dbd33

What he says is simply not true. The US vaccine mandate preventing unvaccinated drivers from going there isn't something the Canadian Prime Minister invented. The PM alone is not responsible for the price of houses and, anyway, the conservatives are the party of high property values. I get that the new right has no interest in facts but it's lazy on his part, there must be some policy the government actually has against which he could argue.

Shard

Yes, I was bit shocked at that lazy political point scoring. Surely there's enough incompetence and error on which to roast Trudeau without making stuff up. And the female Conservatives MP the other day bringing up blackface was equally dubious.

Mordko

Pierre Poilievre is an excellent attack dog which is how he was used by Harper. He has no credibility beyond that and has been caught being economical with the truth almost as many times as Justin. His full throated support for the “freedom” protest was part of his campaign to unseat O’Toole and does not instil credibility.

dbd33

Was that the MAGAt hat woman? Bergen?

Shard

Yes. Seems to be her. Acting leader. She made the comment in the HOC.

BristolUK

Maybe the use of the act and the uncertainty it created among the protesters made a difference. Freezing of bank accounts for example could weaken resolve.
Perhaps but having gone that far ending it would be more difficult.
From the guardian report
No idea how many drivers and or vehicles that involved, but could it not be argued that the emergency powers made people leave of their own accord and thus made the whole operation thereafter much easier to manage?

dbd33

I think we're saying the same thing. Once the police abdicated their responsibility to police, the temporary use of drastic measure was justified.

dbd33

So, where do we think these two will be on the Ukraine; pro-Putin like the Republicans, gently supportive of Putin, like Johnson, or something else entirely?

abner

Actually, it's bizarre that there's been so little comment to the effect that Justin "is just following in his father's footsteps", in invoking the (nicer, kinder) version of the War Measures Act of 50 years ago. There's been some, but surprisingly most of what I've seen on that theme is from foreign-press sources.

Invocation of the War Measures Act (or more particularly, how it was implemented) was 'the' major permanent stain on Pierre Trudeau's political legacy within Quebec, and justifiably so. The resulting RCMP overreach in terms of mass arrests of pro-independance Quebecois' intellectuals was a massive over-reaction to a small and containable terrorist cell, and it set up the ascendancy of the mainstream Quebec separatist movement for years to come.

Which was a tragic miscalculation, by an otherwise transformative Prime Minister. Pierre Trudeau was the PM who "repatriated" the Canadian Constitution, finally separating the wellspring of Canadian legal authority from its former formal home in the UK, and establishing a Canadian Bill of Rights in the process.

I have no doubt that Justin Trudeau felt constrained by the legacy of his old man, when he hesitated to shut down the recent protests in Ottawa--too gentle by half, until very recently.

So he hasn't failed in the sense that Pierre did (i.e.authorising too heavy a crackdown on the wrong people), but he hasn't demonstrated any of the profound nation-building instincts either.

CanadaJimmy

The Canadian press is in such a sorry state that isn't really surprising. Canadian media rarely actually does any analysis of an issue or situation, usually just quotes and paraphrases experts (who will often have a political agenda). I've heard this has been attributed to Canada's libel laws and some legal precedents that usually side against journalists.

Shard

No idea, but better avoid my Ukraine thread as you'll be surprised who else is pro-Putin

Mordko

The only people actually supportive of Putin are crazies like Trump and Corbyn. Johnson clearly isn’t and nor are most Republicans.

dbd33

Trump, yes. The Republicans still crave his endorsement so they'll go along with it. they would not seem to be constrained by any sort of belief or self-respect.

Johnson, who has a long history of engagement with Putin and acolytes has offered some very weak sanctions. Truss, asked point blank if the Tory party would return recent donations from that source said no. Of course, having Johnson on one's side would be a very mixed blessing but he's dithering on this.

I don't know how one would find out what Piers Corbyn thinks on the matter, he's hardly a public figure these days.

Mordko

The crazier of the two Corbyn brothers, the sitting MP has been rather vocal condemning Johnson’s belligerency against Russia. I am certain the “best PM we never had” has earned himself a few more rubles and a stint on RT.

In Canada most agent of influence style comments have come from the NDP camp.

Donations shouldn’t be screened by ethnicity of the giver. That would be a little racist. Which figures. Links to Putin’s regime would be more meaningful as many a Russian want nothing to do with it.

As far as I can tell, British sanctions have been the strongest and Johnson’s intent to supply weapons goes further than the EU or Biden have dared.

Almost Canadian

I accept that the US's position on vaccines at the border created a problem but that was just as stupid as Canada's position. If truckers were so dangerous to either jurisdiction, why was such action not taken previously?

Government policy is directly responsible for high property values, as can be seen wherever money was given to people that previously didn't have access to it