concerted action to mobilize democratic forces against Nazism until it was far too late. The consequences of inaction this time could be at least as devastating and even more enduring.

Canada can lobby Washington to promote a sensible approach to Cuba. In 2014 the government of Stephen Harper hosted secret meetings between US and Cuban negotiators that resulted in the Obama administration reopening diplomatic ties with Cuba. Maybe the Trudeau government—desperately in need of positive news on the foreign policy front—could show some diplomatic initiative.

Our society is not without faults. Our domestic and foreign policies are also often flawed. To correct failings, we need people who point them out, however unpopular that may be. We should be enabling a wide framework of public discourse, not seeking to silence people. To date, we haven’t quite reached the level of hysteria of 1950s McCarthyism, but we are perhaps coming close.

Conservative MPs have tarred pharmacare as a “radical plan” that will rob unionized workers of their existing workplace coverage, trying to whip up hysteria about health benefits disappearing and private insurance plans being abolished. Since the Pharmacare Act became law, Poilievre and his party have doubled down on these scare tactics.

No government fulfils every promise it makes to voters at election time. Still, looking back on the Trudeau government’s performance over the past nine, sometimes chaotic years—with the exception of major policy achievements like child care, pandemic income supports and dental care—this government has consistently overcommitted and underdelivered.

We are now seven years and tens of billions of dollars into the Trudeau government’s much vaunted National Housing Strategy (NHS) and things are worse than ever. Affordable housing is harder to come by than it was a decade ago, and homelessness is reaching historic highs. The NHS has failed, writes James Hardwick, and we need to understand why.

Facebook has been both a source of disinformation and an antidote to it by carrying links to factual investigative articles. Since Meta blocked links to news on Facebook and Instagram last year to avoid paying tens of millions a year to publishers under the Online News Act, there is now little opportunity to counter disinformation on its popular platforms.

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.