I agree that Canadians are angry and are taking it out on Trudeau, but I don't think that the convoy (widely unpopular) lit the fuse or that Trudeau has been energized to change.
I think people are outraged by the government's hypocrisy and ineptitude, both of which were on display during the convoy and have continued since. Trudeau casts all his "deliverology" failures on communications; opposition to his most disastrous policies as either unpatriotic (i.e. Bills 11 and 18) or bigoted (concerns about blockers and automatic affirmation for kids in Bill C-16); and his repeated ethical failings as "lessons for all of us."
Canadians on the good-faith right are angry at being demonized, and Canadians on the traditional left are angry at the government's support of illiberal "woke" ideology. After eight years, Canadians across the political spectrum are angry at having their country's history, values, and even its national existence trash-talked to service the narrative of the Enlightened One come to single-handedly rescue the citizens of Turtle Island from their racist/homophobic/sexist colonial hellhole.
I think that’s the root problem: Trudeau has been an incompetent PM. It’s been so long since we’ve had an incompetent PM stick around for more than a year that a lot of Canadians have a hard time recognizing how that’s causing our current problems. Until people have worked in an organization and personally observed the impact of leadership, it’s hard to understand how essentially the same organization can flip between competent and dysfunctional because of just a handful of people at the top.
Jason Kenney puts it into perspective and is well worth listening to, as is his interviewer Liberal David Herle. I got this podcast courtesy of a subscriber to The Line.
You must be in a city. the Trucker's Convoy was supported by the vast overwhelming majority west of Toronto. You are right Trudeau did nothing. But Poilievre did. And it has lit the base up. People are people, citizens deserve to be met by their government and Pierre knows this. That's why he got the votes he did for leader and that's why people respond to him.
Poilievre got the votes to be Leader because he cynically pandered to and signed up a fringe but excitable portion of the population (the hardcore anti-vaxxers), and impressed many fellow Conservatives in his caucus with his ability to whip up the mob. The Conservatives are doing well in the polls more so in spite of their Leader than because of him, notwithstanding his demonstrated communications skills.
That Trudeau refuses to take the walk in the snow and hang on until Oct. 2025 is the the bottom of his big barrel of misdeeds. The NDP is going to be the natural opposition by default if they would just pull the plug now so Canada can move forward. If they don’t pull the plug they are going to be in a natural opposition by coalition.
The convoy had large crowds show support for its national tour, yes. That does not at all show that the convoy ever had the sympathy of the majority of Canadians, or widespread sympathy beyond a narrow ideological or partisan spectrum. And likely a huge chunk of those who cheered had a simple sympathy for truckers, were clueless about the aims and qualities of the organizers (who were not themselves truckers), and would not have cheered them on had they known about the lawlessness and harassment that the convoy would bring to Ottawa.
So what about the situation now? What you state happened in Ottawa; the harassment and lawlessness is being played out in real time in Toronto right now. The pro-Palestinian protesters have set up camp with megaphones and honking (according to reports) in the middle of one of, if not the largest Jewish communities in Canada. How is that any different than what you say the citizens of Ottawa experienced. Where is the same level of response that the Conservative crowd got because in many cases the real licence on display is many time worse. And don’t try to say what happened last year was an attempt to overthrow the government because it was clearly not. The hypocrisy by the Federal government is why people are very angry.
The Trudeau government slumped in the polls months before the pro-Palestine protests. There's no correlation there.
However half-baked and certain to fail their plan was, the convoy organizers were signed onto a memorandum that committed them to pressuring the government to resign and for the Governor General to appoint themselves as the new government: https://archive.org/details/convoymou2022 Furthermore, the Convoy crowd had the explicit support of the Conservatives and the PPC, whereas the pro-Palestine protests are not attached to any political party.
You’ll forgive me if I’m not about to forgive eight long years of public service growth, ethically challenged politicians and promise after promise of unfulfilled promises. That the Trudeau gang has only now woken to the anger with yet more promises to do better isn’t good enough!
If Liberal MPs had an ounce of concern for their constituents and not their pay cheques they would have rebelled following the Truckers Convoy debacle. That they haven’t is more than enough reason for throwing the bums out. Sometimes any change is better than no change at all.
It’s a systemic problem that Rhamin hinted at. There is too much power concentration in the PMO and not enough countermanding power in the Senate. Both need reform. We aren’t going to get that reform any time soon so it is imperative that every citizen pay attention and use their vote wisely. There’s always another Trudeau waiting in the wings.
Wise use has been made both easier and harder by the shift of journalism over to the internet. Easier because you aren’t captive to just the big shots for your information and harder because you are overloaded with information and have to make your own decision after prioritizing it. Watching House and Senate Committee hearings on CPAC makes things very obvious if you know what to look for; but who has the time? Journalists. Our eyes and ears. Find the good ones that you can rely on and come to know their moral compass.
