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The strongman is back in political fashion. From Erodogan in Turkey, Putin in Russia, Orban in Hungary, Modi in India, Trump in the U.S., Netanyahu in Israel, el-Sisi in Egypt, the call for the strong nation is back too.

It's raining right now while I write this in that dreary Vancouver kind of way. On Tuesday May 6 at night, the city lost an irreplaceable giant and we are all diminished by this sad, sad news.

Launched in the shadows of Parliament Hill two weeks ago, the hunger strike by Attawapiskat First Nation Chief Theresa Spence goes on. There is little to be heard from the federal government or Prime Minister Stephen Harper, but a cowardly silence.

Chief Spence said she is willing to die in an attempt to get the federal government and aboriginal leaders to discuss the treaty process and make fundamental changes.

Spence’s protest was ignited by the recent passage of the government’s second omnibus budget bill and has the support of "Idle No More." Through flash mobs and round dances in shopping centres around the country, they have shown their ability to disrupt, to make noise, celebrate and engage thousands of people across the country.

Today is a National Day of Action for a 2014 Health Accord. With this in mind, we bring you an interview with Ryan Meili, the author of A Healthy Society and an important voice in the debate about the future of medicare in Canada. 

Am Johal: In your book, A Healthy Society, you argue that a focus on health can revive Canadian democracy. How so?

Miloon Kothari is the former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing. In 2007, Mr. Kothari led a mission to Canada to evaluate its human rights record related to housing.

Q. Now that you have been away from your former role as the UN's Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing, what are some of your reflections on how the international human rights system supports the right to adequate housing?

Daniel Tutt from the Unity Productions Foundations shares his views on combating Islamophobia in the United States.

Am Johal: You've been engaging in dialogues around Islamophobia and the general representation of Muslims in American society in a post 9-11 context for some time now. How would you describe the current context for Muslims in America, more than 10 years after the trauma of that event?

United We Can founder Ken Lyotier shared these words at a tribute for Jim Green on Saturday, April 14 at the Orpheum in Vancouver -- Green lost his battle with lung cancer earlier this year.

In a country like ours, we have little history of participating in collective mourning. It is neither fashionable, nor rooted in our traditions. For nations are built on founding myths which often distort history and deny certain historical suffering.

Today, Jack allowed us to cry together, to feel together, to mourn together -- to think of another world together.

Bob Williams is a former Vancouver City Councillor, former B.C. Cabinet Minister and is currently a board member with Vancity Credit Union, Canada's largest credit union. Am Johal interviewed him in Vancouver.

Up until the mid 60s, tenants couldn't run for public office in Vancouver. How did this change come about?

I was only on City Council for two years, I was a torpedo, and it was great fun. There had never been anyone on Council from the eastside since 1945. I beat out Harry Rankin so the Communists never forgave themselves. All 1,400 of them voted for me and I beat out Harry. This was back in 1964.

As politics has shifted to the right since the early 80's, the left has been sadly left flat-footed as neo-liberal policies have proliferated around the western, democratic world. Where the right preached a gospel of smaller government, the left attempted to capture the political imagination by defending the role of the state. It was an important position to take, but as political strategy it has largely been a losing game. How can we deconstruct the neo-liberal rise to power and how do we rebuild a social democratic vision that inspires the country?

That is the central question of today's politics.