While O’Toole is overtaken by his right…

With the convoy of furious truckers converging on parliament, Erin O’Toole is again overtaken by his right.

It is unfortunate, because the leader of the official opposition could defend many issues that really concern the population if he were not constantly caught up in the internal squabbles of his party.

This week, three conservative tenors saw fit to enthusiastically support the procession which militates against the obligation to vaccinate truckers: Candice Bergen, the deputy leader; Pierre Poilievre, the leading contender in the simmering race for Erin O’Toole’s fragile throne; finally Andrew Scheer, the former leader of the party.

“Thank you truckers! Trudeau […] is the greatest threat to freedom in Canada,” he wrote on Twitter.

Obviously, Mr. Scheer does not seem to have learned the lesson of a similar episode which had tarnished his credibility. In 2019, he warmly encouraged another convoy that left Alberta to defend the oil industry, but took a xenophobic turn before arriving in Ottawa.

The same scenario repeats itself. With the same kind of protesters piggybacking on the road. People from the extreme right who refuse to recognize climate change and campaign for the separation of the western provinces. Conspiracy theorists who advocate the “great replacement” theory that Muslims are taking over the West.

Even Donald Trump’s son came to add his two cents. But Canada is not the United States. Parliament Hill is not the Capitol. And in our country, the population’s confidence in democratic institutions has increased since the start of the pandemic, which is reassuring.¹.

Nevertheless, the excesses must be denounced. Not encouraged.

But for Conservative MPs who have not digested the refocusing of their party in the last election, every opportunity seems good to trip up their leader.

These “paleoconservatives” mostly from hard-won prairie ridings don’t have much to lose. But they are shooting themselves in the foot, because their party needs to gain ground outside this stronghold to regain power.

If this group confines itself to its ideas, it will only succeed in isolating itself further. By undermining his party, he will contribute to this “alienation from the West” that he denounces, to this feeling that everything is decided in Ottawa, regardless of what the Prairies think of it.

Instead of fighting each other, Erin O’Toole’s troops should do their real opposition work and hound the government. There is no shortage of carrier themes that fall exactly on the Conservatives’ chords.

Health, first.

The premiers of the provinces are calling for an increase in federal transfers which is essential to recover from the pandemic and deal with the aging of the population.

But Justin Trudeau stubbornly does not want to talk about it before the end of the pandemic. And its aid risks being tied to conditions that will trample on the jurisdiction of the provinces.

Here is a good nail on which the conservatives who are less centralizing could knock.

Economically, now.

The Liberals have their feet heavy on spending. The Parliamentary Budget Officer sounded the alarm last week. Independent body says costly stimulus should be scaled back².

And he’s right.

The economy is running at full throttle. The labor market recouped its losses. And inflation reached 4.8%, a peak in 30 years, which means that everything is more expensive for consumers: groceries, housing, gasoline, lark.

In fact, the economic targets that the government itself had set in 2020 to justify its 100 billion recovery plan have all been exceeded. But instead of slowing spending, the government has subtly made those targets disappear.

Sitting in the passenger seat of this minority government, it is not Jagmeet Singh who will ask Justin Trudeau to put the pedal gently. On the contrary, the NDP will use its weight to pass pieces of its electoral platform which was even more expensive than that of the Liberals.

One would therefore expect the Conservatives to be there to demand more discipline. After all, aren’t they supporters of law and order? So why are they encouraging a convoy that stirs up anger and leads to a dead end anyway?

Indeed, if Justin Trudeau eliminated the vaccination obligation for truckers, the recalcitrant would still block at the border, since the United States imposes the same rule.

As the fifth wave has escalated popular discontent, all politicians should avoid adding fuel to the fire and call on protesters to calm down to avoid misconduct.

Dividing the country, out of pure political calculation, is not the right path to take.