Yes I am Ken. The editors are on the good and moral list. Jen and Matt are excellent pros who are plugged into the pro network and want to compile and share those thoughts to save busy readers’ time. They also want readers with time to contribute by carrying a share of the load. That means read as widely as you have time for.
I think Canadians have been sufficiently prosperous to be able to afford the cost of their political pretensions for a long time. I’ve seen a lot of people continue to spend more than they need to (or should) on luxury goods until they really feel the crunch. Suddenly they realize maybe that new car doesn’t need to be an Audi, or even new at all. Heck, a Toyota is cheaper *and* more reliable! Still, might’ve been better to have made that choice before their credit was maxed out.
Canadians are in this position with respect to a lot of public policies. A desire to look like leaders on mitigating climate change has led to decades of overly ambitious promises that have harmed economic output and productivity. A desire to look empathetic and generous to the downtrodden has led to an explosion of drug-related disorder in Canadian communities. A self-image as enlightened people who are beyond military conflict has led to a neglected security capacity as revisionist authoritarian powers threaten the rules-based international order essential for Canadian prosperity. There’s still a lot of comfortable people, though, and they’re concentrated in vote-rich urban areas where luxury posturing is still within their means.
Canadians believe a lot of the BS that the progressive mainstream in the country has fed them. People even insist Canada has the "best health care in the world." In 2024, lol.
This is an excellent opinion piece. Thanks for sharing it.
I am particularly impressed with the observations regarding the impact of the (So Called) Freedom Convoy on the public consciousness.
The Freedom Convoy finally exposed the out of sight out of mind hypocrisy of Canadian elites. The upper middle class and upper classes that incudes those who have high paying government jobs and no fear of layoffs. People who can barely tolerate the working class that was expected to show up at work throughout the pandemic, keep the commerce flowing and food and groceries delivered to the doorstep of those working from home. The media are complicit in this situation too. Can anyone remember any other huge media story that was headlined with a “So Called” caveat?
The chattering and governing classes have failed to make any effort to understand why the Convoy developed, or figure out who was donating millions of dollars to finance the venture. (Spare me the rebuttals about dark money from the US and elsewhere. The lion’s share was ponied up by people who identified with the aims of the group as they headed toward Ottawa.)
Life has its ironies. The most significant rebellion against the curtailment of civil liberties during the pandemic was not instigated by civil rights groups, activists or legal societies. The pushback came from the forgotten class who realized that they were being used as pawns in a political game and decided to do something about it. We might agree that it was amateurish and lacked focus and organization, but the (So Called) Freedom Convoy harnessed a lot of discontent with a very unpopular political class. The official response from Ottawa via the Emergency Act shows the indifference is palpable, and no lessons are being learned.
Is it any wonder that Canadians are fed up and angry?
What's the objective evidence that many Canadians who were not already leaning Conservative/PPC were persuaded to anti-Liberal sentiments because of the lawless occupiers?
Speaking as someone who is a trucker, a former journalist, an Ottawa resident, AND double vaccinated, the convoy was an interesting thing to behold. I did not attend, as I preferred to make an income crossing the border daily to keep economies running. However, I did attend that first day, purely out of boredom and curiosity. I left annoyed, as every obsessive fringe weirdo showed up at the party (huge surprise), and it was cold as hell to boot. And the honking? I'd have bashed those horns with a bat if I lived nearby.
Then a strange thing happened. While the fringe weirdos continued to annoy me and distract from what should have been real discourse re: Trudeau's unscientific vaccine mandate, the actions of the government, the media (which billed this event as a barbarian invasion before the first truck even arrived), and the local populace nudged me closer to a sympathetic position. Conversations with mild-mannered, undemonstrative people - drivers, mechanics, everyday Joes who don't work in university political science departments - revealed to me a desire to be heard that had gone unrealized for years. This was important to them. Even to those who didn't have any income in the game.
Then came the unsettling suspicion, based on hyperbolic rhetoric that was not in short supply, that the upper middle-class denizens of Ottawa, "In this house we believe..." sign freshly pounded into the lawn, would have clapped and cheered if the Armed Forces had opened fire with automatic weapons on the unarmed protesters.
That rift is still alive and well. I can't speak to the exact number of people who supported the convoy or hated the mandates, but it's not insignificant, and the group's members aren't all cartoonish caricatures out of a Liberal MP's fevered imagination.
As I said, it was a suspicion - a feeling. Perhaps the same kind of feeling that caused residents to make their own inflammatory and divisive comments based on assumptions. The convoy protesters were barely viewed as human by many residents, who ascribed all sorts of ill intent to them. It felt positively Victorian in a way. But I'm not in the mood to play tennis with reply guys. Have a good night.
