Why is no federal leader talking about the opioid crisis?

If you were to believe polls, climate change seems to be on everybody's mind. The threat of flooding, forest fires, heat waves, and pollution is occupying the thoughts of Canadians like an unseen specter, ready to jump out of any corner at the drop of a hat.

With the amount of concern and hand-wringing going on over this issue around the country, you would think that we've lost many loved ones to the climate scourge.

Of course, it is to be said that people have indeed lost homes and livelihoods to flooding and fires. Their suffering is not to be overlooked, and in fact, some people have passed away. In 2018, over 90 people died from deaths related to a heatwave in Quebec. This statistic is tragic and we should mourn it.

Yet if 90 or more deaths and numerous home losses can sweep up the attention of an entire country, what about 13,000 dead Canadians and counting, most of whom passed away from accidental death? What about the countless broken homes, and ruined futures? What about the sons and daughters of this country forced onto the street because of the great blight of opiate addiction?

Will this monumental crisis garner the attention of the country, or incite global marches and protests for the young victims whose futures were stolen from them?

Elizabeth May loves to tout her war-like mentality when it comes to her climate plan. It's a global emergency, and such emergencies require drastic measures, claims May.

While national leaders parade their shiny new economic and green energy plans, provincial and municipal governments desperately struggle for solutions, any solution to deal with the growing number of people dropping like flies or being funnelled through addiction and mental health centres.

Where is the call to arms to fight the constant pipelines of lethal narcotics flowing into this country and continent? Who will raise that alarm? If you were to listen to our federal leaders, the problem seems non-existent or at least not worthy of consideration.

The fact of the matter is that opiate addiction does not care about your socioeconomic class, the colour of your skin or your education, it can happen to anybody.

Imagine over 10,000 people were dying from climate change related disasters. Imagine the outrage and frantic committees and collective action. It would be monumental. Unfortunately, there is no equivalent on the issue of the opiate crisis, only a deafening silence from both the media and our politicians.

Without a national strategy, all we have to offer are band-aids for a plague that afflicts Canadians from coast to coast.