Susan Delacourt writes that the truckers came gunning for Justin Trudeau and took out Erin O'Toole instead:
They rolled into Ottawa looking to get rid of Justin Trudeau, but they got the Conservative leader instead.
In so doing, the so-called “Freedom Convoy” currently occupying Ottawa has actually handed Trudeau a gift, at least in the short term.
Yet bizarrely, it didn’t take long for truck horns to start blaring in celebration on Wednesday when Conservative MPs unceremoniously dumped leader Erin O’Toole. Had it not been for the fact that the trucks were still stubbornly parked in place in front of Parliament Hill, they might have done a victory lap.
“Freedom Convoy Success,” declared Keean Bexte, a self-proclaimed Alberta nationalist who writes for an outlet called The Counter Signal.
Success? They have replaced O'Toole with a woman who wears a MAGA and declares that she supports the truckers. Marieke Walsh reports that:
The Conservative Party’s newly elected interim leader, Candice Bergen, advocated in internal discussions against asking the protesters occupying Ottawa to go home, according to an e-mail obtained by The Globe and Mail.
“I don’t think we should be asking them to go home,” reads an e-mail from Ms. Bergen to then-leader Erin O’Toole’s senior caucus team on Monday.
While the Conservatives debated the contents of a possible statement on Monday, protesters were outside Parliament Hill for a fourth day, blockading streets and ignoring traffic laws. On Thursday, many businesses remained closed over safety concerns, and residents of the core were on day seven of horns and fireworks disrupting their lives.
A Conservative Party spokesperson did not provide a response on Thursday to a request for comment on Ms. Bergen’s stand and whether it has changed.
The Conservative Party has become a clear and present danger to the public and civic health of Canada.
Image: ipolitics.ca
8 comments:
Luckily, Murphy Brown can bloviate all she wants, it won't ultimately be her decision what happens to this slow moving attempt to imitate the US QAnon cult. This occupation needs to end today. BC Waterboy
Walsh has selected a quote from Bergen's email to O'Toole that minimizes the nasty politics that Bergen is up to. "I don't think we should be asking them to go home" was followed by, "I understand the mood may shift soon. So we need to turn this into the (prime minister's) problem. What will he take (as) the first step to working towards ending this?" Her intent here to legitimize the protesters and to undermine the elected government.
The Republicans, and their northern Con subsidiary, have long sought to create a failed state. They undermine good governance at every opportunity, crippling it wholesale when in power and throwing sand in the gears when in opposition. They know the perception of failed government is a precondition for ushering in the authoritarian strongman regime they want.
The trucker protests in Ottawa and Coutts AB have shown Canadians that the police will not stand against right-wing mobs. The truckers and their yellow-vest cousins are contemporary black shirts and brown shirts. The pretext may be vaccine mandates, but make no mistake, the groundwork for fascism is being created.
Cap
It needs to end today, waterboy. But there's another one coming tomorrow in Toronto.
That is precisely what is going on, Cap.
Now, more than ever, Canada needs a restoration of progressive democracy. There's a loose recipe for the discontent spreading into extremism and a major ingredient is the refusal to implement electoral reform. FPTP works for two entities, the parties that have formed every government since Confederation. It no longer works for the public in this multi-party reality.
We need the Liberals to stand up for democracy in our country. We need to stop pretending that they're obstructing democracy, pitting their electoral advantage in conflict with the interests of the public. We need electoral reform and we need it now.
We have seen in the United States how quickly (and often quietly) democracy can be subverted.
I agree, Mound. The minority parliaments we now have are a clear indication that proportional representation is the way out of this mess.
We in Toronto intend to give these creeps a run for their money.
Dr Philip Berger, a very distinguished doctor who is in the Medical Hall of Fame, has organized a counter protest on behalf of medical workers which I will be attending as a patient.
Dr Berger says:
JOIN HEALTH CARE WORKERS IN PROTECTING
ACCESS TO CARE FOR TORONTONIANS
MEET IN KING’S COLLEGE CIRCLE AT
THE MEDICAL SCIENCES BUILDING AT 12 NOON
We are concerned doctors, nurses and other health care workers who have watched
with shock the gridlock in Ottawa in recent days. A similar protest against government
policy is being brought to the streets of Toronto this Saturday, February 5. We want to
ensure that health care services remain available to anyone who needs them and to
defend the right of health care workers to show up for work in their hospitals and clinics
free of harassment. We want to keep our streets open so that sick people can safely get
the help they want and to reassure them that health care workers stand with them.
A group of health care providers has organized to establish a street presence during the
convoy protest in Toronto. Our singular message is that access to health care should
never be compromised.
So if any of you are in Toronto or know someone in Toronto, pass on the news. We don't intend to suffer in silence in Toronto.
It's time for pushback, ffd. The vast majority of Canadians are on the other side of this issue.
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