Come on. If your suspicion is worth publicizing in a forum like this, it should have at least some basis in verifiable facts - rather than supported by nebulous finger-pointing and generalization similar to that which you claim to condemn.
Sir, I fully agree: sometimes one had better get angry. The (lack of) adequate performance on ever so many files handled by the federal government is astounding. What is more astounding is that the current government thinks it can recover it's standing with the public.
You will note that I specified the federal government; I deliberately omitted the provincial governments and municipal governments simply because we all have different governments provincially and municipally so I will only deal with the one - you should pardon the expression - unifying government, the federal government. And that unifying experience for most Canadians is the incredibly underwhelming nature of the stupidity and inefficiency of our federal government. You know, the guys who cannot figure out how to issue passports, who cannot figure out that other countries have set up police stations in Canada, who cannot manage the economy; those guys.
So, yup, anger is not simply a good idea it is pretty much necessary.
All fine, right up until "the murder of George Floyd". He WAS NOT murdered and the cop doing time after that circus on a railroad - and being stabbed (by an FBI informant) - should be released. Immediately. As soon as the coronoer's final report was done and approved. If you can't get a basic FACT right how do we take the rest? Dubiously comes to mind.
The main reason we still have Trudeau is because two dishwater CPC leaders could not even quote their own policy on abortion clearly and firmly. Harper did and Poilievre has done the same and the polls are showing it. In a system that is based on vote distribution more than vote count, this will ensure a Conservative's demise or success.
As far as getting Canadians mad... be careful what you wish for. There is a reason we drove further on D-Day than any other nation, that our PPCLI wear a Congressional Unit Decoration, and where did we become a Nation? Vimy Ridge. Canadians today are not that different once you get off the campuses, off the internet, and out of the downtowns. You are right about one thing, we don't get mad like the American's do, we will ignore a dumb government for a long time. Until we don't. And as Dan Bongino has observed, that time is coming in the US and it's coming here as well.
My own view is that Americans get enthusiastic about politics because they can and do make a difference. A main reason is the US primary system where anyone can run for candidacy and win as opposed to the Canadian need for a prime minister's or party leader's signature to run for election - (especially with the attraction of a nice juicy Federal pension if you make 6 years sitting time) makes for a lot of admiration of a naked king and abject toadyism. Also witness Doug Ford's direct nomination of a whole bunch of candidates in the last Ontario election as another election.
It also doesn’t hurt on the US side to have the whole House of Representatives and one third of the Senate up for election every two years. And the primary -election cycles apply at all levels. State, County, Municipal, etc.
Not sure if getting angry is the only solution although it does help. A recent AARP story on even intelligent elderly people getting conned made the point that criminal fraudsters always bring emotion into play, since logic goes out the window when emotion takes over.
We have a prime minister who's background is as a junior-high teacher and a leader of the opposition who has never had a real job and makes up his own data as he talks. Neither of these individuals demonstrates any real leadership skill or tallent to me. We no longer attract Paul Martins, Michael Wilsons, Brian Mulroneys or even Jean Cretiens. Our inability to attract and choose competent leadership makes me very angry 😠.
Yes, I am aware of that. It might be Athens? I believe a slate of candidates were picked and then among themselves they chose who would be the mayor, and head up all the departments or ministries. I would not be adverse to this system in Canada. Can it be corrupted? I'm sure. Worse than where we are at? Not so sure
If we got back to voting for the best person to be the MP for our riding with no party affiliation it might work in part, but a country still needs to select a leader who can lay out a vision for the country. Not sure that should be left to the MPs.
Thank you for this op-ed. WRT to the current Prime Minister’s prospects this year, I’m not entirely convinced that “Mr B Minus” will manage to follow through with his renewed passion for getting things done (and righting past failures—think foreign and defence policy)
NS, I agree with your characterization of "the guy" [I find that I cannot even type his name without spitting, a very unsanitary response to a very unsanitary public official - note that I did not describe him as a public servant!]. I further agree with your characterization of his policies.
However, however.... The Liberals are (obviously) foolish but they are not fools. They have long mastered "vote efficiency" and his with non-thinking Liberal supporters and with the support of Jag and of the Blocheads, I fear that his possibilities are still quite real. To carry that thought further, if he were to somehow get in again I predict a) he would use that as his "validation" to push his current policies to outrageous extremes; and b) he might well see a real separation issue as a result.
I have been thinking along the same lines. If he were to get in again I would like to leave, but I am too old to actually carry that thought to a conclusion.
Thanks Rahim, this effectively crystalizes some of the differences I observe between the two countries. Americans are just "more" on pretty much everything compared to Canadians: country, politics, race, entrepreneurship, sport, you name it. We excel at decorum and queuing, well I guess hockey too. Don't get me wrong, I think Canada is a great place to live but geez we're a bland bunch.
