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Why Canada’s truckers will lose Their revolt against vaccine mandates was doomed from the start

On the road to nowhere (Photo by Alex Kent/Getty Images)


February 2, 2022   6 mins

The world does not usually pay much attention to Ottawa, Canada’s sleepy capital city. But over the weekend it generated international headlines. A “Freedom Convoy” consisting of anti-vaccine mandate truckers descended on the Canadian parliament to protest cross-border vaccine mandates and what they see as the infringement of their rights. Anti-establishment voices, ranging from Tucker Carlson and Elon Musk to Russell Brand and Donald Trump, all expressed their support.

The story blew up for no other reason than Canadian politics is not usually known for producing unruly sights like this one. While broader Western politics have been marked by rising populist fervour against elites over the last half-decade, Canada has, true to stereotype, remained quiet, contented, bland and unexciting. The patron saint of liberal elites was, after all, re-elected last year and continues to rule over a country that prides itself on its inoffensiveness.

There is every reason to believe that this is how things will remain: the global populist revolution that gave us Trump, Brexit and the gilet jaunes has had a hard time getting a foothold in Canada for structural reasons. It is unlikely that the protesting truckers will have changed many minds, much less public health regulations, or accomplished anything other than increasing traffic congestion in Downtown Ottawa. The industry association representing truckers has disowned them, pointing out that 90% of Canadian truckers are vaccinated, while a recent poll put nationwide popular support for the convoy at a paltry 28%.

Canada’s general incompatibility with populist politics goes back to its roots. Ask an American why the United States was founded and he might say something like: “We had a revolution to secure freedom and government of, by and for the people…” The foundation of Canada was an explicit rebuttal to this notion.

As a country, it was designed to serve as a bulwark against the spectre of revolution and the idiom of popular sovereignty. Its two main political cultures descend from peoples who were defined by their conspicuous non-participation in the great revolutions of the eighteenth century, the American and the French, from which much of the modern rhetoric about liberty, rights, and the will of the people is derived.

Subsequently, the evolution of Canada’s political identity can be thought of less as having a liberal or conservative orientation, but as, quite simply, anti-revolutionary. This means that when change does happen, it is actively managed and mediated by elites at the top rather than brought about by uprisings from below. Though the country has had its own bouts of populism of the Right and Left varieties (and a few failed revolts), it has never been the dominant tradition.

This is because historically, Canada’s elites have proven to be expert not merely at resisting the pressures of revolutionary change but at pre-empting the causes of it.

English Canada was shaped in large part by Loyalist refugees who fled north because they did not want to be a part of the revolutionary experiment of 1776. Disavowing Yankee radical individualism and republicanism, the colonies that would become Canada were suspicious of mass democracy, more deferential to authority, and more mindful of communal obligations: they were said to be “more Tory than the King” and their progeny retained the so-called “Tory touch”.

Canada’s first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, looked south of the border with horror (as many Canadians do now) at the chaos of the American Civil War and vowed to establish a strong central government that would have unquestioned supremacy over its constituent provinces. Thus, modern Canada was born in 1867 with the motto “peace, order and good government” — a somewhat authoritarian-sounding reply to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”.

French Canada is different but the same. Its people are the descendants of pious habitant colonists who were insulated from the influence of the Jacobin revolution across the Atlantic by the British conquest of Quebec in the Seven Years War.

Macdonald’s chief French Canadian ally, Sir George-Étienne Cartier, claimed that despite the trauma of defeat, the conquest was actually a blessing in disguise sent by Providence to save French Canada “from the misery and shame of the French Revolution”. The Ancien Régime, with its spirit of conformity and obedience to Catholic orthodoxy, lived on in Quebec until the Sixties, when secular nationalism replaced Catholicism as the de facto state religion.

In that decade, Canada would prove yet again that it was the anti-revolutionary country par excellence. While American cities burned in riots over race and the Vietnam war, Canadians smugly congratulated themselves for living in “the peaceable kingdom”. When, in 1968, the streets of Paris, Chicago and Prague were racked with revolutionary violence, Canada witnessed a peaceful transition of power to the new generation as embodied by a charismatic action-intellectual named Pierre Trudeau, who unlike LBJ, Nixon or De Gaulle, was definitely with it.

The first Trudeau’s rise to power, much like the second, was greeted by fawning crowds and adoring fangirls: it took on the feel of a Beatles tour and was dubbed “Trudeaumania”. What might have looked like a spontaneous democratic outpouring was actually the result of backroom dealing by ruling party elites, who recruited Trudeau and practically fast-tracked him to the premiership: Canada’s own Ancien Régime had found a way to adapt itself to the Age of Aquarius.

Trudeau’s chief task was to keep Canada together in the face of Quebec separatism. With the exception of the brief terrorist October Crisis of 1970, which Trudeau met with heavy-handed repression, his 16 years in power were marked by vigorous but non-violent political debate culminating in the 1980 Quebec independence referendum. Unlike other interethnic hotspots, say Northern Ireland or the Balkans, Canada resolved its divisions through the ballot box — and through occasionally heated but mostly boring conferences where elites could hash things out.

Fast forward to the second Trudeau. The world is once again living through revolutionary times. But Canada seems to be immune. US or UK conservatives might look at the insufferably progressive rhetoric of Justin Trudeau and wonder why ordinary Canadians haven’t tossed him out in favour a more populist alternative. Have they all been brainwashed up there?

Yet once again, like Macdonald and Trudeau Sr. before him, Justin Trudeau is the face of a Machiavellian elite that can maintain itself in power by diffusing and pre-empting the pressures of revolutionary change. Looking past the often-deceptive rhetoric and surface-level imagery, one will see that Canada is not nearly as liberal, progressive or cosmopolitan as it is perceived.

Trudeau Jr, like his father, is a promoter of official multiculturalism and is fond of uttering slogans like “diversity is our strength”. But as Canadian philosopher Joseph Heath has pointed out, unlike the United States, the Canadian government “does not engage in race-based classification of citizens [just as] the census does not impose racial categories”.

And though Canadian universities are prone to indulging in critical theory jargon — as a certain University of Toronto psychology professor will be able to tell you — Canada has nothing like the American policy of “affirmative action” or race-based admission quotas, which is the source of interminable racial and ethnic animus in the US.

When it comes to immigration, Trudeau has been depicted by both liberal fans and conservative critics abroad as a bleeding-heart advocate of open borders. But look at Canada’s actual immigration system; in many ways, it is far more stringent than the US immigration system was under Trump. Canada may not have a border wall but it has a ruthlessly efficient “bureaucratic wall,” in addition to having invented the famous “points system”, emulated by Australia, and now the UK.

What shocks, particularly from the American vantage point, is that Canada has its own version of “mandatory E-Verify”, an employment verification policy for the purposes of immigration enforcement. In the United States the measure is usually only advocated for by hard immigration restrictionists. Not even Trump (for understandable reasons) and the Republican establishment are willing to support it. 

The drivers of Right-wing populism — divisive racial preferentialism, permissive immigration policy, a widespread sense of the loss of control — are thus not present in Canada. In other countries, pandemic restrictions may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back, the latest in a long line of elite excesses that long predated Covid-19.

But in Canada, whatever the policy on restrictions or vaccine mandates, absent those other factors, the camel’s back is not nearly so overburdened. Save for in the perpetually dissatisfied energy-producing region out west, populism will remain a hard sell. It is simply not favoured by Canada’s political culture.

This is not to say that the truckers are “un-Canadian” as their liberal opponents will paint them, though the decision by some of them to carry Confederate and “Don’t Tread on Me” flags does not help — nor does desecrating the National War Memorial. Shameful hooliganism aside, there is a place for dissenters in what is still (contrary to their cries of “tyranny”) a free country. 

They will just have to accept that they are up against one of the most entrenched and hegemonic ruling classes anywhere in the Western world: the “Laurentian elites” and their instrument for wielding power, the Liberal Party. As veteran journalist Peter C. Newman once observed, they have “reigned longer over Canada than … Communists ruled Russia”. If the Freedom Convoy is looking to overthrow this regime, they will have a very long drive ahead.


Michael Cuenco is a writer on policy and politics. He is Associate Editor at American Affairs.
1TrueCuencoism

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Gunner Myrtle
Gunner Myrtle
2 years ago

I am Canadian and while the truckers and their many tens of thousands of supporters aren’t going to overthrow the government I think they have already achieved very significant victories. They have shown Trudeau to be craven and a sore loser. His rhetoric that everyone who opposes him is a racist has not convinced anyone. But most importantly they demonstrated that there is a limit to how far people are prepared to be pushed. Most protesters are there to support freedom. A heavy handed response will backfire and they know it. The people have demonstrated that when enough of them put their foot down there is nothing the police or government can do to stop them. I may go out and join a protest myself for the first time in my life.

D Hockley
D Hockley
2 years ago
Reply to  Gunner Myrtle

It was good to read your opinion. People should go out and join this protest; it is one of the most just protests I have ever heard of.

Last edited 2 years ago by D Hockley
Gunner Myrtle
Gunner Myrtle
2 years ago
Reply to  D Hockley

I went to the protest in Vancouver Saturday. It had thousands of people and a convoys of hundreds of trucks and other vehicles. The atmosphere was upbeat, friendly and cheerful – even to counter protesters with intentionally rude signs ( ‘Honk if you are an idiot’ etc ). The Ottawa Citizen reported there were numerous racist flags at the event. That is an outright lie. I didn’t see even one and I was looking for them. I would encourage you to attend an event and see for yourself. The reality is that particularly with Omicron – a mild variant of the virus that public health authorities have acknowledged is unstoppable – and that is spread by vaccinated and unvaccinated people alike – there is no legal justification for violating charter rights with vaccine mandates. The media knows this – and so they are avoiding the argument by vilifying ordinary people.

