Here are the six most-read posts from my newsletter Another Ruined Dinner Party from 2025:  

1. Vote Canada- Vote Palestine – more than 5,000 of you read this post election analysis posted on 5 May

From the post: We elected 12% of the Liberal MPs  who signed on to Vote Palestine demands including

• Two-way arms embargo on Israel
• End Canada’s support for illegal settlements on the West Bank
• Combat anti-Palestinian racism and support pro-Palestinian speech
• Recognize the state of Palestine
• Fund relief efforts for Gaza, including UNRWA

2. How to Get Away with Murder was read by more than 4300 of you.  Posted 17 March, I wrote about Palestine solidarity activist Rachel Corrie.  In 2003, she, an American, was deliberately run over and killed by an IDF bulldozer in Gaza.  

3. In Nov. in Jobs for the Boys, I posted about PM Carney’s ‘nation-building’ initiatives and showed how these mining, heavy equipment and refinery jobs are jobs for the boys – and do nothing to lift women out of low paid service jobs and out of poverty as they age. 4200 reads.

4. 3800 of you liked All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Screen, It focused on the fact the Academy Award docmentary winner No Other Land had no film distribution in North America because of the fear through the film world– especially in Hollywood — merely screening a film which supports Palestinians and tells the truth will offend Jews.

5. The Fallout from Trudeau’s Resignation in January led 3800 of you to read my post here.   Here’s a chart from the article that enumerates what Trudeau did (of course he’d been PM for a decade and had the push/support of the NDP).  The spring election hadn’t yet been called.

What Trudeau did (with the help of the NDP)	What Poilievre promises to do
Free or discounted Dental Care for children, disabled and elderly, plus people with no dental plan/insurance	Dismantle the CBC (keep Radio-Canada)
Free contraceptive drugs and free access to first-line diabetes medications.  New fund established to subsidise devices to Diabetic patients	“The number 1 cost for a home is government: government bureaucrats, government taxes, government gatekeepers,” Poilievre said he will scrap all Liberal housing policies.  And give tax breaks  to those in the construction industry.
National School Food Program:  $1 billion over 5 years to deliver health school meals to 400,000 more students across Canada than before.  In NS, schools charge parents about $6 a meal, or part of it or it can be free.	Axe the carbon tax and “push aggressively to build natural gas export facilities, pipelines, mines and hydro projects.”
Daycare-  federal subsidies to all provinces and territories– half now offer $10 a day regulated child care; the other half of the prov. and territories have reduced child care fees by 50%	Bring in “jail not bail” for repeat violent offenders
Taxing rich people’s capital gains at a higher rate than before. The government said this would raise $19.4 bn in the next five years.	“An apple a day will keep the woke journalists away.” See this
Former PM Harper raised the age for receiving OAS (Old Age Security) to 67.  Trudeau rolled it back to 65

It’s shocking to see how PM Carney wants to roll back immigration, environmental demands, or taxing the rich… I suggest you listen to the Boxing Day interview with Angus-Reid president and pollster Shachi Kurl on CBC’s The Current here. She notes last year at this time, no one would have foreseen that today

• 1 in 5 Canadians want to double defense spending – to above NATO’s requirements.
• 1/2 of Canadians want to restore diplomatic ties with India — despite proof that India and its leader was behind at least one assassination of a Sikh Canadian, here in Canada.
• there is a shift from more than 42% of Canadians saying the environment was the main election issue in 2019 to only 15-18% thinking so today
• “let’s shut the door on immigration” is now more than acceptable, as is the notion that there are “too many” immigrants.

6. Kimmel, Kirk and Canada got 1200 views in September.  This was my favourite, I think, because it managed to tie free speech, to the shutting down of debate about support for Palestine and Gaza.  I asked,

“Why did Canadian parliamentarians give a tribute, a standing ovation, to this US pro-fascist[Charlie Kirk]?  Was it to curry favour with Trump? To duck away from Trump’s hitting us with huge trade tariffs? Was it to ignore the fact that Trump’s trade penalties have cost us 41,000 jobs in July and 66,000 in August? “

Every best wish for the New Year. Thanks for reading this newsletter. and

Never stop talking about Gaza.

Photo at the top: People come together for a communal iftar meal to break their fast on the second day of Ramadan in Gaza City’s Tal al-Hawa district on March 2, 2025. [Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP]. Last year by the end of Ramadan 2025 Israel had killed more than 61,709 Palestinians, including 17,492 children since Oct. 2023.

As of late Dec. 2025, Israel has killed 72,500 people, 80% are civilians and 70% are women and children. Almost 11,000 more Palestinians have died between Ramadan 2025 and Ramadan 2026 which begins 17 Feb. and ends 19 March.