Adrian Dix and the NDP have been defeated in an election that was widely expected to yield a comfortable win for the centre-left party. Over the course of the month-long race, B.C. politics threw off the political intensity often associated with battles of left and right. Instead of attacking the B.C. Liberal record, Dix and the NDP chose a strategy of passive precaution, waiting for the other side to falter.

One way to make a problem go away -- at least temporarily -- is to ignore it.  It's also the way to make problems grow over time. For most governments, ignoring problems away isn't easy.  It requires a thick skin in the face of criticism, a disengaged electorate, a compliant media, and a lack of immediate consequences.  Sadly, those four conditions exist in Canada. In Stephen Harper's Canada, the art of wilful ignorance has reached new heights, muzzling independent voices where they can, while attacking those who dare challenge the PMO’s control.  But to dumb down the dialogue and maintain policy based solely on populist ideology, you have to go after the information sources.

Members of Cheyenne Fox's family are demanding that Toronto police fairly look into her sudden, tragic death at twenty years of age and treat it like a homicide -- challenging the all- too-familiar neglect by police departments to investigate any suspicious First Nations woman death or disappearance -- as asserted by Operation Thunderbird. Cheyenne Fox was a member of the loon dodem from Sheguiandah First Nation in Ontario (Manitoulin Island) and is from a very politically active family. She is survived by a young son.

This is what Trevor Jang, a Wet'suwet'en youth said to Enbridge CEO Al Monaco yesterday at the Enbridge AGM in Calgary. When Trevor was 16, he won the Canadian Aboriginal Writing Challenge which Enbridge sponsors. At the time, he didn’t realize who Enbridge was. After a photo shoot with company representatives, his photo was used in an Enbridge print ad displayed across Canada. He came to the Enbridge AGM yesterday as part of a delegation which included his chief, Chief Na’Moks of the Tsayu Clan of the Wet'suwet'en.

At rabble.ca we get a lot of visitors -- up to 450,000 a month, and we have over 18,000 Twitter followers. That’s a lot of folks. Who are you? In 2011 we had a visitors' survey and now we are doing it again. We are hoping to get 100 more people responding so we have opened the survey back up until May 20. Yes, you can still get prizes! We are offering Canadian music CD prize packs, rabble tote bags, or some rockin' bike lights.  Congratulations to Marion P., Jody S., Beth L., and Chris C. who have won already! Our survey just takes a few minutes and can be found here:

Since we got first involved in the Downtown Eastside Local Area Planning Process (LAPP) in the spring of 2011, low-income community members and groups have been hanging our hopes for broad-sweeping housing policy change on the outcome of the 2013 B.C. provincial election. The most important part of our participation in that planning work has been our push to prevent a mass displacement and homelessness crisis in the DTES.

This past weekend, Québec Solidaire's econmic platform, the Plan Vert was officially launched. The campaign is a response to Liberal (and now PQ) Plan Nord, premised on resource extraction and exploitation of Québec’s north. It focuses on investing in the following initiatives: - transitioning Québec toward green energies- the mass development of public transportation (especially outside of the large cities)- the mass transition toward energy efficiency and social housing- developing cooperatives and collectively-run businesses- taking back control over natural resources.