convoy

Wednesday August 9, 2023

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday August 9, 2023

Trudeau’s Woes and Poilievre’s Predicament

July 26, 2023

As the Canadian political landscape shifts, the contrasting misfortunes of Justin Trudeau and Pierre Poilievre paint a vivid picture of leadership challenges that span both sides of the spectrum. Trudeau, once hailed as a charismatic leader with a golden touch, now finds himself grappling with a litany of crises, while Poilievre, seeking a makeover, struggles to define his party’s identity without veering into right-wing extremism.

Trudeau’s woes are as glaring as they are diverse. From sagging poll numbers to economic mismanagement, the prime minister’s once-unshakable approval ratings have plummeted to historic lows. His handling of the homelessness crisis and perceived ethical lapses have left many Canadians disillusioned. As he passes the buck to other layers of government, Trudeau’s inability to address issues like rising inflation and exorbitant housing prices has fueled the desire for a fresh government, with only a paltry 19% favoring him in a recent poll.

The Beaverton: Canadians react to Pierre Poilievre’s “sexy” makeover  

July 28, 2023

Trudeau’s attempt to reinvigorate his image through a cabinet shuffle seems to have fallen flat, failing to provide the much-needed positive narrative that could rekindle support. The prospect of an inquiry into alleged Chinese government interference in the last election looms ominously, adding to the list of his troubles. The prime minister’s recent personal turmoil, as he announced his separation from his wife of 18 years, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, adds yet another layer of complexity to his already embattled leadership.

On the other side of the aisle, Pierre Poilievre faces an equally uphill battle. Attempting a pivot from his long-held reputation as a sharp-elbowed partisan, Poilievre’s makeover involves donning a new look, complete with a wardrobe change and the conspicuous absence of his trademark glasses. However, his attempts to widen his appeal are hindered by his party’s historical ties to right-wing extremism and social conservatism, which risk alienating a broader swath of the Canadian electorate.

July 22, 2023

Poilievre’s attempts to resonate with voters have led him to navigate treacherous waters. Cozying up to the far-right and flirting with controversial figures like Jordan Peterson and European right-wing politicians sends mixed signals about the Conservative Party’s true direction. While rallying the base with catchy slogans, he’s challenged to strike a balance between appeasing his core supporters and presenting a more moderate and electable platform.

The challenge for both leaders is clear: appealing to a diverse electorate while grappling with their own vulnerabilities. Trudeau’s pursuit of a fourth consecutive term faces mounting resistance, as he struggles to reconcile past accomplishments with current crises. Poilievre, meanwhile, aims to rebrand himself and his party, but the fine line between change and extremism threatens to undermine his efforts.

News: Over half of Canadians want Trudeau, Poilievre replaced as party leaders before next election, poll suggests  

June 10, 2023

As Trudeau’s golden touch fades and Poilievre grapples with his party’s identity crisis, Canadians are left with a political landscape where neither leader is without fault. The electorate watches closely as these two titans navigate their respective challenges, revealing that leadership in a deeply divided nation requires more than mere promises or wardrobe adjustments. It necessitates a clear, balanced vision that addresses the concerns of all Canadians and reflects the realities of a changing world. (AI)

 

Saturday February 18, 2023

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday February 18, 2023

Emergencies Act report finds Trudeau met threshold to shut down convoy protest

February 10, 2022

Police dysfunction, stubborn politics and a failure of federalism turned last winter’s “Freedom Convoy” protests into a national crisis that warranted the first-ever use of the Emergencies Act, Ontario Justice Paul Rouleau concluded in a much-anticipated report.

Rouleau determined — “with reluctance” — that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government met the “very high threshold” to trigger the act and create a host of extraordinary police powers to quash the protests. But Rouleau also called the protests “legitimate,” and blamed government leaders and police for failing to “properly manage” the demonstrations against COVID-19 health measures, which he described as a predictable response to a disruptive pandemic.