I attended a Harper campaign rally in 2011 - I’d never been to a political rally, and thought it might be an interesting experience. They were handing out t-shirts for everybody to wear, and I thought that was kind of neat. When I got home, I realized “where the heck am I EVER going to be able to wear this while living in Vancouver?” I’m sure Democrats would feel the same way wearing a Biden-Harris t-shirt in ruby-red MAGA Tennessee.
In my experience Democrats or Republicans generally have no issue with T shirts or hats of other parties. It’s seen as free expression under the First Amendment to the US Constitution which everyone loves, and is bred in the bone along with love of country. I once wore an NRA hat to a coffee shop in avlocal small town near Ottawa and was almost refused service, and wearing anything with a Stars and Stripes element gets me “Trump” comments from total strangers. And of course exercising “free” speech in Ottawa in the winter can gets you a shove from a riot horse controlled by a jackbooted storm trooper
Well it doesn’t happen often. Usually on the 4th of July. Canadians do wear the Canada Flag in unconventional places too. Live of country - it’s all good👏👏
Canadians, like the good peasants that we are, abhor confrontation. We are "good" Canadians and that means we suck it up. Great attitude to have during harvest or on the frontier, but in the modern world it gets Canadians into heaps of trouble. Trouble that could have been avoided if only we would confront issues like housing, health care, etc. head on.
We can chose to be on one side or the other without considering there maybe a middle or good points on either side. Actually I’m glad we aren’t as prone to being as polarized as voters in the U.S. I’m for the thoughtful approach not the emotional one when it comes to politics.
Ruth, I am one of those who did not vote in the last federal election. That was a specific choice and it was the first election of any kind in my 70 odd years where I did not vote.
I chose to not vote simply because I perceived that all the major parties (I certainly did not and do not consider the People's Party to be major] were in various ways campaigning against my province of Alberta. I was not about to participate in an election where any "winner" would state, "The people have spoken."
My point is that my non-vote was a vote - against all the parties.
And, by the way, my not voting did not and does not preclude me from complaining about the people (so called) who are currently running this country into the ground. And below ground level.
You can spoil your ballot in protest and it gets counted as such. If enough people did so, it would resonate and maybe bring about structural political change. Not voting is not a solution.
I was framing this exact thought as I read yours. I have exercised the spoiled ballot option on occasion and more should as well so numbers would make the point.
Yup. I vote every election, but I feel very strongly about people's right to not vote. That said, I might still say, "if you don't vote, you have no right to complain," but I wouldn't expect you to stop complaining if you wanted to complain :-D
A fitting piece, as this past year might have been the first in which I really felt like performing an act of civil disobedience. I didn't of course, because it would have been a one-man show. But in the wake of the Chinese interference scandal - and resulting attempts at stonewalling and general accountability/transparency dodging by the federal government - I truly did wish that Canadians were more like the French. Raise the price of cheese three cents and their streets are ablaze.
Then came the growing realization that I, like most people I know, won't ever be able to own a house in Canada, barring a complete 180 in the country's trajectory. Meanwhile, unaffordability is rising across the board as per-capita GDP contracts. Combine these serious, life-impairing factors with a terminally aloof government that still thinks it can tax, ban, and hobby-horse its way to utopia, and you've got a recipe for discontent. Perhaps even strife.
Governments are usually informed of their unpopularity at the ballot box, but with the NDP ensuring a vastly unpopular government gets to handily avoid such unpleasantness, what's left? I think diminished futures and ruinous public policies are something worth getting upset about, and voices deserve to be heard. Alas, the passivity of Canadians and general fear of being called "bad" by someone who went to McGill means I'll probably just vent my frustrations here.
I agree that Canadians are angry and are taking it out on Trudeau, but I don't think that the convoy (widely unpopular) lit the fuse or that Trudeau has been energized to change.
I think people are outraged by the government's hypocrisy and ineptitude, both of which were on display during the convoy and have continued since. Trudeau casts all his "deliverology" failures on communications; opposition to his most disastrous policies as either unpatriotic (i.e. Bills 11 and 18) or bigoted (concerns about blockers and automatic affirmation for kids in Bill C-16); and his repeated ethical failings as "lessons for all of us."
Canadians on the good-faith right are angry at being demonized, and Canadians on the traditional left are angry at the government's support of illiberal "woke" ideology. After eight years, Canadians across the political spectrum are angry at having their country's history, values, and even its national existence trash-talked to service the narrative of the Enlightened One come to single-handedly rescue the citizens of Turtle Island from their racist/homophobic/sexist colonial hellhole.