Last edited 2 years ago by Gunner Myrtle
Rocky Rhode
Rocky Rhode
2 years ago
Reply to  Gunner Myrtle

Agreed – and I bet real support among Canadians is way more than the 28% quoted in this article (note to author: please cite your source. We all know that polls are increasingly used as a tool to shape, rather than measure, public opinion as witnessed by the vast majority of polls telling Americans that Biden would win the 2020 election by 10 points or more).
Also, I’m pretty appalled by the author repeating left win slanders such as the supposed waving of a Confederate flag and defacement of the Terry Fox statue.
The ONE Confederate flag was being wielded by a masked ‘protester’ (no-one else was masked) who was even called out by other protesters as being an agent provocateur. Needless to say the corporatist media ran endless images of the flag.
As for Terry Fox, draping Canadian flags on a statue is not desecration. If you want to know what desecrating a statue looks like just ask the BLM movement of whom Trudeau so greatly approves.

Rocky Rhode
Rocky Rhode
2 years ago
Reply to  Rocky Rhode

A new poll out today (from the Angus Reid Institute) shows that a majority of Canadians now want all Covid rules to end immediately (a 15% swing in just two weeks or, to put it another way, since the Freedom Truckers began their protest).

Hardee Hodges
Hardee Hodges
2 years ago
Reply to  Rocky Rhode

The majority seems to now understand that the dictats will never end if they remain aloof. The truckers have allowed many to express themselves and more are joining in.

Andrew Fisher
Andrew Fisher
2 years ago
Reply to  Rocky Rhode

Fair enough to call out the author on not providing a source for the 28% figure, but “I bet….” doesn’t quite cut it either!

You could add that a large number of rightwing sites said that Trump would win by a mile, which was an even more ridiculous claim than that of the ‘Left’.

Last edited 2 years ago by Andrew Fisher
Rocky Rhode
Rocky Rhode
2 years ago
Reply to  Andrew Fisher

Well, “I bet” is just a way of giving an opinion, equivalent to “I would guess…” or “I’m inclined to think.”
But you’re wrong about the polls in the US election if, by ‘rightwing sites,’ you mean other polling organisations. (And if you don’t mean that then you’re comparing opinions polls with expressions of opinion which, of course, makes no sense).
I believe there was one mainstream polling organisation that called 2020 as a close race (I’m afraid I can’t remember which one). The rest had Biden by a mile and were proved wrong by the close result.

Warren T
Warren T
2 years ago
Reply to  Rocky Rhode

And don’t forget the Hillary “win”, oops.

Warren T
Warren T
2 years ago
Reply to  Andrew Fisher

Once again, if you accept that when all the “votes” were counted, the result was a Biden win, then you are falling for the prescribed narrative. Of course, when a great number of these “votes” have absolutely no way of being verified, with either signatures or postmarks, the question of who really won will always remain. This is why the Dems are seeking to nationalize the election, to ensure victory forever.

Ron Wigley
Ron Wigley
2 years ago
Reply to  Andrew Fisher

Trump did win first time right against all the pollsters, narrowly “losing” the second, care to bet on the third?

Peter Lee
Peter Lee
2 years ago
Reply to  Andrew Fisher

re the latter sentence … Are you sure? Not from what I read coming out of the US.

Warren T
Warren T
2 years ago
Reply to  Rocky Rhode

Someone from the corporatist media likely hired the mask wearing imposter.

John Aronsson
John Aronsson
2 years ago
Reply to  Rocky Rhode

Here’s something that tends to support Mr Cuenco:
canadian-truckers-over-covid-tyrants
Canadians are and always have been radical conformists.

Zirrus VanDevere
Zirrus VanDevere
2 years ago
Reply to  Rocky Rhode

“The ONE Confederate flag was being wielded by a masked ‘protester’ (no-one else was masked) who was even called out by other protesters as being an agent provocateur. Needless to say the corporatist media ran endless images of the flag.” Absolutely. It’s so obviously in the playbook that it was basically expected. I’m American, and I’m extremely proud of how civil the expulsion of that lone actor was. In the US that same scenario would have likely gotten ugly. I disagree that this protest won’t work, in fact it could very well be the beginning of the end, as people in countries all over the world wake up from the massive entrancement. I’m so done with the gaslighting and the coercion by the power hungry elites.

Andrew Horsman
Andrew Horsman
2 years ago
Reply to  Rocky Rhode

Last year, Justin Trudeau’s party won the support of a paltry 20.3% of Canadians eligible to vote.

When your Prime Minister is not only trying to portray supporting the truckers as morally reprehensible but actually trying to make it illegal, you might be a little reticent to tell a random nuisance caller conducting a survey your true feelings about the matter.

He’s political toast.

Last edited 2 years ago by Andrew Horsman
Cristina Bodor
Cristina Bodor
2 years ago
Reply to  Rocky Rhode

Rocky, thank you for clarifying! People have to seek information elsewhere than MSM!

Andrew Fisher
Andrew Fisher
2 years ago
Reply to  Gunner Myrtle

Trudeau hasn’t lost, has he?

Peter Lee
Peter Lee
2 years ago
Reply to  Andrew Fisher

He was reduced to a minority, so you could say he has lost …..his majority

Sheila Dowling
Sheila Dowling
2 years ago
Reply to  Gunner Myrtle

I have lived in Canada for 40 years and what I see is that Trudeau is still the Prime Minister and the leader of the opposition Conservative party is about to lose his job.

Lesley van Reenen
Lesley van Reenen
2 years ago
Reply to  Sheila Dowling

Many of us in the rest of world see Canada as another nation that is becoming more and more woke and becoming evermore authoritarian with ludicrous rules. The fact that most of the media is state sponsored is a huge warning bell alone. Trudeau has become as much as a joke as BJ, with even more reason.
The videos and report backs from the Canadian truckers has been a highlight for this country.

Last edited 2 years ago by Lesley van Reenen
Gunner Myrtle
Gunner Myrtle
2 years ago
Reply to  Sheila Dowling

Yes. But the Liberal Party is ruthless about getting rid of its leaders when they lose their shine. I think that Trudeau is on his way out whether he likes it or not. I would count that as a win.

Sheila Dowling
Sheila Dowling
2 years ago
Reply to  Sheila Dowling

I am not saying this is a good thing, It is an observation, proved correct, as Erin O’Toole was voted out by his fellow Tory MPS this afternoon.

Last edited 2 years ago by Sheila Dowling
JP Martin
JP Martin
2 years ago
Reply to  Sheila Dowling

Voted out for being too progressive which suggests that the Conservatives might choose a party leader who is actually a conservative.

Bret Larson
Bret Larson
2 years ago
Reply to  Gunner Myrtle

You should, I went to see the protest in Edmonton and talk to the participants. Neighbours with families is what I found. And they want to be able to live their lives within their constitutional rights. Here is the link to the response from the usual suspect “expert” in Edmonton: https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1997821507968
I sent him an e-mail, but even though I knew him in University he hasn’t deigned to answer. Course, if you dont swallow their story whole, I guess there is nothing to talk about.

Last edited 2 years ago by Bret Larson
Alan Hawkes
Alan Hawkes
2 years ago
Reply to  Gunner Myrtle

“… there is a limit to how far people are prepared to be pushed.”
Implicit in this is that the truckers represent most people, rather than some people, i.e. themselves.

Gunner Myrtle
Gunner Myrtle
2 years ago
Reply to  Gunner Myrtle

I did go to the protest in Vancouver on Saturday. It had thousands of attendees and hundreds (at least) of vehicles. The atmosphere was cheerful, friendly and upbeat – even towards counter protesters who had intentionally insulting signs (‘Honk if you are an idiot’ etc). A writer at the Ottawa Citizen claimed there were numerous racist signs. That is simply untrue. I didn’t see one – and I was looking for them.

Paul K
Paul K
2 years ago

I really want to reiterate what others have said here. Can Unherd PLEASE stop using the term ‘anti-vax’? It’s a propaganda term designed to diminish and misrepresent people who oppose the systems of authoritarianism that have arisen over the last year. Only a very small number of people are literally against all vaccinations: most of us have real concerns which have been misrepresented, and we don’t expect to see them misrepresented here too.

Paul K
Paul K
2 years ago
Reply to  Paul K

Not sure what point you are trying to make, but if you can’t see the difference between objecting to a medicine and objecting to a system which excludes those who won’t take it, it is probably a bit late to be asking. Though you could try talking to a vaccinated person who opposes mandates or passports. There are a lot of them about.

Last edited 2 years ago by Paul K
Graham Stull
Graham Stull
2 years ago
Reply to  Paul K

At this point Rasmus just seems to log on to comment-troll. He enjoys the downvotes the way a gambler gets a dopamine hit from losing.

Rasmus Fogh
Rasmus Fogh
2 years ago
Reply to  Graham Stull

I do enjoy the arguments, yes. I also think it is useful to remind people in this bubble that there are people with different opinions. If I can convince you that some of those people are reasonably sensible that would be a bonus, and I do try – with or without success.

And I do actually learn somethign new from the debates sometimes.

Last edited 2 years ago by Rasmus Fogh
Karl Juhnke
Karl Juhnke
2 years ago
Reply to  Rasmus Fogh

You are failing. Plenty of diversity coming from Unherd.

Johann Strauss
Johann Strauss
2 years ago
Reply to  Rasmus Fogh

The only person living in a bubble and an echo chamber is you Rasmus. Nobody else here on Unherd. Worth bearing in mind that the readership of Unherd is highly educated and sophisticated and very capable of independent thought.