“Had various police forces and levels of government prepared for and anticipated events of this type and acted differently in response to the situation, the emergency that Canada ultimately faced could likely have been avoided,” Rouleau wrote in the report, which was released Friday. “Unfortunately, it was not.”

October 27, 2022

Rouleau blamed the police for a “series of failures” that “contributed to a situation that spun out of control.” He called the crisis a “failure of federalism,” concluding that — at least sometimes — political leaders from different levels of government did not “rise above politics and collaborate for the common good.”

Rouleau also singled out Trudeau for using inflammatory language when he said during the crisis that protesters were part of a “fringe minority” with “unacceptable views.” This made the situation worse by “further embittering” protesters towards government authorities, Rouleau wrote. Even though Trudeau may have been referring to racist and extremist messages — Nazi and Confederate flags were spotted at the Ottawa protest — Rouleau wrote the prime minister should have acknowledged “the majority of protesters were exercising their fundamental democratic rights” to denounce what they saw as government overreach.

February 15, 2022

Speaking later on Parliament Hill, Trudeau expressed regret about his words about convoy protesters for the first time.

“I wished I’d have said that differently,” he told reporters.

He added that there is still a “very small number of people in this country who deliberately spread misinformation that led to Canadians’ deaths” during the pandemic.

Trudeau also recognized that governments, including his own, could have worked better together during the crisis. He pledged to carefully study and respond to Rouleau’s 56 recommendations — which call for better intelligence-sharing between police agencies, changes to the Emergencies Act and improved government transparency, among other things — within six months.

February 19, 2022

“We didn’t want to have to invoke the Emergencies Act. It’s a measure of last resort. But the risks to personal safety, the risk to livelihoods and, equally, the risk of people losing faith in the rule of law that upholds our society and our freedoms — those risks were real, and responsible leadership required us to restore peace and order,” Trudeau said.

In Calgary, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre — who expressed support for convoy protesters during the crisis — accused Trudeau of fomenting the crisis by making COVID-19 vaccines a political issue in the 2021 federal election.

“He thinks that if you’re afraid of your neighbour, you’ll forget that you can’t pay your rent. If you’re afraid of a trucker, you might forget that you’re hungry and take your eyes off of the guy who caused the problem in the first place,” Poilievre said, blaming the prime minister for inflation and a host of other problems. (The Peterborough Examiner) 

 

Wednesday January 4, 2023

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday January 4, 2023

Convoy organizer says plans to stage a 2023 protest in Winnipeg are off

Freedom Convoy 2.0 appears to be a bust.

February 10, 2022

Canada Unity, one of the anti-government protest groups behind the protests that headlined much of last year, has called off its plans to restage the event in Winnipeg in February.

“The Canada Unity Official Freedom Convoy 2.0 Reunion that was scheduled for Feb. 17 to 20th, 2023, is hereby officially being issued a 10-7 ‘out of service,” James Bauder wrote in a news release posted to the group’s Facebook page.

Bauder, who founded Canada Unity, said in December he would bring a four-day event back to Ottawa, staging it at an undisclosed spot outside the city and making daily trips to Parliament Hill. After police in Ottawa indicated they would have zero tolerance for such an event, Bauder said he would move it to Winnipeg instead.

He has now called that off, too.

In his Facebook post, he blamed non-specific security breaches and personal attacks.

Despite the fact the event was set to unfold in Manitoba, he said he is worried he or others could be charged under Ontario’s new Bill 100, which was passed last year after the first convoy protests. The law, dubbed the “keeping Ontario open for business act,” prohibits protests at protected transportation infrastructure, including airports and border crossings. It also allows for police to seize drivers’ licences and licence plates used in illegal blockades.

February 8, 2022

Bauder was among dozens of people arrested in February 2022 during the first convoy. He faces charges including mischief, and disobeying court orders and the police. One of his bail conditions bars him from travelling to downtown Ottawa.

The original convoy blocked several areas around Parliament Hill for three weeks. Demonstrations also shut down at least four border crossings elsewhere in the country.

