All governments lie. But the Trudeau Liberals take it to new levels.

They’re creating an investor cartel – the Infrastructure Bank – to transfer wealth to the wealthy. They refuse to comply with multiple Human Rights Tribunal orders to end racial discrimination of First Nations kids. They lied about electoral reform. They adopted Stephen Harper’s carbon targets. And his health care funding. They won’t increase the minimum wage.

And try getting answers. In the Commons, Trudeau and ministers deflect and dodge. They retreat to meaningless babble-stews of buzzwords, breathless vapidness and self-aggrandizement. They try to appoint partisan watchdogs. They try to unilaterally change rules to weaken the opposition’s rights – even beyond where Harper left them.

To calm us, the Liberal spin machine injects images and cutesy moments about Justin Trudeau, our national opioid. Much of the national media have been recruited as street-level dealers of the junk.

Rarely do the daily struggles of Canadians make news. Almost nowhere is it reported that the average full-time wage is falling – a 1.1% rise over the past year, below 1.6% inflation.

And almost nowhere was it reported when, late last month, Statistics Canada released final 2015 income data confirming a decade of growing inequality. In the previous ten years, the share of total after-tax income going to top 20% income earners grew from 44% to 45%. The share of the other 80% fell.

None of that much matters to your federal government or your national media.

When do those 80% of Canadians disregard the phalanx of fakers, exploiters, advertisers, liars, pundits, plastic people and shouters who’ve been well paid to announce that politics isn’t about them?

To challenge a Trudeau government of no answers, no action and much fakery, the bold option for the NDP is to build a voting coalition of the not-glamourous, not-wealthy, not-plastic people. To be the political option of that 80% who are forgotten and excluded.

That option won’t be built on empty slogans and left-wing catch-phrases. It needs a plain-spoken assessment of what Harper and Trudeau have done to our economy and politics. It needs leadership that will say the plain truths the pundit class shouts down. It needs a plan strong enough to withstand the well-funded and dishonest scrutiny it will attract.

Guy Caron, former economist and Finance Critic, deserves praise for leading with well-crafted policy and challenging others to match him. Caron would reduce taxes on low incomes and shift them to high incomes. His basic income would attack poverty. He’s promised to prosecute criminal tax cheats and crack down on tax havens. He’s provided a clear electoral reform option.

Jagmeet Singh has met the challenge. He focusses on attacking precarious work, especially temporary work. He’d boost the minimum wage. He’d introduce a Working Canadians Guarantee to support low-income workers while raising taxes on corporations and incomes over $350,000.

Charlie Angus has put out a policy on climate change that would strengthen accountability for green investments and meeting carbon reduction targets.

Neither Peter Julian or Niki Ashton have yet put out a major policy piece. That needs to happen soon.

The NDP leadership candidates are now engaged in a debate with meaningful details. In doing so, they’ve take an essential step toward a renewed political option for those excluded by the fakery of Liberal politics.

Tom Parkin is a former NDP staffer and social democrat media commentator