I think that’s the root problem: Trudeau has been an incompetent PM. It’s been so long since we’ve had an incompetent PM stick around for more than a year that a lot of Canadians have a hard time recognizing how that’s causing our current problems. Until people have worked in an organization and personally observed the impact of leadership, it’s hard to understand how essentially the same organization can flip between competent and dysfunctional because of just a handful of people at the top.
Jason Kenney puts it into perspective and is well worth listening to, as is his interviewer Liberal David Herle. I got this podcast courtesy of a subscriber to The Line.
https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-herle-burly/id1280218816
You must be in a city. the Trucker's Convoy was supported by the vast overwhelming majority west of Toronto. You are right Trudeau did nothing. But Poilievre did. And it has lit the base up. People are people, citizens deserve to be met by their government and Pierre knows this. That's why he got the votes he did for leader and that's why people respond to him.
The rest is pretty much bang on.
Poilievre got the votes to be Leader because he cynically pandered to and signed up a fringe but excitable portion of the population (the hardcore anti-vaxxers), and impressed many fellow Conservatives in his caucus with his ability to whip up the mob. The Conservatives are doing well in the polls more so in spite of their Leader than because of him, notwithstanding his demonstrated communications skills.
I'm west of Toronto. It was not well received here.
That Trudeau refuses to take the walk in the snow and hang on until Oct. 2025 is the the bottom of his big barrel of misdeeds. The NDP is going to be the natural opposition by default if they would just pull the plug now so Canada can move forward. If they don’t pull the plug they are going to be in a natural opposition by coalition.
This comment better captures reality than the article itself.
Popular where? On the basis of what objective evidence?
Um, maybe the cheering crowds that lined bridges when they went by. Unless you live in Ottawa, you would have seen a lot of supporters of the convoy.
The convoy had large crowds show support for its national tour, yes. That does not at all show that the convoy ever had the sympathy of the majority of Canadians, or widespread sympathy beyond a narrow ideological or partisan spectrum. And likely a huge chunk of those who cheered had a simple sympathy for truckers, were clueless about the aims and qualities of the organizers (who were not themselves truckers), and would not have cheered them on had they known about the lawlessness and harassment that the convoy would bring to Ottawa.
Polls show that most Canadians supported a crackdown on the lawless occupation: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-emergencies-act-poll-favour/
So what about the situation now? What you state happened in Ottawa; the harassment and lawlessness is being played out in real time in Toronto right now. The pro-Palestinian protesters have set up camp with megaphones and honking (according to reports) in the middle of one of, if not the largest Jewish communities in Canada. How is that any different than what you say the citizens of Ottawa experienced. Where is the same level of response that the Conservative crowd got because in many cases the real licence on display is many time worse. And don’t try to say what happened last year was an attempt to overthrow the government because it was clearly not. The hypocrisy by the Federal government is why people are very angry.
The Trudeau government slumped in the polls months before the pro-Palestine protests. There's no correlation there.
However half-baked and certain to fail their plan was, the convoy organizers were signed onto a memorandum that committed them to pressuring the government to resign and for the Governor General to appoint themselves as the new government: https://archive.org/details/convoymou2022 Furthermore, the Convoy crowd had the explicit support of the Conservatives and the PPC, whereas the pro-Palestine protests are not attached to any political party.
😂😂😂😂😂
You’ll forgive me if I’m not about to forgive eight long years of public service growth, ethically challenged politicians and promise after promise of unfulfilled promises. That the Trudeau gang has only now woken to the anger with yet more promises to do better isn’t good enough!
If Liberal MPs had an ounce of concern for their constituents and not their pay cheques they would have rebelled following the Truckers Convoy debacle. That they haven’t is more than enough reason for throwing the bums out. Sometimes any change is better than no change at all.
It’s a systemic problem that Rhamin hinted at. There is too much power concentration in the PMO and not enough countermanding power in the Senate. Both need reform. We aren’t going to get that reform any time soon so it is imperative that every citizen pay attention and use their vote wisely. There’s always another Trudeau waiting in the wings.
Wise use has been made both easier and harder by the shift of journalism over to the internet. Easier because you aren’t captive to just the big shots for your information and harder because you are overloaded with information and have to make your own decision after prioritizing it. Watching House and Senate Committee hearings on CPAC makes things very obvious if you know what to look for; but who has the time? Journalists. Our eyes and ears. Find the good ones that you can rely on and come to know their moral compass.
Tom, you write in part, "... journalists. Our eyes and ears. Find the good ones that you can rely on ..."
You are OBVIOUSLY describing the editors of The Line, are you not?
Yes I am Ken. The editors are on the good and moral list. Jen and Matt are excellent pros who are plugged into the pro network and want to compile and share those thoughts to save busy readers’ time. They also want readers with time to contribute by carrying a share of the load. That means read as widely as you have time for.