Rasmus Fogh
Rasmus Fogh
2 years ago
Reply to  Paul K

Admittedly, there are people who are vaccinated, are in favour of vaccination, but still against mandates for idealistic (as opposed to practical reasons) – even though they do not make much sense to me. But if people believed (as I do) that COVID vaccinations are safer than the alternative and help protect both the vaccinated, those they might pass the disease on to, and the hospital system resources, I think very few would go to immense lengths to fight for the right to not be vaccinated. “I hate what you are saying, but I would die for your right to keep saying it” is an admirable sentiment, but very few people are willing to do it in practice. I think that the vast majority of those fighting against the ‘authoritarianism’ of COVID vaccinations are people who are against COVID vaccinations for various other reasons, who just choose to argue in terms of anti-authoritarianism because it sounds nicer and is harder to refute. In short I think it is mostly a pretence, a false-flag operation, consciously or not. Much like the people who say ‘trust the people to make rational decisions without telling them what to do’ generally mean ‘I cannot be bothered to take all those precautions, so just leave me in peace to do whatever I damn well like’.

And I wish that people would argue in terms of the real reasons why they do not want to be vaccinated. It would be a lot easier to get somewhere if we did not have to deal with all this phony idealism – or if we could at least talk plainly about how many (or few?) additional hospitalisations and deaths we would be paying for the right of people to refuse vaccination.

Last edited 2 years ago by Rasmus Fogh
Linda Hutchinson
Linda Hutchinson
2 years ago
Reply to  Rasmus Fogh

Thank-you Rasmus for voicing what I have thought for some time now. I have, and do, think that many who argue against mask, for example, are of the type who say “I should be able to do what I d*mn well want and I can’t be ar*ed to wear a mask, so to h*ll with all those out there who might be vulnerable. I’ll just say that I’m fighting for liberty because it sounds better and covers me”. As for trusting the people to do something that isn’t immediately to their benefit and puts them out in some way, well, if I were particularly vulnerable I wouldn’t trust my life on it.

As far as this site is concerned, most are, rightly, proud of the fact that they do not belong to the “Woke” bubble, whilst being blissfully unaware that they are part of the “anti-Woke” bubble.

Last edited 2 years ago by Linda Hutchinson
Caroline Watson
Caroline Watson
2 years ago

You are wrong. I am against masks because I know that they have absolutely no impact on the spread of viruses. They started as a placebo, in summer 2020, to persuade people to go shopping, and they have morphed into a nauseating symbol of sanctimony. They are also massively damaging to children.
Now that the virus has mutated into a cold, it should be allowed to spread. Any measures that attempt to inhibit that should be abolished, as they are counter productive. The imposition of masks on children of any age and in schools, workplaces and universities should be forbidden by law.

Jon Game
Jon Game
2 years ago

Well said Caroline. I agree with everything you say. When England had its mask mandate I felt it my duty to break the mandate because, as a scientist, it offended my beliefs and prior knowledge of fluid dynamics. Now, with no mandate, my fun has been spoiled.

Rasmus Fogh
Rasmus Fogh
2 years ago

That is a consistent point of view. From the outside, though, there are two alternative explanations: Are you against masks because you are convinced that they are totally useless and massively damaging to children? Or did you convince yourself that masks are useless and damaging to children because you were against them in the first place? The facts that people believe in seem to be highly correlated with their opinions, but it is hard to say for sure which came first.

Last edited 2 years ago by Rasmus Fogh
Jerry Smith
Jerry Smith
2 years ago
Reply to  Rasmus Fogh

Why does being pro-vaccines but against mandates not make sense to you, Rasmus? It seems to me to be a thoroughly defensible, rational and increasingly well-supported position given that (a) vaccines do not prevent transmission or even reduce it – their value is in preventing hospitalisations and deaths (b) the costs of vaccine mandates to the health and social care sectors are too high in terms of staffing losses and service reductions.

Rasmus Fogh
Rasmus Fogh
2 years ago
Reply to  Jerry Smith

AFAIK vaccines *do* reduce transmission – if they do not the argument that you are protecting others in addition to yourself would indeed fall away. Does anyone have some reliable evidence on this point – in either direction?

The argument in terms of service loss is a matter of yielding to blackmail. Allowing unvaccinated hospital personnel may be the lesser evil – maybe even if you factor in the effect of making patients feel less safe and serving as an argument for people in general to not get vaccinated – but it does not strike me as a sensible thing to do.

Last edited 2 years ago by Rasmus Fogh
Norman Powers
Norman Powers
2 years ago
Reply to  Rasmus Fogh

You’re a long way behind, here. Even most western governments do not claim they reduce transmission anymore and in fact, they never did. That’s why the narrative moved on months ago to “they reduce severe illness and death”.
Evidence to the contrary – no, you’d have to present evidence to support the claim that they did prevent transmission, because in reality:

  1. The vaccines weren’t designed to stop transmission.
  2. The trials therefore didn’t even measure changes in infectiousness.
  3. The pharma companies (AFAIK) knew this and rather carefully didn’t claim the vaccines were sterilizing, only that they reduced the number of “cases”.

As far as I can tell the idea that they reduced transmission was more or less invented on the spot by public health bureaucrats who knew that by claiming this, they would convert what was otherwise an individual medical choice into a social obligation and because they are hard-left fanatics, they believe everything has to be done collectively or else it’s worthless. So they invented this claim knowing full well that nobody in media or government would demand to see their evidence for it, that people like yourself would simply take their word for it and by the time reality caught up with them, it’d all be over.
So – where’s your evidence that there’s any reduction in transmission?

Rasmus Fogh
Rasmus Fogh
2 years ago
Reply to  Norman Powers

Sounds like a conspiracy theory to me. If no one has any evidence I will stick to what I have been told (yes, by the MSM), because 1) I find it unlikely that all our authorities are deliberately promoting an unnecessary lie just because “everything has to be done collectively or else it’s worthless”; 2) the most likely assumption is that reducing the severity of the illness and increasing the immune defence will also reduce transmission to some degree. I am open to persuasion, if anyone can be bothered to provide some evidence.

Johann Strauss
Johann Strauss
2 years ago
Reply to  Paul K

You are truly pig headed because from everything you write you appear to believe that all vaccines are created equal in terms of efficacy and safety. But that is absolutely not the case. Some vaccines are highly effective (polio and measles) and very safe, others are effective but not that safe (yellow fever which is why this isn’t given routinely), and yet others are neither effective or that safe (e.g. the flu vaccine is next to useless and it certainly has far more adverse effects, albeit usually fairly minor, compared to measles or chicken pox or tetanus). Now the current crop of COVID vaccines was initially very effective against the original strain but that efficacy waned as new strains came along, and against Omicron the current COVID vaccines are pretty useless (i.e. marginal at best). Further, the spectrum of adverse effects both in terms of frequency and severity is greater than that of all other vaccines combined. This is a real issue given that the current vaccines don’t prevent or reduce infection or transmission. Unfortunately you seem blind to reality and are living in an alternate universe wedded, uncritically, to the “narrative”, while Pfizer and Moderna are jumping for joy as they accumulate dollars in their bank accounts.

Rasmus Fogh
Rasmus Fogh
2 years ago
Reply to  Johann Strauss

I agree that the issue is whether a given vaccine is worth it in terms of the safety it gives, the side effects, and the likelihood it will be needed. The question is where we are at with COVID vaccines. Here it is hard for us to agree since we seem to make completely different background assumptions and trust completely different sets of sources. That is what I am driving at when I say that we live on different planets – without a minimum of shared starting point it is almost impossible to get anywhere. I still believe that if the COVID vaccines are as dangerous and as useless as you and your sources seem to be saying, there will sooner or later be some evidence that even I find convincing. I just have not seen it yet – and I honestly do not expect that I will. Can you imagine any kind of evidence that would change your opinion? How much would it take?

D Hockley
D Hockley
2 years ago
Reply to  Paul K

What an absolutely nonsensical post, Rasmus. I was double vaccinated and then had a booster shot, so three in total. However, I would defend with my life people’s right not to be vaccinated.

Last edited 2 years ago by D Hockley
Rasmus Fogh
Rasmus Fogh
2 years ago
Reply to  D Hockley

You are a rare idealist, then. I do suspect that you are in a minority, unfortunately.

Jon Game
Jon Game
2 years ago
Reply to  Rasmus Fogh

It’s easy to understand why vaccinations increase the spread. I have been double vaccinated and, when I caught delta last November, only had a sore throat. I would have been more happy to continue my normal life, freely spreading the virus had my wife not made me take a test. Had I been un-vaccinated I would probably have been in bed, unable to spread the virus. As an aside I also spread delta to my son, also double vaxxed.

Ann Roberts
Ann Roberts
2 years ago
Reply to  Paul K

YES! it is lazy writing and falls into what is now being called the ‘euphimism treadmill.

Alison Wren
Alison Wren
2 years ago
Reply to  Paul K

Thanks for that Paul. I’m so very tired of that term. In no way am I opposed to vaccinations, Ive had loads, but not this one because I have good natural immunity from infection before the vax was available. And coercion to force treatment is unethical in the extreme. So pleased the NHS workers won, interesting that the care workers just got sacked before Christmas…poorer working class women dont have clout compared to the consultants do they!!!

Norm Haug
Norm Haug
2 years ago
Reply to  Alison Wren

The NHS workers were in a position of great power-if most of the unvaccinated walked out the system would collapse-and their action was no less heavy handed than government mandates. The unvaccinated got what they wanted and did not seem to care that their victory would mean hardship for their colleagues left in the trenches.

Christina Dalcher
Christina Dalcher
2 years ago
Reply to  Paul K

Thank you.

