Progress

We wake up today to news of two successes for the forces of progress.

First, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party was returned to power with a minority government.

The party fell short of the 170 seats needed for an outright majority. But with the Bloc Québécois and the New Democratic Party winning 56 seats between them, there's a firm center-left majority in Parliament. Minority governments are nothing new in Canada, so although Trudeau's Liberals don't have the majority by themselves, they'll have a working majority with the other two parties.

And just before results from the Canadian elections rolled in, at the stroke of midnight British Summer Time, same-sex marriage and abortion became legal in Northern Ireland.

How was this possible, when the Stormont assembly hasn't met in almost three years?

The parliament in London passed a law legalizing both same-sex marriage and abortion, unless Stormont met and vetoed the legislation before the deadline. The Democratic Unionist Party, the main unionist party in the province, has been boycotting the sitting of the assembly for reasons I won't even pretend to understand, and continued its boycott, thus allowing both abortion and same-sex marriage to become legal—things to which it is vehemently opposed. Basically, a marvelous own-goal.

It's easy to get mired in the tragedies of the day. From the Kurds to the Kashmiris to kids in cages. And of course, we should keep all those topics at the forefront of our consciousness. But let's not neglect the good news that's out there. There is progress. It's not free rein for Vladimir Putin and his populist movement. This is a war on many fronts: on some we're losing; on some we're holding our own; and on some we're emerging victorious.

I'm not going to be so flippant as to say "be of good cheer". But do take a moment to reflect on the good in the world. It fortifies one for the fight.