I think Canadians have been sufficiently prosperous to be able to afford the cost of their political pretensions for a long time. I’ve seen a lot of people continue to spend more than they need to (or should) on luxury goods until they really feel the crunch. Suddenly they realize maybe that new car doesn’t need to be an Audi, or even new at all. Heck, a Toyota is cheaper *and* more reliable! Still, might’ve been better to have made that choice before their credit was maxed out.
Canadians are in this position with respect to a lot of public policies. A desire to look like leaders on mitigating climate change has led to decades of overly ambitious promises that have harmed economic output and productivity. A desire to look empathetic and generous to the downtrodden has led to an explosion of drug-related disorder in Canadian communities. A self-image as enlightened people who are beyond military conflict has led to a neglected security capacity as revisionist authoritarian powers threaten the rules-based international order essential for Canadian prosperity. There’s still a lot of comfortable people, though, and they’re concentrated in vote-rich urban areas where luxury posturing is still within their means.
Your 2nd paragraph is bang on. Canadians have this mythical view of themselves to the point that they will sell the farm to perpetuate that myth.
Canadians believe a lot of the BS that the progressive mainstream in the country has fed them. People even insist Canada has the "best health care in the world." In 2024, lol.
This is an excellent opinion piece. Thanks for sharing it.
I am particularly impressed with the observations regarding the impact of the (So Called) Freedom Convoy on the public consciousness.
The Freedom Convoy finally exposed the out of sight out of mind hypocrisy of Canadian elites. The upper middle class and upper classes that incudes those who have high paying government jobs and no fear of layoffs. People who can barely tolerate the working class that was expected to show up at work throughout the pandemic, keep the commerce flowing and food and groceries delivered to the doorstep of those working from home. The media are complicit in this situation too. Can anyone remember any other huge media story that was headlined with a “So Called” caveat?
The chattering and governing classes have failed to make any effort to understand why the Convoy developed, or figure out who was donating millions of dollars to finance the venture. (Spare me the rebuttals about dark money from the US and elsewhere. The lion’s share was ponied up by people who identified with the aims of the group as they headed toward Ottawa.)
Life has its ironies. The most significant rebellion against the curtailment of civil liberties during the pandemic was not instigated by civil rights groups, activists or legal societies. The pushback came from the forgotten class who realized that they were being used as pawns in a political game and decided to do something about it. We might agree that it was amateurish and lacked focus and organization, but the (So Called) Freedom Convoy harnessed a lot of discontent with a very unpopular political class. The official response from Ottawa via the Emergency Act shows the indifference is palpable, and no lessons are being learned.
Is it any wonder that Canadians are fed up and angry?
What's the objective evidence that many Canadians who were not already leaning Conservative/PPC were persuaded to anti-Liberal sentiments because of the lawless occupiers?
"Freedom" to create a zone of lawlessness and economic damage at the expense of the national capital.
Speaking as someone who is a trucker, a former journalist, an Ottawa resident, AND double vaccinated, the convoy was an interesting thing to behold. I did not attend, as I preferred to make an income crossing the border daily to keep economies running. However, I did attend that first day, purely out of boredom and curiosity. I left annoyed, as every obsessive fringe weirdo showed up at the party (huge surprise), and it was cold as hell to boot. And the honking? I'd have bashed those horns with a bat if I lived nearby.
Then a strange thing happened. While the fringe weirdos continued to annoy me and distract from what should have been real discourse re: Trudeau's unscientific vaccine mandate, the actions of the government, the media (which billed this event as a barbarian invasion before the first truck even arrived), and the local populace nudged me closer to a sympathetic position. Conversations with mild-mannered, undemonstrative people - drivers, mechanics, everyday Joes who don't work in university political science departments - revealed to me a desire to be heard that had gone unrealized for years. This was important to them. Even to those who didn't have any income in the game.
Then came the unsettling suspicion, based on hyperbolic rhetoric that was not in short supply, that the upper middle-class denizens of Ottawa, "In this house we believe..." sign freshly pounded into the lawn, would have clapped and cheered if the Armed Forces had opened fire with automatic weapons on the unarmed protesters.
That rift is still alive and well. I can't speak to the exact number of people who supported the convoy or hated the mandates, but it's not insignificant, and the group's members aren't all cartoonish caricatures out of a Liberal MP's fevered imagination.
"would have clapped and cheered if the Armed Forces had opened fire with automatic weapons on the unarmed protesters."
Now that's incendiary and divisive rhetoric. Please name a single specific person who would plausibly match that description.
As I said, it was a suspicion - a feeling. Perhaps the same kind of feeling that caused residents to make their own inflammatory and divisive comments based on assumptions. The convoy protesters were barely viewed as human by many residents, who ascribed all sorts of ill intent to them. It felt positively Victorian in a way. But I'm not in the mood to play tennis with reply guys. Have a good night.
