There is no political problem that, for Justin Trudeau, cannot be solved by inaction. In particular, we remember the long blockade of the railways in 2020 or the occupation of Parliament Hill in Ottawa. For the Roxham road file, which has been going on for years, the GAFAM file, that of tax havens, the meager health transfers (which make all the other missions in the provinces bloodless) or Chinese interference, the tactic is always the same: waiting and gaining time until the problems and their solutions are laid at his feet.
Had it not been for the presence of Chrystia Freeland, a strong woman who does not cut corners, it’s a safe bet that aid to Ukraine would have suffered the same fate.
Canada is experiencing a sudden awakening to threats to its democracy. Remember that, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit, only 8% of the world’s population lives in fully democratic countries, compared to 37% in autocratic and authoritarian countries, the other countries experiencing serious shortcomings in terms of governance. The same source reveals that two-thirds of the world’s population resides in countries either aligned with Russia or neutral with regard to the war in Ukraine. Moreover, China’s insidious actions are not just about elections, but about buying natural resources, funding cutting-edge research at universities, and entrenching it in government research labs and corporations.
Even democracies are grappling with a crisis of confidence in their institutions (governments, traditional media, among others). The Edelman Barometer report reveals that 68% of Quebecers place their trust in traditional media, compared to 27% in social media, as recently reported The duty (Annabelle Caillou, March 15, 2023). This trust in the traditional media drops to 60% for Canada as a whole, compared to 48% in the United States and 51% in the United Kingdom. According to another source (Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism), while 53% of French-speaking Canadians say they can trust most news most of the time, the situation is quite different in other democratic countries, such as France and in the United States, where the rate drops to 30%.
In short, the Trudeau government’s wait-and-see attitude, the threat of autocratic countries on democracy and the crisis of confidence that many democratic countries are experiencing require better leadership in Ottawa, perhaps someone like Chrystia Freeland.