“It’s time for a change in this country, my friends – a real change.” A beaming Justin Trudeau spoke these words on the October 2015 evening when his Liberal Party won a crushing victory over the worn-out Stephen Harper’s Conservatives and the hapless Tom Mulcair’s New Democrats. These are also approximately the words that are […]
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BC United has folded its election campaign in support of the BC Conservatives. The October election is going to be tight. Kevin Falcon, BC United’s leader, after months of accurately criticizing the reactionary and sometimes weird ideas of the Conservatives and their leader John Rustad, suddenly announced his party was supporting them. The decision was […]
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The conservative Saskatchewan Party is heading to its fifth election victory, even after 17 years of misrule. The Sask Party led by Brad Wall, “the demon barber of the prairies,” defeated the NDP in 2007. Over the years the government has carried out a fairly standard conservative austerity agenda of low corporate taxes, resistance to […]
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One year ago, after the defeat of the NDP in the Alberta general election, Socialist Alternative warned about the Alberta NDP’s fatal strategy of trying to appeal to conservatives or “to be a party for all Albertans.” This strategy failed in the 2023 general election and Danielle Smith, despite her controversial policies, became the premier. […]
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It has been a long wait for public dental care and pharmacare. The Dental Benefit Act was passed in November 2022 and the Canada Pharmacare Act was introduced in February 2024. Unfortunately, both fall far short of what is needed “to facilitate reasonable access to health services without financial or other barriers,” the promise of […]
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Ed Broadbent, leader of the federal NDP from 1975 to 1989, is often described as the “best prime minister Canada never had.” Maybe that’s an example of being damned with faint praise. It is certainly not aiming at a high bar, given many of the country’s Prime Ministers. Despite that, Broadbent undoubtedly made a strong […]
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As workers around the world continue to protest the Israeli military’s intensifying air and ground assault on Gaza, and in many cases their own governments’ support of this, those governments are taking repressive measures. Thousands around the world have been arrested at pro-Palestine public rallies, and such events have even been banned in countries including […]
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Are we here for a good time, Dave Barrett the new Premier asked at his first cabinet meeting. The answer was yes! Fifty years ago in the fall of 1972, the first NDP government in BC set to work on a powerful program of change to improve life for most in BC. A Landslide Victory […]
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The New Democratic Party (and its pre-1961 predecessor, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation) was once a party with relatively healthy internal democracy and a relatively active membership. While never more than a social-democratic party, it kept its base engaged through riding association meetings, workplace activity through unions, and literal kitchen-table talks in big cities and small […]
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Ontario goes to the polls on June 2. Doug Ford must go. Yet, this seems unlikely with the polls giving him a clear lead. How, after four years of U-turns, cutting services, gaffes and COVID shambles, is this possible? Somehow, Ford has led a charmed life over these years. He started off with policies to […]
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