Come on. If your suspicion is worth publicizing in a forum like this, it should have at least some basis in verifiable facts - rather than supported by nebulous finger-pointing and generalization similar to that which you claim to condemn.
Sir, I fully agree: sometimes one had better get angry. The (lack of) adequate performance on ever so many files handled by the federal government is astounding. What is more astounding is that the current government thinks it can recover it's standing with the public.
You will note that I specified the federal government; I deliberately omitted the provincial governments and municipal governments simply because we all have different governments provincially and municipally so I will only deal with the one - you should pardon the expression - unifying government, the federal government. And that unifying experience for most Canadians is the incredibly underwhelming nature of the stupidity and inefficiency of our federal government. You know, the guys who cannot figure out how to issue passports, who cannot figure out that other countries have set up police stations in Canada, who cannot manage the economy; those guys.
So, yup, anger is not simply a good idea it is pretty much necessary.
All fine, right up until "the murder of George Floyd". He WAS NOT murdered and the cop doing time after that circus on a railroad - and being stabbed (by an FBI informant) - should be released. Immediately. As soon as the coronoer's final report was done and approved. If you can't get a basic FACT right how do we take the rest? Dubiously comes to mind.
The main reason we still have Trudeau is because two dishwater CPC leaders could not even quote their own policy on abortion clearly and firmly. Harper did and Poilievre has done the same and the polls are showing it. In a system that is based on vote distribution more than vote count, this will ensure a Conservative's demise or success.
As far as getting Canadians mad... be careful what you wish for. There is a reason we drove further on D-Day than any other nation, that our PPCLI wear a Congressional Unit Decoration, and where did we become a Nation? Vimy Ridge. Canadians today are not that different once you get off the campuses, off the internet, and out of the downtowns. You are right about one thing, we don't get mad like the American's do, we will ignore a dumb government for a long time. Until we don't. And as Dan Bongino has observed, that time is coming in the US and it's coming here as well.
My own view is that Americans get enthusiastic about politics because they can and do make a difference. A main reason is the US primary system where anyone can run for candidacy and win as opposed to the Canadian need for a prime minister's or party leader's signature to run for election - (especially with the attraction of a nice juicy Federal pension if you make 6 years sitting time) makes for a lot of admiration of a naked king and abject toadyism. Also witness Doug Ford's direct nomination of a whole bunch of candidates in the last Ontario election as another election.
It also doesn’t hurt on the US side to have the whole House of Representatives and one third of the Senate up for election every two years. And the primary -election cycles apply at all levels. State, County, Municipal, etc.
Not sure if getting angry is the only solution although it does help. A recent AARP story on even intelligent elderly people getting conned made the point that criminal fraudsters always bring emotion into play, since logic goes out the window when emotion takes over.
It's all urgency for show, but perhaps that's a start. Pierre still on course to clean Liberal clocks and that isn't going away soon.
We have a prime minister who's background is as a junior-high teacher and a leader of the opposition who has never had a real job and makes up his own data as he talks. Neither of these individuals demonstrates any real leadership skill or tallent to me. We no longer attract Paul Martins, Michael Wilsons, Brian Mulroneys or even Jean Cretiens. Our inability to attract and choose competent leadership makes me very angry 😠.
Yes, I am aware of that. It might be Athens? I believe a slate of candidates were picked and then among themselves they chose who would be the mayor, and head up all the departments or ministries. I would not be adverse to this system in Canada. Can it be corrupted? I'm sure. Worse than where we are at? Not so sure
If we got back to voting for the best person to be the MP for our riding with no party affiliation it might work in part, but a country still needs to select a leader who can lay out a vision for the country. Not sure that should be left to the MPs.
I like this idea!
Thank you for this op-ed. WRT to the current Prime Minister’s prospects this year, I’m not entirely convinced that “Mr B Minus” will manage to follow through with his renewed passion for getting things done (and righting past failures—think foreign and defence policy)
NS, I agree with your characterization of "the guy" [I find that I cannot even type his name without spitting, a very unsanitary response to a very unsanitary public official - note that I did not describe him as a public servant!]. I further agree with your characterization of his policies.
However, however.... The Liberals are (obviously) foolish but they are not fools. They have long mastered "vote efficiency" and his with non-thinking Liberal supporters and with the support of Jag and of the Blocheads, I fear that his possibilities are still quite real. To carry that thought further, if he were to somehow get in again I predict a) he would use that as his "validation" to push his current policies to outrageous extremes; and b) he might well see a real separation issue as a result.
I have been thinking along the same lines. If he were to get in again I would like to leave, but I am too old to actually carry that thought to a conclusion.