James Joyce
James Joyce
2 years ago
Reply to  Paul K

A bit reminiscent of the anti-abortion movement in the US, which wanted to label ALL opponents as “Pro-abortion.” They preferred “Pro-choice,” so why can’t the people who personally don’t want to be jabbed be called “Pro-choice” in some form, NOT anti-vaxers, which many, as pointed out, are not.

Rasmus Fogh
Rasmus Fogh
2 years ago
Reply to  James Joyce

If we want to play those games, they are not the ‘anti-abortion’ movement. They are the pro-life movement. Personally I am not in favour of letting everybody choose their preferred euphemism (or pronoun). Why not stick to the common words, and discuss the reality instead of the semantics?

Susan Lundie
Susan Lundie
2 years ago
Reply to  Rasmus Fogh

That would be OK, but the “common” words are carefully chosen and reinforced by disingenuous actors intent on discrediting those they perceive as noncompliant and a hindrance to their grand plan for an “enlightened” future, which is anything but enlightened. There is no discussion of semantics publicly permissible.
Hence even the vaxxed, who consider we are all individually entitled to bodily autonomy and choice, are simply labelled anti-vaxxers. Just as all leave voters in 2016 were henceforward labelled as xenophobes. It works in shutting down debate among the timid, and those of us who do speak up feel obliged again and again to demonstrate while doing so why we are not anti-vaxxers or xenophobes.
It’s clever, all pervasive, a dead albatross around the necks of all younger people who are no longer able to simply cheerfully work their way through the general minefields of society we all once did, but are forced into a pernicious right-thinking straight jacket. Independent thinking and innovation is rare. This is one reason the Canadian Truckers have won, no matter how things ultimately pan out. I spent my teens in Canada, and have never regretted returning to the UK, but right now I’d love to be there in Ottawa with them, rather than silently cheering on here.

Last edited 2 years ago by Susan Lundie
Psychedelia Smith
Psychedelia Smith
2 years ago
Reply to  Paul K

Bang on. I don’t pay an Unherd subscription to be lazily labelled a BBC fantasy island nutjob ‘anti-vaxxer’ – a catch all term that’s now being deliberately used to shut down any increasingly legitimate questions surrounding this highly questionable, deeply suspicious, borderline religious and increasingly pointless mass vaccination program.

Last edited 2 years ago by Psychedelia Smith
Peter Lee
Peter Lee
2 years ago

Of course, the fundemental question is it, after all its known short-comings, really a vaccine. I note that the FDA changed the definition on their website.

Rasmus Fogh
Rasmus Fogh
2 years ago
Reply to  Peter Lee

Please, no more word games. The current CDC definition matches common usage: “A suspension of live (usually attenuated) or inactivated microorganisms (e.g. bacteria or viruses) or fractions thereof administered to induce immunity and prevent infectious diseases and their sequelae.” It is a fact that the COVID vaccine is a vaccine by this definition. It is also a fact that it is not as good at preventing reinfection or transmission as most of the vaccines we give, or as we would like it to be. The fundamental question is whether we want to use it, given what we know. Trying to manipulate the debate by playing around with definitions is just an underhand trick. Leave that to the woke, they do it all the time.

John Aronsson
John Aronsson
2 years ago
Reply to  Paul K

If asked I’ll just say I’m in the control group.

Lesley van Reenen
Lesley van Reenen
2 years ago
Reply to  Paul K

Even more popular is to shoehorn anti-vax and populist into the same article.

Dan Croitoru
Dan Croitoru
2 years ago
Reply to  Paul K

But it’s part of the Unherd’ pretense of being centrists like in middle of hell. They need to simplify reality to give Milleniards
(Millennial + retards) the satisfaction they are not missing out

Raymond Inauen
Raymond Inauen
2 years ago

The freedom convoy isn’t against vaccination, it’s against a mandatory vaccination. It seems to me this Author is also misleading readers! And it’s no small movement either, the trucks are lined up all around the city as well. As the weekend approaches I could imagine more Canadians showing up to support the movement regardless of the temperatures. This has never happened before at this scale in Canada.

SULPICIA LEPIDINA
SULPICIA LEPIDINA
2 years ago
Reply to  Raymond Inauen

The worm has turned?

Raymond Inauen
Raymond Inauen
2 years ago

Wait and see, this weekend will show how many Canadians will drive up to Ottawa and celebrate with the truckers.  I’m hopeful, I don’t hate Trudeau, but he’s the wrong man for the job. Sorry he has to go, and someone else needs to lead the Country out of this mess.

SULPICIA LEPIDINA
SULPICIA LEPIDINA
2 years ago
Reply to  Raymond Inauen

Good luck!

Raymond Inauen
Raymond Inauen
2 years ago
Reply to  Raymond Inauen

A vaccination success rate of almost 90% should be celebrated! This is the sign of a healthy, functioning democracy that is able to show tolerance towards a small group that, for whatever reason, does not want to or cannot get vaccinated. Why is that healthy, because anything else would mean living in a dictatorship!

Justine Trudeau doesn’t understand this concept and neither does his party. In recent years there has been so much focus on issues like gender, racism, minority rights and global warming that the everyday problems of Canadians have been ignored or swept under the rug. Perhaps there should be a renewed focus on the issues that really matter.

Molly McDougall
Molly McDougall
2 years ago
Reply to  Raymond Inauen

One thing which is never discussed is the high level of coercion to achieve that number.

People were literally put in boxes (windowless inside offices with poor ventilation, inside acrylic cubes, told to limit their interactions with colleagues, even by computer or phone).

Children weren’t allowed to participate in sports without proof of vaccination.

Coerced consent is not consent.

As a Canadian I am disgusted by my governments actions, federal, provincial and local.

So no, 90% vaccination rate is no triumph of anything but despotic coercion. Those who got the injection under pressure are very rightly furious.

h w
h w
2 years ago
Reply to  Raymond Inauen

90%? How many if those shot did so FREELY? How many were coerced with threat of job loss and loss of contact with elderly relatives, no travel?

Norm Haug
Norm Haug
2 years ago
Reply to  Raymond Inauen

Small businesses in Ottawa are greatly affected by the streets being plugged by trucks. What about the “freedom” of business owners and apartment dwellers in the area, some of whom have been harassed by truckers and/or by the hard core professional protesters who latch onto any cause. How did the truckers feel when indigenous groups blocked highways to protest pipeline development? Whose freedom was more important: that of the truckers or that of the indigenous groups? This is when Canada needs political leadership and Prime Minister Trudeau is nowhere to be found.

James Longfield
James Longfield
2 years ago
Reply to  Norm Haug

This is an interesting but warped interjection. I suspect most small businesses in Ottawa can’t believe their luck with the influx of people needing to be fed and accommodated in the middle of winter. I doubt there is much complaint from them. Your point about truckers not standing up for other environmental or woke issues just says more about you’re agenda tan anything else. But I do agree with your final question. Where is Trudeau. Is he isolating in an internet free zone?

R Wright
R Wright
2 years ago

Yet more shoddy journalism. They are not anti-vaxxers on the whole but against mandatory vaccination, as is every right thinking adult.

Dennis Boylon
Dennis Boylon
2 years ago
Reply to  R Wright

People who smdon’t support evil, fascism, and totalitarianism

Philip L
Philip L
2 years ago
Reply to  R Wright

The situation is made worse by the same people who compelled you to take their medicine in the first place, continuing to impose restrictions the medicine was supposed to end.
Relentless vaccination campaigns that have been underscored by relentless restrictions are far more “anti-vax” than ordinary folk pushing back against mandates; it is obvious innuendo for the vaccines having fallen short.

Samir Iker
Samir Iker
2 years ago
Reply to  R Wright

People who are fat should be debarred from medical care, fired from their jobs and forced to take compulsory, potentially dangerous and untested far reduction medicine.
If you disagree, you are a fascist anti science ignoramus.

Rasmus Fogh
Rasmus Fogh
2 years ago
Reply to  Samir Iker

Fat was not contagious, last time I heard.

Lesley van Reenen
Lesley van Reenen
2 years ago
Reply to  Rasmus Fogh

Rasmus, it is not about contagion remember? (Since we all know the vaccinated can spread the virus). It is about hospitalization.

Samir Iker
Samir Iker
2 years ago
Reply to  Rasmus Fogh

Death rates from covid
Florida: 3 per thousand
California / Quebec: 2 per thousand
So, Florida has a 1 in 1000 one-off differential for not using lockdowns, not mandating masks or not being vaccine fascists

versus

Significant chunks of the population hospitalised, diabetic, or dying early of obesity, year after year

Fat isnt contagious, it sure is a lot more deadlier and expensive for society.

Michael Richardson
Michael Richardson
2 years ago
Reply to  Samir Iker

Age adjusted rate for California is now greater than Florida.

James Longfield
James Longfield
2 years ago
Reply to  Rasmus Fogh

Interesting question. I have no evidence for what I’m about to ask, but do fat parents or thin parents have fat kids? It might make for an interesting scientific study

Galeti Tavas
Galeti Tavas
2 years ago

The internet is ablaze with the Truckers protest – and it is not a ‘paltry 28%’, that is a huge percent to be onside. The ‘Desecrating the war Memorial? WTF? I watched your link, it was people cheering…

Watch Peak Prosperity for good coverage of it, and hear how Trudeau praised the BLM riots, but calls this most peaceful demonstration of all time ‘Hateful’.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s81723lJuqQ

Chris Wheatley
Chris Wheatley
2 years ago
Reply to  Galeti Tavas

Unfortunately, it is too easy to set the internet ablaze. It seems to happen every other day.

