Thirty years have passed since the publication of The End of History and the Last Man. Gloating in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the American political scientist Francis Fukuyama made an astonishing claim. Humanity had reached “the end of history as such: that is, the end-point of mankind’s ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government.”

The first weeks of the new year have already had their fair share of bleak news. As if the Omicron surge was not enough, working Canadian families can now look forward to a surging grocery bill. Food prices are set to increase between six and eight per cent this year, according to a new report from Dalhousie University.