After almost a decade in power, Trudeau the Younger is certainly following the same path as his father. The blissful honeymoon is long over and after almost a decade in power he is now facing defeat in the next election because charm and charisma can only take you so far. But it would be foolish to count him out so soon, writes Marc Edge, given his family legacy.

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.

The Palestinian reporters in Gaza who fill the void often pay with their lives. At least 128 journalists and media workers in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon, have been killed and 69 have been imprisoned, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, marking the deadliest period for journalists since the organization began collecting data in 1992.

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.

The dust has still not settled on October 7 and there are many conflicting reports of what did and did not take place, but let us for the sake of argument take the reports of Hamas’s alleged acts at face value. Does it not stand to reason that Israel would find itself in the position of being beyond condemnation for the crimes it commits? It would not.

Canada has long profited from West Africa’s gold resources. In fact, every year, these firms extract billions in revenue from the region. Right now, however, Canadian companies in West Africa are quarreling with an increasingly independent bloc of states determined to constrain the ability of foreign corporations to profit from African resources.

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.

Even as the Canada Soccer drone spying scandal dominated news at the Olympics and apparently raised the most fundamental questions about ethics and harm, the Israeli national soccer team was still permitted by FIFA to compete in the Games. This, despite the fact that Israel was then (as it is now) conducting a genocidal assault against Palestinians in Gaza.

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.