Warren T
Warren T
2 years ago
Reply to  Chris Wheatley

Yes it does, and we are merely suckers for gobbling it up.

Julian Farrows
Julian Farrows
2 years ago
Reply to  Warren T

Agreed. A few days without checking the news online does wonders. Unfortunately with lockdowns and restrictions there isn’t much else to do.

Lesley van Reenen
Lesley van Reenen
2 years ago
Reply to  Chris Wheatley

Actually this particular story did get way more traction than most other stories in a long while. It is obviously difficult to measure, but this story was everywhere and made a huge impact.

David Owsley
David Owsley
2 years ago
Reply to  Galeti Tavas

that link is Global news, bought and paid for (almost literally) by Canadian government so can be ignored as the propaganda it so clearly is.

Brian Delamere
Brian Delamere
2 years ago
Reply to  Galeti Tavas

I was amazed to see the amount of supporting comments appearing under the many YouTube clips people have uploaded. Support in many languages, and many countries from all over the world, is like something not seen before.

Raymond Inauen
Raymond Inauen
2 years ago
Reply to  Galeti Tavas

Nice link!

Rosemary Throssell
Rosemary Throssell
2 years ago

I am so tired of journalists claiming anti vaccine and anti mandate are one and the same.
I expect better on this platform.

Yan Chernyak
Yan Chernyak
2 years ago

Apart from all these points about “anti-vax truckers” (who are in fact anti-mandates) and other clear biases of the author, I was really shocked with “Paris, Chicago and Prague” in one row of “revolutionary violence”. Prague is clearly stands out in this context, and this detail, in my view, immediately destroys credibility of this political analysis (which was already in doubt after very easy use of “anti-vax” in first paragraph)

Last edited 2 years ago by Yan Chernyak
Deborah H
Deborah H
2 years ago
Reply to  Yan Chernyak

Agree about the reference to Prague.

Peter LR
Peter LR
2 years ago

“90% of Canadian truckers are vaccinated” – that’s not the point, it’s an objection to mandatory enforcement regimes. Trudeau makes out that enforcement is to combat Covid just as he contracts it for the second time though fully vaccinated! Mandatory schemes are an admission of defeat because rational persuasion has not been employed. It is also tacit acknowledgement that fear factor nudging and data manipulation have failed. We may be labelled populists but we’re not idiots!
PS immigration to Canada has other restrictions: if you migrate into the EU, once you have a passport you can live anywhere in Europe you choose; in Canada, it’s one country and a swingeing climate – temperature in Edmonton today = -21C.

Barry Stokes
Barry Stokes
2 years ago
Reply to  Peter LR

Not true. Dual citizenship is accepted. I am a citizen of both the UK & Canada, as is my wife. Facts please!

Derek Bryce
Derek Bryce
2 years ago
Reply to  Barry Stokes

Ditto. Barry’s right. I travel on U.K. and Canadian passports. The only thing that’s changed is that dual citizens can no longer enter Canada on their other passport but do so on their Canadian one.

Jim R
Jim R
2 years ago

Yesterday the Province of Quebec abandoned its proposal to tax the unvaccinated citing the need for social cohesion. Trudeau will never ‘give in’ because he’s defined himself by demonizing anyone who disagrees with him, but the truckers have served an extremely important purpose already by showing that even Canadians have limits in their deference to authority, and our politicians (and the dreadful Canadian media) will now have to factor that into their decision making.

Jim R
Jim R
2 years ago
Reply to  Jim R

Personally I felt like the Canadian ‘immune system’ had finally reacted to the political pathogens that had run completely unopposed for nearly 2 years. And maybe only 28% ‘support’ the protests – there’s a good chunk of people in the middle who just don’t want any trouble, and who may think twice about supporting more draconian policies that might otherwise be unleashed.

Andy Moore
Andy Moore
2 years ago

To the author of the article, it is people like you and your views that produce events like Trump, Brexit and the convoy. To label anything that you dislike as anti, is a lazy way of trying to get your point of view across.

Stewart B
Stewart B
2 years ago

I’m fed up of people who are tired of government bullying and authoritarian measures being labelled “anti-vax”.

It’s lazy and it’s dishonest.

Enough.

Last edited 2 years ago by Stewart B
Jon Game
Jon Game
2 years ago

As soon as a journalist uses the lazy phrase “anti-vaxxer” I know it will be a lazy piece of writing by a lazy writer. This proves the point.

Michael Craig
Michael Craig
2 years ago

A helpful historical perspective of Canada, but a VERY poor choice of title for this article: “Why Canada’s truckers will lose…”. Really? They have helped galvanize the global protests against government overreach on human rights, and there’s no going back until governments back off and recognize this dangerous folly. So how will they lose? Are our so-called democratic governments going to imprison multi-millions of non-compliant protestors? I don’t think so.

Paul MacDonnell
Paul MacDonnell
2 years ago

I got as far as ‘A “Freedom Convoy” consisting of anti-vax truckers’. Unherd, you need better subbing. This is simply false.

Laura Creighton
Laura Creighton
2 years ago

I’m originally from Canada, though I haven’t lived in the country for over 40 years. When I was growing up, part of the history of Canada that was more implied-than-taught was that the evidence of two world wars was that Canadians were, and were expected to be, braver than people from other nations. New Zealanders and Australians might dispute these claims, but, deep down we just knew we were braver. You never said anything, because that would be boastful, but … the sense was always there.
According to my father, who continues to live there, there still is a very hard limit on how long you can expect Canadians to be fearful, because being fearful is still seen as shameful in Canada. And Trudeau is, despite every effort of the media to portray him as ‘wise leader’ coming across as ‘craven coward’. I wonder if this is true for all demographics or if it is special to his?

Stuart Adams
Stuart Adams
2 years ago

Born in Canada in 1946, I moved to the UK in 2000 and am glad I did for reasons hinted at in this article. Another veteran Canadian journalist, Jeffrey Simpson, called Canada’s Liberal Party its “natural governing party” while explaining that the party’s soul objective has always been to hold power. It does that by sliding back and forth across across the broad centre of the political spectrum guided by the latest in target marketing techniques that include polling, focus groups and mining data from the web. Other than retaining power, it generally caters to investors and big business interests by supporting free trade and immigration policies that keep Canada supplied with the creme de la creme of well-qualified immigrants from middle- and low-income countries. Throw in heavy doses of smugness and sanctimonious and censorious character assassination of anyone who whispers a word of dissent and you pretty much have the picture. Currently, the Party is big on scape-goating the dead for all the country’s sins and errors, knowing full well they don’t donate, vote or sue.

Derek Bryce
Derek Bryce
2 years ago
Reply to  Stuart Adams

Yup! Got it in one.

Mikey Mike
Mikey Mike
2 years ago

About a third of the way into this article I realized I should just skip to the comments. Great comments. Dreadful article.

Trish Castle
Trish Castle
2 years ago
Reply to  Mikey Mike

Ha ha – I did exactly the same!

Sally Owen
Sally Owen
2 years ago
Reply to  Trish Castle

Likewise!…

James Longfield
James Longfield
2 years ago
Reply to  Mikey Mike

Me too

Tom Dalton
Tom Dalton
2 years ago

“Anti-vax truckers …” No. Anti-vaccine mandate truckers. While I appreciate Merriam Webster conflates anti-vax and anti-mandate, let’s not on Unherd.

Antony Hirst
Antony Hirst
2 years ago
Reply to  Tom Dalton

Well said!

D Ward
D Ward
2 years ago
Reply to  Tom Dalton

Like the BBC (and other MSM) mixing up the EU with Europe. Yet they keep doing it.

It makes me wonder if they are so dumb they don’t actually know the difference.

Michael Askew
Michael Askew
2 years ago

Unfortunately the author of this otherwise informative piece did not bother to give us a full account of the case being made by the truckers and their supporters. They were simply written off as anti-vaxxers.

Matt M
Matt M
2 years ago

I am very keen on CANZUK – the proposed free trade and free movement agreement between Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK – and would like to read more articles on UnHerd like this about the political and cultural dimensions of those (semi) Anglophone countries.
Good luck to the truckers!

Last edited 2 years ago by Matt M
Dennis Boylon
Dennis Boylon
2 years ago

The industry association is a lobbying group run by lawyers. The polls are lies. Trudeau won with what? Just over 20 percent of the vote? The truckers are true working people. They might not have even 50 percent behind them but the anger and passion behind it is real. Politicians worldwide are playing with fire. There will be a day of reckoning. Mark my words. We are not going away. We will not accept the Great Reset. Our numbers are growing

Last edited 2 years ago by Dennis Boylon
Malcolm James McKillop
Malcolm James McKillop
2 years ago

The Canadian people and the truckers have already won.The politicians have been politely told that we have had enough of their nonsense.Trudeau’s bully pulpit has been his final undoing.

Ann Roberts
Ann Roberts
2 years ago

Yes:) that was my feeling when I read the title. The truckers have connected in with a global awakening that has been taking place for months. That the mainstream (legacy) media are not reporting just pushes us all to alternative communication vehicles that completely bypass them. We are all winning and finding our voices in saying no more. so much more to come.

Last edited 2 years ago by Ann Roberts
Trish Castle
Trish Castle
2 years ago
Reply to  Ann Roberts

Here in divided New Zealand I am very grateful for the Canadian truckers and their efforts to shake people out of their complacency. It is a much needed message that, despite the expected lack of coverage by the msm, has made its way to elsewhere in the world.

