There's a difference between awarness and activism and creating the appeaernce of one-sided bias. As to "Universities" supporting IAW, no "University" in North America as such does. Yes, some professors and Human rights groups do, but an equal if not greater number  of professors have condemned it and the overwhelming number of Human rights groups want nothing to do with this issue. If you're correct in your assertion that the government is out of touch with people, why do they keep voting for it or for the Liberals, who in essence aren't much different. If you're correct, then we should have an NDP/Green coalition winning the next election. Nobody who isn't peaking on LSD believes that's going to happen.

And as to Canada losing respect in the eyes of the world. I've heard that assertion from some writers on the Left for a while now without any evidence to back it up. Sure, in some quarters it has, but Harper's actions in Haiti, his prominence in the G8 and G20 and you may be aware that Canada is one of 3 finalists nominated for the Western seat on the UN Security Council all suggest that Canada's standing has improved in all but NGO circles, which are not that big in the greater picture. As much as many would like to believe otherwise, Canada's participation in the NATO Afghani mission has actually boosted its international standing, which is one of the reasons we may get the Security Council seat. So all of this would seem to refute what appears to me to be just some wishful thinking from the left. If I'm wrong, we'll see a different party winning the most legislative seats next election, but I'd be prepared to take bets that I'm correct on this.

So I repeat, rather than self-congratulation, what can the left do to make ground against the right? I would suggest to ditch some of the extremist positions and try to win some small victories and edge people closer. You might have noticed that the mainstream parties have effectively marginalized the left by moving to the left themselves over the years. If the Left thinks the answer to that is to become more extreme, it may have to get used to being marginal for a long time.