No Longer The Peacable Kingdom

The events of the last three weeks have exposed the failure of multiple governments across Canada. At the root of it all, Susan Riley writes, is a failure of leadership:

We desperately need a confident leader, not just to stare down the incoherent bullies that have been tormenting the citizens of downtown Ottawa and wreaking economic havoc at our borders, but someone who could lead, or even inspire, a massive groundswell of hope and unity after the insurrection and the pandemic are over. Someone with a sharp mind, a kind heart and the courage to speak for the majority of reasonable, law-abiding Canadians whose voices have been drowned out lately by extremists and their enablers.

At the moment there appears to be no such person in sight:

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh arose from his torpor last week to insist the prime minister “show leadership,” and “use the resources at his disposal” to end this thing immediately. He didn’t suggest what resources, but if the PM summoned the army to help move trucks (the only practical option, say some), Singh would be likely the first to denounce the intrusion on human rights.

Meanwhile, amid lame scoldings from Trudeau, the very late arrival Ontario Premier Doug Ford, the useless hand-wringing of mayors and police chiefs, the braying contempt of Conservative MPs concerned only for their own electorate prospects, an astonishing web of lies has risen almost unchallenged—from the basic to the truly bizarre.

Then there is Justin. He's been long on meetings and short on actions:

There is an air of privilege surrounding Trudeau, given his pedigree and his personal wealth (although he is probably no richer than that champion of the little guy, career politician Poilievre) and a lot of his critics hate him for it. And hate isn’t too strong a term.

The protesters have taken their inspiration from the American Alt Right:

The protest is no longer about truckers, or mandates, or even Bitcoin—a tangent that emerged last week. But it is definitely about harassing, intimidating, and trying to silence reporters covering the event. The convoy’s clamour for “freedom” apparently does not include freedom of the press, a requirement of every robust democracy. Is the bullying of individual reporters not deserving of outrage from some politician? Anyone? Not the careful “tut-tuts,” or scripted rebukes we have heard so far, but real conviction, real fire?

And who is speaking for Canadians who have played by the rules -- those who do not bathe in hot tubs in the streets?

And who, in all this, is passionately defending the majority of Canadians who are fully-vaccinated? Who speaks for those who lost parents, spouses, loved ones to this virus—or for the exhausted health-care workers so frequently lauded, so inadequately resourced, the teachers and parents and everyone else, just as fed up with life under COVID as the petulant, self-interested supporters of the protest? (And, as an aside, how many protesters benefited from CERB, or the other federal supports that helped mitigate the pain?)

Historians used to call Canada The Peaceable Kingdom. We are no longer that place. This is not a protest. This is sedition. Who will save our democracy?

Image: Sky News