Antony Hirst
Antony Hirst
2 years ago

tbh, I kind of suspect it is the other way around. Trudeau has run off for urgent calls with his WEF paymasters (or whoever whispers in his ear) to ask what to do. They don’t know what to do either. Which means they’ll all make a mess of the handing of it.
Also, very interesting contradictions here between Trudeau’s attitude to his own people and his interjections to the labour strike in India!
Oh, and “anti-vaxx”? Whenever somebody says that now, I know they are a sorry excuse of a person – sorry but politeness is not appropriate with this kind of mendacious language.

Last edited 2 years ago by Antony Hirst
Trish Castle
Trish Castle
2 years ago
Reply to  Antony Hirst

Both Trudeau and Ardern “isolating” at the same time. They must have needed time out for a Zoom call.

Alexei A
Alexei A
2 years ago
Reply to  Trish Castle

Both crowned Young Global Leaders by Schwab, as well as a bunch of others in positions of power, such as Macron, Orban, Merkel (no longer in power but an early appointee in 1993), not to mention those in other equally powerful positions, Bill Gates, Bezos and Branson. Why isn’t there an investigation into how their anointment connects to their power?

Sally Owen
Sally Owen
2 years ago
Reply to  Alexei A

This might interest you…
https://www.bitchute.com/video/M2T7vYTTZ2IK

john zac
john zac
2 years ago

Thank you. The thought police are in the midst of shutting everyone up here in the states but these truckers are in an interesting position. The US clearly doesn’t want them gaining strength or else we’ll get same down here. On the other hand, if the gov’t fights them too harshly, the move may have negative consequences. US truckers have already organized and, although this may be wishful thinking, I hope something good comes of it. The people need to rebalance power.

Sasha T.
Sasha T.
2 years ago

Being deprived of one’s bodily autonomy is not just another government policy, like a tax hike or a change in education policy. It is the beginning of an entirely new era of governance. It is enslavement. (Agamben’s ‘Homo Sacer’ is on the money here). Anyone who thinks that because they chose vaccination, it doesn’t include them: that they are not enslaved, is mistaken. If people can’t see that, I really don’t know what to say. The resultant slave state includes us all. Maybe the next mandate may be one you don’t like.Utilitarian philosopher, John Harris wrote ‘The Survival Lottery’ back in the 70s. It calls for a fairer distribution of body parts and in terms of maximising the social benefits, it makes sense. A bit more thinking ahead might be wise.

Trish Castle
Trish Castle
2 years ago
Reply to  Sasha T.

Here in NZ they will likely shortly announce that a third jab, within the space of 9 months, will be required to be able to participate in society. Those currently flashing their “vaccination certificates” to be able to go to a cafe, hairdresser, library – whatever – are about to join the Underclass if they don’t “top up”. I wonder if some of them might start to click. I have jokingly suggested to people that one day this “certificate” might include data about one’s organ count, and that when you are identified as a match for someone who will die without a “donation” a notification will pop up the next time you try to use the Pass to Freedom. “You have been identified as a potential match for someone requiring a kidney. Please visit your nearest organ harvesting centre so that the validity of your pass may be updated” Far-fetched? Maybe, but two years ago I would have thought that needing a vaccination “passport” to get a couple of books out of the library was unthinkable.

Last edited 2 years ago by Trish Castle
Scott S
Scott S
2 years ago

A great article. I knew there were a lot of ‘Rotten Boroughs’ in Canada, and there has been a certain amount of gerrymandering in the past to keep the Liberal Party in power, but I was unaware of how deep this goes. I just assumed the opposition was dire in Canada. You learn something everyday.

David Owsley
David Owsley
2 years ago
Reply to  Scott S

unfortunately that does sound interesting but I didn’t get that far due to the lies in the first paragraph.

Scott S
Scott S
2 years ago
Reply to  David Owsley

Yes, ‘Anti-Vax’ is a very poor choice of words.

h w
h w
2 years ago

I’m a descendant of the United Empire Loyalists mentioned. YES we are a peaceful nation. The totalitarian-lite brigade does not have the manpower to enforce its dystopian fantasies. Our police in BC have already refused to enforce travel restriction and they will not attack their buddies who are truckers.
The writer omitted to mention that this protest was all across Canada. People literally heard truck horns honking and went out in the temperature as cold as -30+ Celsius to stand on highway overpasses and beside roads here in Vancouver and all across our vast, beautiful and cold land. The truckers’ Go Fund Me campaign raised $10 million in a few days, a record apparently.

Zorro Tomorrow
Zorro Tomorrow
2 years ago

I couldn’t imagine 50,000 trucks until I read it. What proportion of the total is 50k? If, as they quote, 90% are vaccinated do I assume 5000 driver owners’ livelihoods are under threat? I now discover there are 700,000 trucks on the roads. Perhaps the rule makers don’t fear 7%.
I think the Freedom Convoy is very heartening and I hope lends encouragement to all anti mandate folk worldwide. A shame that charlatan Trudeau squeezed back in last September. Here in UK the covid restrictions are evaporating to nothing. Sadly, because of fear of a voter backlash against government decision making on all matters, not because it’s a realistic sensible policy.

Hardee Hodges
Hardee Hodges
2 years ago
Reply to  Zorro Tomorrow

Most of he government decisions have resulted in no reduction in cases or deaths. They are now quite aware that data is proving them wrong. Most wise governments now seek to try to stop their efforts but some in middle management are slow to understand the shift in messaging.

Michael Miles
Michael Miles
2 years ago

The article presented the conventional view of Canadian society. I have often despaired at our complacency and dependency in government. However, the continuation or strengthening of COVID restrictions in the face of excellent vaccination uptake, excellent mask compliance, diminishing morbidity and lack of any political opposition has put into question “good government “. If the trucker convoy and occupation of Ottawa only represented the 10% “anti-vaxxed”, there would have not been that many. Current poles now indicate 50/50, and changing rapidly, regarding mandates. Hopefully the winds are changing.

Warren T
Warren T
2 years ago

There we go again with the “anti-vax” label for anyone who disagrees with mandatory vaccinations. The article then states that 90% of truckers are vaxed, so how can they be “anti-vax”?
On Canadians, in general, they are a calmer sort for sure, but then again, I wonder if they would have continued to be so if Hitler was not thwarted and the U.S. decided that Europe was not worth saving back in 1944?

John Shone
John Shone
2 years ago
Reply to  Warren T

Interesting “what if”. After Dunkirk, Hitler was thwarted mostly by the Royal Navy, the RCN and merchant shipping. Meanwhile, while the British Army was reconstituting the Canadian Army was still in Britain fully intact. So that was Hitler’s sea wall in the West. Hitler thwarted himself by invading Russia. If the US had not gotten involved in the land battle in Europe then the Russians would have taken the whole thing. What would they have done with it once they’d cleaned out the Nazis is another interesting “what if”. In any case, I suspect the Canadians would have gotten bored and gone home…or perhaps decided to go fight the Japanese with the Americans.

Andrew Lale
Andrew Lale
2 years ago

Up until six years ago, I’d have not only agreed heartily with this article, I’d have cheered it. Yay for Canadian sensibleness and stability! But the last six years have shown us what whited sepulchres and immoral idiots our ‘expert’ and ‘elite’ classes are. We don’t have technocracies in the west- would that it were so. We have rule by the ‘credentialed-but-not-educated’ losers, the ugly vapid froth that has risen to the top of our society while we slept. They have no idea how the world or their own countries work, they don’t know any economics or international relations or geography. They are very certain of their own indispensability, and that’s about it. Trudeau is the poster-child for this, and Jacinda Ardern is backup. In my humble opinion, what we are seeing all over the developed world is the first stirrings of a revolt by those who actually run the country against those who simply occupy the chairs in government. The truckers are one of the primary architectural supports of Canadian life. If they stop working, so does Canada. Not true of the great collection of losers in Ottawa.

Corrie Mooney
Corrie Mooney
2 years ago

Michale makes two critical errors here.
The first is that although Canada has been very good at avoiding divisive identity politics institutionally for the past several decades, that changed in about 2017. The great awokening has not spared Canada and our PM has gone all in on it. Our multicultural society was geared exclusively towards universalism, not intersectionality. The juxtaposition will be catastrophic. The aforementioned John A. MacDonald has had his statues toppled this summer past – unjustly IMO and very much contrary to the central argument of the piece (which was valid until 2017).
The second is, like Trump, the immediate message of the truckers is not the fundamental message of the convoy. Correct, most of us don’t agree with vaccine-hesitancy, but as a populist movement this thing is winning: 38% support the convoy, while 18% are neutral. Fully 54% believe in ending COVID mandates now, as opposed to only 40% three weeks ago. Also, the media’s and government’s reaction to the convoy has been nothing less than appalling, and may well be Canada’s “deplorables” moment.

Last edited 2 years ago by Corrie Mooney
William Hickey
William Hickey
2 years ago

I advise caution to the Laurentian elite. They are indulging a frankly totalitarian ideology that focuses on division. Its adherents are zealots who are not amenable to compromise.

Ottawa and Montreal have added an array of foreign peoples and cultures to a nation that always has had a festering indigenous population problem along with an ethnic one. Adopting, even for show, the Cultural “Marxist”dialectic of oppression does not bode well for the future.

“Peace, Order and Good Government” are, when you think about it, the motto of the neoliberal worldview. It’s how Davos Man sees his own project. So did all out-of-touch elites just before the unthinkable happened.

The truckers advertise that 90% of their number are vaxxed to prove that they are only against mandates. Nine out of ten is really good compliance, a “landslide majority.”

That 90% isn’t enough is a sign that the spirit of compromise and co-optation is eroding, and that the New Left, which permits no dissent and whose true believer troops scour the battlefield to shoot the enemy wounded, is gradually gaining the cultural whip hand.

Not good.