Love your on-point commentary, Ken, it makes me lazy because you (and the fellows commenting below) say exactly what I think. ❤️
Thanks Rahim, this effectively crystalizes some of the differences I observe between the two countries. Americans are just "more" on pretty much everything compared to Canadians: country, politics, race, entrepreneurship, sport, you name it. We excel at decorum and queuing, well I guess hockey too. Don't get me wrong, I think Canada is a great place to live but geez we're a bland bunch.
The US is catching up on us in hockey, too! Our goaltending situation is... less than ideal
When talking about matters less than ideal in our country the talk quickly turns to hockey :-).
Bruce, don't forget that we have been lectured that we excel at convening.
In 1984, Kim Campbell was a Vancouver School Board Trustee. If you wore a "Mulroney-Campbell '84" T-shirt, any weird looks would be deserved.
Mulroney-Crosbie ‘84, then? lol
I attended a Harper campaign rally in 2011 - I’d never been to a political rally, and thought it might be an interesting experience. They were handing out t-shirts for everybody to wear, and I thought that was kind of neat. When I got home, I realized “where the heck am I EVER going to be able to wear this while living in Vancouver?” I’m sure Democrats would feel the same way wearing a Biden-Harris t-shirt in ruby-red MAGA Tennessee.
In my experience Democrats or Republicans generally have no issue with T shirts or hats of other parties. It’s seen as free expression under the First Amendment to the US Constitution which everyone loves, and is bred in the bone along with love of country. I once wore an NRA hat to a coffee shop in avlocal small town near Ottawa and was almost refused service, and wearing anything with a Stars and Stripes element gets me “Trump” comments from total strangers. And of course exercising “free” speech in Ottawa in the winter can gets you a shove from a riot horse controlled by a jackbooted storm trooper
It is a pretty American thing to wear the flag of your country as a pair of pants. Very few other countries do that outside of sporting events.
Well it doesn’t happen often. Usually on the 4th of July. Canadians do wear the Canada Flag in unconventional places too. Live of country - it’s all good👏👏
Canadians, like the good peasants that we are, abhor confrontation. We are "good" Canadians and that means we suck it up. Great attitude to have during harvest or on the frontier, but in the modern world it gets Canadians into heaps of trouble. Trouble that could have been avoided if only we would confront issues like housing, health care, etc. head on.
We can chose to be on one side or the other without considering there maybe a middle or good points on either side. Actually I’m glad we aren’t as prone to being as polarized as voters in the U.S. I’m for the thoughtful approach not the emotional one when it comes to politics.
Maybe voting should be mandatory, like Australia and Belgium. Don’t vote? Don’t complain.
Ruth, I am one of those who did not vote in the last federal election. That was a specific choice and it was the first election of any kind in my 70 odd years where I did not vote.
I chose to not vote simply because I perceived that all the major parties (I certainly did not and do not consider the People's Party to be major] were in various ways campaigning against my province of Alberta. I was not about to participate in an election where any "winner" would state, "The people have spoken."
My point is that my non-vote was a vote - against all the parties.
And, by the way, my not voting did not and does not preclude me from complaining about the people (so called) who are currently running this country into the ground. And below ground level.
You can spoil your ballot in protest and it gets counted as such. If enough people did so, it would resonate and maybe bring about structural political change. Not voting is not a solution.
I was framing this exact thought as I read yours. I have exercised the spoiled ballot option on occasion and more should as well so numbers would make the point.
I’m Alberta also, and feel the same way.
Yup. I vote every election, but I feel very strongly about people's right to not vote. That said, I might still say, "if you don't vote, you have no right to complain," but I wouldn't expect you to stop complaining if you wanted to complain :-D
😁
Yup. I do not want apathetic people to be forced to show up at the polls.
A fitting piece, as this past year might have been the first in which I really felt like performing an act of civil disobedience. I didn't of course, because it would have been a one-man show. But in the wake of the Chinese interference scandal - and resulting attempts at stonewalling and general accountability/transparency dodging by the federal government - I truly did wish that Canadians were more like the French. Raise the price of cheese three cents and their streets are ablaze.
Then came the growing realization that I, like most people I know, won't ever be able to own a house in Canada, barring a complete 180 in the country's trajectory. Meanwhile, unaffordability is rising across the board as per-capita GDP contracts. Combine these serious, life-impairing factors with a terminally aloof government that still thinks it can tax, ban, and hobby-horse its way to utopia, and you've got a recipe for discontent. Perhaps even strife.
Governments are usually informed of their unpopularity at the ballot box, but with the NDP ensuring a vastly unpopular government gets to handily avoid such unpleasantness, what's left? I think diminished futures and ruinous public policies are something worth getting upset about, and voices deserve to be heard. Alas, the passivity of Canadians and general fear of being called "bad" by someone who went to McGill means I'll probably just vent my frustrations here.