Mainstream and social media have taken their turn analyzing Justin Trudeau’s first year in government. With contributors such as Murray Dobbin, Michal Rozworski, Herman Rosenfield, Sarah Beuhler, et al, our focus section, “Short Change,” has a different slant than you are likely to find elsewhere. The authors address policy on the economy, pipelines, relations with First Nations, trade agreements and labour. Not surprisingly, the overwhelming finding is one of style over substance. Planned by Andrea Levy and Richard Swift, this section is a must read.

Barely six years old, Jacobin is the fastest growing socialist publication in the English-speaking world. CD’s Andrea Levy had an opportunity to interview founding editor Bhaskar Sunkara in Montreal in the fall. In this issue, Sunkara gives his views on Trump’s victory and strategies to defeat him in 2021. In the Spring issue’s Part Two, he talks about Jacobin, his views about socialism and renewing the socialist movement in America.

This issue of CD follows up a discussion in our fall issue around George Martell’s proposals to organize a Left politics around the Leap Manifesto. Here, Martell responds to his critics and continues the conversation.

What would a Left energy policy look like? Imre Szeman and Jeff Diamanti are two members of the Petrocultures Research Group in Edmonton. After hearing their provocative presentation at the 2016 Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, we invited them to share their views in CD.

Over the past several years, CD has published articles about the vile role of Canadian mining companies in Latin America and Africa. This issue, Jackie McVicar and MiningWatch Canada’s Jen Moore contribute two more devastating accounts.

As we put this issue of CD together, we learned of the death of Warren Allmand, long-time Liberal MP for Notre-Dame-de-Grace in Montreal (winner in nine consecutive elections). This thoughtful, principled voice within the Liberal Party passed on just as we were completing this issue of CD which takes aim at the first year of Justin Trudeau’s government. For many years, Allmand was the conscience of the Liberals, standing firm for human rights at home and internationally (for the Irish and the Palestinians) and was the architect of the bill to abolish capital punishment in 1976. To the end, he remained active in the campaign to free U.S. Native American activist Leonard Peltier. He often incurred the displeasure of his own party, such as when he stood against Trudeau the Elder’s constitutional proposals or the Paul Martin-crafted austerity budget of 1995. Sadly, the current Liberal government lacks such voices.