Christopher Barclay
Christopher Barclay
2 years ago

“A “Freedom Convoy” consisting of anti-vax truckers descended on the Canadian parliament to protest cross-border vaccine mandates …” From the very start of the article a conflation of two different positions: those who are opposed to vaccines and those who are opposed to vaccines being compulsory. I doubt this was by accident. 90% of truckers may have been vaccinated. That however just shows how ridiculous it is to impose a mandate.

Ken Roberts
Ken Roberts
2 years ago

Canada is an extremely diverse and has been tolerant country, sorry Federation. Over 50% of the population lives in southern Ontario & Quebec within 150 km of the US borders. These areas are very left wing. This is where the elites and political power is concentrated. Sadly also where main stream media or as some call it GTA (greater Toronto area) media is located who Trudeau is now paying (many say bribing) hundreds of thousands monthly. Trudeau has the smallest minority in history that has formed a government with just 32%. He is being propped up by the paid for media. He does not have the support of the vast majority of Canadians. Suggesting the truckers do not have support of the majority of the people or that Trudeau does is simply not true. Canada is home to vast numbers of diverse people from everywhere. Suggesting it is a country of anti-revolutionaries from 1776 is nonsense.

Bryan Dale
Bryan Dale
2 years ago

I agree that the truckers won’t bring about an immediate change to the neo-fascist government policies, but they have given strength to conservative opponents like the Peoples Party and caught pinkish official opposition leader Erin O’Toole wrong footed. O’Toole now faces a leadership review and the trucker protest may have been the final nail in his coffin.

Molly McDougall
Molly McDougall
2 years ago
Reply to  Bryan Dale

O’Toole has lost his leadership position, and deservedly so. Unable to speak and unable to lead.

I had high hopes when he won the leadership of the Conservative Party and was repeatedly disappointed.

Dave Patterson
Dave Patterson
2 years ago

‘a recent poll put nationwide popular support for the convoy at a paltry 28%.’ – that’s not paltry, that’s enormous for a protest a few days old! – for context – Trudeau’s Liberal party got about 20% popular support at the last election, which gave him a minority government because of Canada’s idiotically antiquated voting system – the conservative party actually got more votes.

Hardee Hodges
Hardee Hodges
2 years ago
Reply to  Dave Patterson

Indeed it’s the inability to compromise among the various parties that resulted in minority rule. Watching the current debate says changes are happening. But another election (and expense) will anger many. Trudeau would do well, to simply shape-shift again, if he can.

Michael Wilhelmson
Michael Wilhelmson
2 years ago

Good article but a few corrections. We did have a revolution in 1837 in both what is now Quebec and Ontario crushed by the British (see eg Battle of St Eustache). This eventually led to constitutional reforms and an early form of what we call democracy today. Second, we are most definitely under the heal of a leftist tyranny, in the form of what you would know as affirmative action, CRT and a radical historical revisionism and endoctrination. A fake story of nun murders has produced near hysteria here (there were tree roots found, not bodies of murdered native children), our statues, like that of John A Macdonald are torn down and desecrated while police, stand down and a massive campaign of social engineering is underway in which the media mirror a society that doesn’t exist in ads, for example, projecting the world they envisage and are trying to manufacturer out of thin air. There is also no protection of civil rights here, like your bill of rights — as our “charter” has a section 1 that mandates that majority will shall overrides religious freedoms, and other fundamental freedoms (see trinity west decision SCC). So, back to the point, I agree, the truckers are likely to fail… but not because we dont have a tradition of revolution, and not because things are so much less toxic politically, but because the technocratic managerial therapeutic anarcho-terrorist state here is well entrenched, 90% of the population is adequately controled through public education and state media, and has access to no other sources of information (and has no interest in other sources of information), and Trudeau has massive popular support from people who are easily MK Ultra’d by one image of a Confederate flag… despite the fact we weren’t slave owners and the Union army did not invade Ontario (which most Canadian school children would have trouble spotting as a lie).

Hardee Hodges
Hardee Hodges
2 years ago

The politics in Canada are quite fractured which is why Trudeau, a minority candidate was able to become PM. The multiple parties fracture and gaining a majority involves great compromise. Watching the Parliament debate is helpful in seeing a new shift in the yeas. The trucker action will cause change. It’s not just the huge traffic jam, but empty shelves that must affect response.

Chauncey Gardiner
Chauncey Gardiner
2 years ago

“…while a recent poll put nationwide popular support for the convoy at a paltry 28%.
Except that the poll was not about “support for the convoy,” was it? not even close.
This is a nicely composed piece, but I have got plenty of other things to read or write that don’t strategically twist facts. You’ve got a credibility problem. Not good, UnHerd.

Fran Martinez
Fran Martinez
2 years ago

Paltry 28%? What’s the support for extinction rebellion, Joe Biden, or even Trudeau?

That 1 in 3 people agree with truckers blocking the capital of their nation has nothing of paltry.

By the way 28% is much higher than the effectiveness of vaccines against Omicron.

marielandry25
marielandry25
2 years ago

Of the 24 paragraphs that I have just read, only the first is any reflection of the Canada that I live in.
#2 No, the “Freedom Convoy” did not explode internationally because Canada is usually boring, (which it may be) but because this is an inspiring phenomenon that resonates with millions of global citizens. If it had happened in France or Russia, it would have “blown up” too.
#3 No, there is not every reason to believe that the trucking associations’ disavowal of the protest is somehow more representative of public sentiment than the very enthusiastic support shown by thousands of citizens standing for hours and hours in the freezing wind on roadsides and bridges.
Nor is it the case that minds have not been changed, including the non-minds of politicians.
#4 No, Canada was not founded as a rebuttal to democratic principles, any more than its history began on one day in 1759 or 1867 or 1870 or 1871 or 1898 or 1905 or 1949 or 1999. There’s a lot more history to the place than the record of administrative organization.
#5 Same as #4.
#6 More astonishment that an inchoate nation is not preoccupied with revolution. Then follows a superficial recounting of historical detail that is claimed to demonstrate that ‘revolution’ in any shape could never occur in Canada.
If that’s not enough trite dismissal, we are treated to the clueless characterization of the western half of the country as “perpetually dissatisfied”. What are they dissatisfied with? Their lives? Their wives? The Federal government? What do the people of Ontario have to say about Alberta? Are they “perpetually dissatisfied”?
Yes, Trudeau wants you to believe that the truckers and the others want to establish a white-skinned nation where civility is abolished and reverence for fallen soldiers is trampled into oblivion. Apparently, a number of the CBC audience have been duly convinced that this is so, but it is very likely that they will be pleasantly surprised when it finally dawns on them that these millions of people aren’t looking for revolution; they’re seeking the removal of irrationally conceived restrictions on the lives of specific groups of the populace.

Andrew Horsman
Andrew Horsman
2 years ago

It’s curious to say the least that no mention is made in this article of Trudeau the Younger’s status as a WEF Young Leader. Has his close involvement in the WEF shaped his liberal-authoritarian politics? Is the WEF leadership under Herr Schwab using the model adopted by Canada in the time of Trudeau the Elder to pre-empt revolutionary movements against their utopian (ie dystopian) vision of a global communitarianism from which they want there to be no escape for anyone misfortunate enough to share a planet with these psychotic, deluded, anxiety-ridden egoists?

David Batlle
David Batlle
2 years ago

Long story short, Canada is a nation of Sheeple. Got it.

h w
h w
2 years ago

Just spoke with a quiet nurse caring for elderly folks who immigrated here – to Canada – from the Philippines. She has all her shots only because she needs them to keep her job. She wants an end to mandates. % injected does not equate to % who agree, not matter how much the media pretends that it does.

Bret Larson
Bret Larson
2 years ago

I think you overestimate the good governance that has been going on. The last 6 years the Liberals have spent the labour of the current generation and the next in an effort to stay in power by buying votes.
The current inflation is the empty sign on the treasury.
The fiscal problems are only the start. The Laurentide elites have also sold the constitutional rights down the river with their vote buying. As a consequence we were seeing things like church burnings and environmental money grabs, with no end in sight except a paucity of statues to topple.
So those are the rock and the hard place and the pandemic restrictions, designed to accommodate the faithful liberal voters, is what is pushing them together.
And of course, then you have Trudeau shouting, let them eat cake, from his bunker somewhere in eastern canada. Should be an interesting spring.

Last edited 2 years ago by Bret Larson
miss pink
miss pink
2 years ago

They will just have to accept that they are up against one of the most entrenched and hegemonic ruling classes anywhere in the Western world: the “Laurentian elites” and their instrument for wielding power, the Liberal Party. – I don’t think this is new information to those protesting. The aim isn’t to overthrow the government but to force them to listen to what they have to say. Trudeau’s description of them as a ‘fringe group’ was a big error of judgement for him. By hiding away he is revealed as a laughing stock and a coward. Coming out and addressing a hostile crowd, could have been a win for him especially if it provoked some bad behaviour!! Having excused violent responses to the non existent mass grave scandal which included burning churches etc claims that the truckers are all far right loons ring absolutely hollow especially as in spite of a mainstream news blackout livestream footage of truckers playing ice hockey and receiving food parcels are streaming into homes. This action has garnered huge support from all over Canada because people want change and has sparked off similar actions world wide. I’m in!

Andrzej Wasniewski
Andrzej Wasniewski
2 years ago

Yes the y may loose. Southern Canada is densely populated by the sheeple, natural born subjects worshiping the government. Canada has an official religion. And the truckers are protesting against mandatory injections, that means that they may be populists but they are first and foremost antifascists.

