Right-Wing Win in Vancouver Election

What started out as a very confusing election ended up with a clear result. A triumph for a new right-wing party – ABC. ABC’s mayoral candidate, Ken Sim, won an absolute majority of the votes cast, 51 percent, 85,732 votes compared to former Mayor Stewart’s 49,593 votes. All ABC’s seven council candidates were elected, as […]

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Surrey’s No-Solutions Election

Doug McCallum was defeated as Surrey Mayor, losing to former colleague Brenda Locke. Locke has promised to reverse the establishment of a separate Surrey police force, which will add further burden Surrey’s budget. Neither the RCMP nor Surrey Police is the answer, what is needed is democratic control over the police. Locke on other issues […]

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What is Vancouver’s Election About?

The Coalition for Progressive Electors (COPE) – Vancouver’s political party for renters and workers – hosted a Rally for Rent Control, on October 2. Incumbent city councillor Jean Swanson (COPE) shared a platform with Seattle’s Socialist Alternative city councillor, Kshama Sawant and other COPE candidates. Jean offered “huge thanks” to “Kshama for the solidarity she’s […]

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Conservatives Heading Further Right

Unsurprisingly, Poilievre won the Conservative Party leadership, crushing all opposition with 68 percent of the vote. His nearest rival, the more traditional conservative Charest, only gained 16 percent of the vote. The populist right clearly dominates the Conservative Party’s membership.  The big business backers of the Conservatives, such as reflected in The Globe and Mail, […]

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Public Health Care: born out of struggle

Sixty years ago, North America’s first socialist government, in the heart of the Canadian prairies, Saskatchewan, enacted one of the demands outlined in its manifesto: a free, public health care system. This new program was enacted on July 1, 1962. However, this was not without a struggle, as on the first day of its enactment, […]

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Canada’s Fossil Fool

A joke currently doing the rounds: “Definition of a fossil fool — A politician who spends $9.1 billion on an emission reduction plan while spending twice as much to expand a tar sands pipeline.” No prize for identifying the fool in question. The foolishness is underlined by the recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on […]

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Polarization Comes to Canada

The “freedom” convoy has faded into the background. The war in Ukraine, inflation, and warmer weather are top of mind. But the convoy provoked a decisive change in Canadian society and politics that will not go away. The right wing is pumped as they successfully spurred a section of society to the right. Tory MPs […]

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