The blockades resulting in the federal government’s decision to invoke the Emergencies Act for the first time.

In the weeks leading up to the first protest in Ottawa, Bauder penned a “memorandum of understanding” and tried to deliver it to Gov. Gen. Mary Simon. It asked her and all sitting senators to sign an agreement that would overthrow the government and make Simon, the senators, Bauder, his wife Sandra and one other man the formal Canadian government.

They would then order all other levels of government to end every COVID-19-related restriction and reinstate workers who were suspended or fired for not being vaccinated.

Bauder’s group later joined with others to create the convoy blockade that also affected several other parts of downtown Ottawa and some provincial legislatures.

As the events unfolded in Ottawa, Bauder did not appear to be among the main organizers or leaders.

November 5, 2022

A public inquiry that investigated the government’s decision to invoke the Emergencies Act held six weeks of public hearings in the fall, which laid bare the details of chaos and dysfunction both within the various groups organizing the protests and the police forces and governments trying to end them.

A final report from that inquiry is expected next month. (The Toronto Star) 

 

Tuesday December 6, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday December 6, 2022

Pierre Poilievre’s self-imposed media vacuum is about to face its first test

October 20, 2022

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre believes the voters whose support he needs to lead his party to government in the next federal election will not be reached via the mainstream media.

His strategy is about to be tested.

On Dec. 12, the voters of the GTA riding of Mississauga-Lakeshore will be going to the polls to fill the vacancy left by the resignation of Liberal MP Sven Spengemann last spring.

Thursday October 20, 2022

October 20, 2022Hamilton Spectator – Thursday October 20, 2022

Emergencies Act inquiry spells trouble for Trudeau, Poilievre

To say this will be a political and media circus is an understatement. The list of potential witnesses includes key members of cabinet, such as Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino and, most notably, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Convoy organizers including Tamara Lich, Pat King and Chris Barber are also expected to be called.

May 13, 2022

The most important part of this hearing may not be the testimony of politicians or convoy supporters, however, but that of the RCMP and intelligence services. How did they assess the threat to public safety? What advice did they give the government, or not? How was that advice treated once received? Was it exaggerated or misinterpreted in any way?

Canadians need clarity on the real state of the threat. If the government overreached for political purposes, then the Liberals will pay the price. Expect the Conservatives to try to find every opportunity to bring the government down before its self-imposed deadline of 2025. The Commission’s report is due by next February — in time for a spring budget and a confidence vote in the House that could plunge Canada into an election.

If the Commission finds that the government was justified in invoking the act, however, the shoe is on the other foot. Expect Liberals to start running attack ads featuring a smiling Poilievre and fellow Conservatives ferrying coffee to protesters. Trudeau could then either engineer his defeat over the budget, or simply dissolve Parliament and go to the polls. And if he doesn’t pull the plug in the spring, there’s always next September, when convoy leaders go to court on a number of criminal charges, and the whole circus starts again.

August 26, 2022

At a time when inflation is rampant, interest rates are rising, and the Liberal government looks increasingly past its best before date, Trudeau doesn’t have many cards to play. The one card he has is that the Conservatives failed to stand for law and order — one of the pillars of their party, no less — at a time of national crisis. And he knows that the convoy does not sit well with “the public” its proponents claimed to represent.

Polling done at the time of the protests found that a majority did not support the convoy protests, including in Alberta where 61 per cent disagreed with the goals of the protest and 67 per cent disagreed with the means. And a Nanos poll taken six months later found that 70 per cent of Canadians still take a negative or somewhat negative view of politicians who openly supported the protests. Another recent Nanos poll found that support for the convoy was one of the “negative” attributes voters held about Poilievre, together with being “too right wing,” divisive, and “similar to Donald Trump.”

Will “Memories of the Freedom Convoy” be the secret sauce that Trudeau uses to win a fourth term in office? Will the Tories founder over ill-advised Tim Hortons runs? Time — and testimony — will tell. (The National Post)