These days, there are many reminders to hold on to this one precious thing: our democracy. Not just ticking a box at election time, but working in between elections to protect the systems in place to safeguard our democracy.

As this edition of the Monitor lays bare, our democracy is on trial. A global geopolitical shift is underway as America crumbles under the weight of tech bros, billionaires, oligarchs, and Trump himself. Leonard Cohen would say “America is the cradle of the best and the worst.”

Now it is chaotic, duplicitous, ruinous. The North American stability that we’ve enjoyed for generations is no longer something we can count on.

That stability did allow us to become complacent. Trade deals offered cheaper goods and services while governments traded the social safety net for an agenda of tax cuts that appealed to our power as consumers—not as engaged democratic people.

In fact, one of our first collective acts of resistance to Trump’s destabilizing economic warfare on Canada and his reckless threats to make us the 51st state of America has been to boycott American products and buy Canadian. Consumerism.

There is power in that, yes. But the irony is not lost that it was consumerism and the cult of cheap that made us complacent in the first place. Access to cheap goods made us feel more middle class. Made us detach, decade by decade, from any sense of working class awareness and solidarity.

The hard truth—the bitter pill we must all now swallow—is that cheap is no longer a guarantee. Lettuce will cost more, if we can access it at all. California lettuce, certainly, is a thing of the past. That was inevitable. The climate emergency already guaranteed that California lettuce, oranges and other produce were never going to be as accessible in future.

We have arrived at that future. We will continue to be forced to think hard about what we consume, about where we buy, about need vs. want.

To be honest, I held out this glimmer of hope in 2008-09, when a U.S.-led banking ponzi scheme crashed the world economy. Like many other countries, Canada fell into a sharp recession. Greece was forced by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to make extreme concessions to public services and supports in order to deal with the debt crisis the ponzi scheme created in that country. 

It seemed then that it was the jolt we needed to clearly see the hard limits of intertwined globalization and capitalism. My optimism was not rewarded by reality.

The 99% Occupy movement came and went. Banks were bailed out but the most vulnerable people weren’t. And things just returned to “normal.”

Remember that normal tolerates—indeed, ignores—income and wealth inequality, racism, the harmful impacts of colonialism, the rights of Indigenous Peoples, racialized people, migrant workers, women and gender-diverse people, people with disabilities …

Seriously, how long has the system felt rigged to you?

Now the threats are real and the agenda of a salivating far-right has been laid bare. In the U.S., obviously, but in Canada too. Emboldened by the role billionaire tech bros like Elon Musk have played in the early days of the Trump administration, Canada has its own class of wealthy tech bros wanting to organize here too.

Build Canada is an initiative backed by Canadian tech executives, including from Shopify and Wealthsimple. Among other things, they’re advancing a business-friendly agenda that includes deregulation and AI—an agenda that puts corporate profits ahead of Canadian well-being, consumer safety, and decent work.

These are all variations of a neoliberal theme. None of this is about protecting our democratic rights. That job comes down to us. This issue of the Monitor examines our democracy on trial and the role that you and I can play—working together with progressive movements—to advance transformative change that puts people’s well-being first.

It invites you to become an active participant in this transformation, to embrace our collective power.

see full issue here

O democracy, how my heart aches for you in these dangerous times.

The oligarchs are at the gates. They are coming for us. For our democracy, our independence, our sovereignty, and that double-edged word: freedom.

In the current political context, the word freedom has become contorted. It became the rallying cry of a MAGA movement that, in Canada, morphed into a convoy uprising. And now, the ugly spectre of fascism rises like a phoenix from the ashes.

Not so long ago, we were shocked by the events of January 6—the attempted insurrection at America’s Capitol building; the rejection of a fair and square democratic election. January 6 was supposed to live in infamy; its leader relegated to the gates of hell.

Donald Trump would not go lightly. He refused to stand for democracy—he stands, after all, only for himself. He demands fealty. And the grovelling, the grifters comply. They fall to their knees at Mar-a-Largo, that den of iniquity.

Trump, with his cast of billionaires, shysters, conspiracy theorists and sycophants, threatens women’s rights, LGBTQ+ rights, migrant workers, immigrants, political opponents, and now us. Canada’s own sovereignty.

Trump taunts Canada as the 51st state of America. This is not a drill. Our sense of who we are as Canadians—our value to each other and to the world—is being tested. Some factions here in our own country are trying to convince us that “Canada is broken”. It is not, though it is due for repairs.

Democracies do not run on autopilot. They must be fought for, protected and renewed. That comes down to us.

Propagandists will take advantage of the chaotic Trumpian year that 2025 promises to be.

“The Purpose of Propaganda,” Aldous Huxley wrote, “is to make one set of people forget that other sets of people are human.” This year, the propagandists will be emboldened. They will twist the truth. They will bend the rules, even break them. It falls to us to hold them to account and, for ourselves, to hold fast to a gentler, kinder, more humane vision of our future.

We must resist. And unite.

Resist the temptation to yield to those who lie, to those who will use the many in pursuit of their own power.

Resist the divisive forces of polarization. We are more resilient and powerful than we might think. There is power in finding common cause, in reaching across our differences.

It’s time to unite, to join forces with as many allies as we can. We hold that power.