What is MayDay?

“MayDay” is an urgent cry for help. It was first used as a French distress call (i.e. M’aidez or “help me”) exactly one hundred years ago. When used as a signal today, it is typically repeated three times (i.e. “MayDay, MayDay, MayDay”).

May Day is also an international celebration that occurs on May 1 of each year in honour of the rights and aspirations of labourers and the working class.

Why do we need a MayDay movement?

Canada is confronted today by real and increasingly imminent threats, both foreign and domestic.

Our planet is challenged by global warming and climate change. The sovereignty of our allies is under threat and siege from rogue state aggression. The lives and liberties of human beings everywhere are being stolen by fascist autocrats of both the left and the right.

Our country, long a model for steady and progressive reform, is now trapped in a debate between the extremists of the far right and the naïve demagogues of the far left. Too many of our political leaders, in the blind pursuit of power, have abandoned all responsibility to common sense and the wider good. Increasingly exploiting the disruptive potential of online communications channels in the cynical pursuit of their personal profile, rather than the public interest, they are dragging us backward to a world of fear, hate and intolerance. Our politics has become a “game” focused on exploiting ignorance and unleashing anger, rather than engaging the hopes, aspirations and activism of reasonable Canadians everywhere.