The protest movement against health restrictions that snowballed across the country this week thrust Canada into the international media spotlight as rarely in its history. A country renowned for its political blandness has suddenly become an inspiration to right-wing populists across the West. “French covidosceptics are salivating over images of trucks from the Canadian “Freedom Convoy”,” wrote this week in Release. The American television network Fox News devoted several hours of airtime to the “Freedom Convoy” as soon as the first truckers left British Columbia at the beginning of last week for Ottawa, where thousands of vociferous supporters are joined to them much to the chagrin of the residents of the capital, normally of complete tranquility in winter.
For Erin O’Toole, the arrival of this convoy in front of the Canadian parliament precipitated his fall as leader of the Conservative Party of Canada. While a few Conservative MPs joined the truckers’ cause, most had the good sense to sense the danger inherent in such a gesture, while the movement’s spokespersons, some of whom came from a fringe of extremists in right, demanded the overthrow of the government. They were horrified when Mr. O’Toole flip-flopped and pledged to meet with trucker representatives. Several centrist MPs who backed Mr. O’Toole in the 2020 Conservative leadership race decided on the spot that he had betrayed their trust for the last time. The moderates were not behind the letter tabled earlier this week calling for a caucus vote on Mr. O’Toole’s leadership. It is rather from the right wing of the party that this wave of protest emanated. But dozens of MPs eventually joined their cause to get rid of a leader who had clearly learned nothing from his defeat in last September’s election.
However, Mr. O’Toole’s departure leaves the Conservative Party in an even more fragile position. The risk of political formation breaking up is increasing day by day. Commentators in English Canada have come to the conclusion that the union of the Canadian right in 2003, when the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party merged, was a mistake. The next leadership race will determine if this marriage can, or should, be saved.
An obvious danger for Justin Trudeau
If Justin Trudeau can laugh in his beard in front of the rout of the conservatives, the movement of the truckers constitutes for him also an obvious danger. The Liberal Prime Minister showed a certain arrogance by calling the demonstrators “wearing tinfoil hats”. Asked in the House on Thursday about the government’s strategy to end the truckers’ siege, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland again condemned “clearly the desecration of the National War Memorial and the use of symbols of hatred” by some protesters. But the fact remains that the exasperation of Canadians at the occupation of downtown Ottawa by demonstrators will affect the popularity of the Trudeau government if the latter does not manage to resolve the impasse. According to a poll by the firm Abacus Data, a third of Canadians say they have a lot in common with the protesters, a rather surprising rate given the unflattering images of this movement sent back by the country’s mainstream media. Mr. Trudeau made an error in judgment by trying to put all the protesters in the same basket of conspirators.
On Thursday, Mr. Trudeau ruled out sending the Armed Forces to help the Ottawa police and the RCMP, who are trying to chase truckers from the vicinity of parliament. The standoff is reminiscent of one that occurred in early 2020, when Indigenous protesters opposed to the construction of the Coastal Gas Link pipeline in British Columbia blocked rail lines in multiple locations for several weeks. Mr. Trudeau favored a negotiated resolution to convince protesters to lift the barricades in 2020, and he had mandated Minister Marc Miller to sit down with opponents of the Coastal Gas Link project. However, the Prime Minister is now refusing any dialogue with the demonstrators in Ottawa who are demanding an end to all health restrictions, starting with the obligation to vaccinate truckers crossing the Canada-US border. His refusal gives oxygen to a protest movement to health measures that is now invading other Canadian cities.
Whether Trudeau likes it or not, what’s happening in Ottawa and elsewhere has become his problem — and not because interim Conservative leader Candice Bergen wanted it that way in an email she sent to her MPs. this week. Mr. Trudeau provoked this movement by imposing a highly questionable health measure. President Joe Biden passed a similar measure for American truckers, and some claim he did so at the behest of Ottawa. However, representatives of the business world on both sides of the border were unanimous in denouncing this measure, which disrupts North American distribution chains. A convoy of truckers is now preparing to block the streets of Washington earlier this week. And Mr. Biden can thank his Canadian counterpart for this visit.