Another young life was cut short by a bullet the other day, this time at a bus stop in Hamilton, Ont.

Harsimrat Kaur Randhawa, 21, an international student from India, died after being struck by a stray bullet while waiting for a ride home. Her story, devastating as it is, is not the first — and without increased action, it will not be the last.

While compared to the United States, Canada is much safer from gun violence, the fact is our country has the third-highest rate of firearm homicide among similar high-income countries. This rises to second-highest when comparing child and teen firearm mortality rates. Many fewer Canadians would die from gun injury each year — 700 — if our firearm death rate was the same as the United Kingdom.

Preventing gun violence demands our collective attention — especially now, on the cusp of an election. But let’s be honest, in the chaos of a political campaign, gun violence too often falls off the radar, dismissed as a niche issue or a problem confined to a few urban neighborhoods.

On Nov. 4, 2024, 49.8 per cent of voting Americans cast a ballot against their own interests.

Today, one of the common threads among their voting populace is, “I voted for Trump, but I didn’t vote for this.”

We should need no starker warning to understand that there is something seriously wrong with democratic voters in the current age.

One can certainly blame the poisons of social media, the lies and manipulations from extremist media outlets, or the disingenuous spin of politicians. However, one cannot escape the simple fact that Donald Trump was explicit about his intentions throughout his entire campaign and the four years prior.

Fans of the late John Candy might remember a 1995 movie called Canadian Bacon.

In it, an American president devises a scheme to demonize Canada in order to find a scapegoat for the ills of his country and shore up support from a naïve base.

A propaganda campaign follows with references to Canada having a long history of exploiting Americans and being nothing more than a U.S. state. Thirty years later, what was once a silly comedic fiction has become a living reality.

Within a few weeks of taking up his second term as president, the U.S. PresidentDonald Trump declared his desire to seize Greenland, take the Panama Canal, invade Gaza, enfold Canada into his national territory, and threatened “reciprocal tariffs” that will likely harm the economic wellbeing of hundreds of nations.

The dictionary defines a ‘horse whisperer’ as “someone who is skilled at training horses using gentle, non-violent methods based on understanding horse behaviour and psychology.” By that standard, the only ‘Trump-whisperer’ in Europe is Vladimir Putin (although Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni might get bit-parts in the movie).

The biggest loser of the national leaders debate wasn’t on the stage. It’s the 99 per cent of Canadians looking on at the prospects of their political future.

As federal leaders quibbled over tariffs, affordability and national security, they unanimously failed to identify the root cause of each of these crises: inequality.

This is about more than the “lost Liberal decade.” It is about the death of the Canadian dream.

For the last 50 years, working Canadians have been crushed. High-quality manufacturing employment has moved overseas. Full-time work has become a series of part-time jobs. Wages have flatlined, while housing and grocery prices skyrocket.

Premier Wab Kinew has promised a Hydro rate freeze for 2025, but Manitoba Hydro’s application to the Public Utilities Board asks permission to plan to add at least $1.4 billion to its debt to build a fossil gas turbine plant before the public even has a chance to comment.

Do you remember back in 2021, ahead of the last federal election, when the Liberal Party promised to end Canada’s cruel export of horses for slaughter? Animal lovers sure do. For many of us it felt like a rare political win — a clear, compassionate promise that aligned with public values.

The provincial government is to be commended for introducing Bill 39 — The Public Schools Amendment Act to better protect democracy from third-party election interference by regulating campaign financing for school trustees.

Canada and other countries are caught in an unprecedented, American-caused economic restructuring.

Democracy benefits from an engaged, alert, and informed citizenry. For this to happen, citizens require access to truthful information and/or the tools to detect false or misleading information.

This year’s Manitoba budget provided a glimmer of hope for families of children with disabilities.