Last edited 2 years ago by Andrzej Wasniewski
Peter Whitehead
Peter Whitehead
2 years ago

The author seems to suggest that it’s a small scale protest and that it won’t really affect Trudeau or change his ways. Can he explain why the Trudeau appears to have done a runner and gone into hiding? Oh, he’s got Covid (again for the 2nd time). Didn’t he do the vaccine?
I remember some Eastern Blic tyrants doing a runner. It didn’t help one of them though I wouldn’t actually want a firing squad for the pratt, just a lesson in humility.

Rasmus Fogh
Rasmus Fogh
2 years ago

Did all my posts just get removed?
No hard feelings – I’ve had a good run and it is not my web site – but it would be nice to be told what happened and why.
CORRECTION. It was just on this page, and they seem to be back now.

Last edited 2 years ago by Rasmus Fogh
Laura Creighton
Laura Creighton
2 years ago
Reply to  Rasmus Fogh

Comments from you on other articles still exist, was it just the ones to this article that got removed?

Laura Creighton
Laura Creighton
2 years ago
Reply to  Rasmus Fogh

Well, the things you posted here aren’t back, it just seems that you can now post more things here. At any rate, if you are sincerely interested in why the vaccine hesitant are hesitant, you can start here with Jordan Peterson’s pod cast of Norman Doidge
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfEkp_TFvY0
or the text version in Tablet magazine
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/science/articles/needle-points-vaccinations-chapter-one
(grrr, in approval)

Last edited 2 years ago by Laura Creighton
h w
h w
2 years ago

TRUCKERS THANK POLICE FOR BRING THEM HOT FOOD. The Great Tea Set beats out the Reset any day. Canadians are polite! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuBau-yGAG8

David Smith
David Smith
2 years ago

Hey Michael, why didn’t you just save yourself the bother of writing a short uninteresting essay and just scribble down, ‘Hey these truckers eh’ what a bunch of losers, with their human rights and freedom to speak and be heard nonsense. Get down of your high trucks and learn to be ants and bees, just like us – resistance is futile.

Last edited 2 years ago by David Smith
Andrzej Wasniewski
Andrzej Wasniewski
2 years ago

decision by some of them to carry Confederate and “Don’t Tread on Me” flags does not help — nor does desecrating the National War Memorial. “
It came obviously at the end of the article. But it is enough to read this sentence to understand the author intentions. The preferred method used by MSM is to find one idiot with Nazi flag and smear thousands participants of any even they dislike.
The author could find out what the protesters reaction was to those events but why bother.
Michael Cuenco is undistinguishable from countless others swimming in the sewage that corporate media has become. The stench is recognizable.

David Kingsworthy
David Kingsworthy
2 years ago

“….(they) looked south of the border with horror (as many Canadians do now) — thanks for that, made me snort!
Notwithstanding the lack of sources for polls in this article, I suspect most Canadians are perhaps more likely to indicate docility in polls than they are when protests come round their neighborhood.

Dustshoe Richinrut
Dustshoe Richinrut
2 years ago

Canada must still be like religiously conservative places like Scotland or Northern Ireland and would therefore seem to be too fussy and stuffy for even church-going Trumpians south of the border. The new fussiness and stuffiness that is characterised by the showiness of also having the finger on the pulse of youth culture draws in the generations together. The Bible-thumpers have therefore emerged with a slant towards the Left. Less Bible-thumper than moral busybody, though. Unlike America, Canada has adapted well in terms of polishing its international image.

Derek Bryce
Derek Bryce
2 years ago

I’ve lived in both Scotland and Canada and, while you may have a point about cultural similarities between the two and general over-deference to authority, saying that this is drawn from both countries’ current religious conservativism is way off. Both are as secular as most other western democracies.
What might be correct, in Scotland anyway, is that the lingering cultural memory of Calvinism may help to explain Nicola Sturgeon’s prim, prissy, nouveau Knox covid rules, intended largely to demonstrate petty, holier than thou purity in relation to the English and having the effect of making a swift trip to Newcastle or Carlisle for a good time an increasingly appealing prospect for thirsty Scots, yearning to breathe free.
I suspect something similar may be afoot in Canada where, for all its many societal virtues, it’s something of a national sport to look aghast south of the border at what those overly individualistic,unrestrained, libertine Americans are up to now, clutch your pearls, reach for the smelling salts and pride your Canadian self on being different for being different’s sake. I’m convinced this is the only reason why Canada’s retained the monarchy.
I’m not trying to be disrespectful – I’m a Canadian as well as Scottish born U.K. citizen and love both, but self-aware residents of both countries know I’m right, even if many won’t say so publicly.

Last edited 2 years ago by Derek Bryce
stephen archer
stephen archer
2 years ago
Reply to  Derek Bryce

I have to agree with your comments on Scotland. My impression of Canada is that there are a lot of similarities to Sweden in terms of liberal views and politics and being a socialist society where high taxes, extensive social benefits and liberal immigration policies are the norm, although I may be wrong in some respects. Swedes have tended to have a superiority complex in believing that everything Swedish is undoubtedly better than from other countries, irrespective of it being correct or not, and often coming from those who don’t have a lot of knowledge of what it’s like in those countries. During the pandemic the situation has largely been the opposite with other countries looking down at Sweden, particularly the less hard hit Nordic countries with better statistics. Possibly due to a competent and fairly well respected public health organisation they’ve avoided the excesses and abuse of power shown by people like Sturgeon and Trudeau. Limited vaccine mandates have been mooted for elderly care but there’s not been a lot of contentious discussion otherwise and I don’t think the government will go anywhere near what Austria is doing.
I’m not sure if the historical, religious or cultural issues have a lot to do with how the pandemic has been mismanaged in Canada, Scotland or other countries. The common denominator has been fear, panic and mindless reactions by both experts and governments in Western society where ignorance and total disregard for true science and evidence based measures have dominated. If I’m to speculate and risk being labelled as giving credence to a plausible theory then based on what I’ve read and listened to a probable reason for this is an underlying movement dating back to around 2015 with a plan being put into action, influencing and manipulating on a grand scale.

Derek Bryce
Derek Bryce
2 years ago
Reply to  stephen archer

Thanks Stephen and your comparison between Canada and Sweden sounds more plausible than my own.

John Shone
John Shone
2 years ago
Reply to  Derek Bryce

This Canuck thinks your description is on the money and amusing to boot.

Derek Bryce
Derek Bryce
2 years ago
Reply to  John Shone

Thanks, eh! 😉

Last edited 2 years ago by Derek Bryce
Dustshoe Richinrut
Dustshoe Richinrut
2 years ago
Reply to  Derek Bryce

It’s interesting how a very Catholic Quebec changed seemingly quite quickly into a secular nationalist place, beginning in the 1960s. Perhaps Quebec is a forerunner of Scotland which, as you point out, has also become secular and nationalist. Scotland has, however, become very hoity-toity. Perhaps Quebec is isolated enough like Queensland to not bother. Nationalist but not moralist.
Perhaps I shall read a book on Quebec.
I don’t think it’s too way off to say that the religious conservative aspects of both Scotland and Canada have fed into the new puritanism that’s heavy in the air. Churches have gone woke there, I imagine. Rural ones suffered arson attacks in Canada. There has been real pressure for a new mode of behaving. But little old me has a very limited view. And I may be mischaracterising much of the real situation. But I have been to Canada. And I have been to a big city church there. Recently.

Derek Bryce
Derek Bryce
2 years ago

The few remaining churches in Scotland are poorly attended with a few exceptions. Scotland mirrors the rest of the U.K. in its overall lack of religiosity. Some of those remaining have been converted into rather nice pubs/restaurants. I take neither joy nor sadness in this. It is what it is. Try not to imagine.Try instead to know. If you can’t travel to a place, the judicious, critical use of the internet can be your friend.
Canada is not a religiously conservative country either, on the whole although more so than the U.K. and, naturally religious conservatives live there as they do in any country, as is their right. Again, I take no particular view on this. It is what it is.

Andrew Salkeld
Andrew Salkeld
2 years ago

What an extraordinary group of responses to this article. I am Canadian and the article resonates strongly with what most of my neighbours
and friends think in freezing Quebec.
It’s the violence of the commentary that just does not resonate with the Canadian experience.

Lena Bloch
Lena Bloch
2 years ago

Since when working class resistance to persecution and oppression is “right wing populism”? Since when people who struggle for freedom and sovereignty are “right wing” at all? Who is “left wing” then, those who are totalitarian? Oligarchs at the top of power and those who genuflect to them, are “left” now?
Or, in short, is civil disobedience “right wing” and “white supremacist”?

Last edited 2 years ago by Lena Bloch
miss pink
miss pink
2 years ago
Reply to  Lena Bloch

Yes, the group formerly known as left wing are totalitarian and yes, civil disobedience is right wing. This has been happening for a while now.

Julie Kemp
Julie Kemp
2 years ago

Mr Cuenco’s statement seems like a good general assessment to this Australian who is not well informed in Canadian ‘history’.
However i admire the current roadshow in Canada in terms of its energy to express apparent (and likely less apparent) concerns with those in governance – if that is what it is (as compared to rule which it seems it rather is.) It is good to FEEL the energy of conviction, pain and suffering – for it TELLS.
Such ‘tells’ bespeak of a deeper and more real honesty of consciousness that cannot be denied. Top poker players and behavioural scientists can attest to such. Such is similar to archaeological ‘tells’ which demonstrate this on that plane too – ie, riches of one sort or another lie below and add to greater knowledge, even empowerment that may come with that find.
So such a mass (the Truckers) demonstrates the deep and wide origin of feeling and concern that must be expressed culturally. This is healthy for the body politic albeit with some reckless and feckless tainted doings (boils) as given in Mr Cuenco’s opinion piece. Signs and symptoms in good medicine are a great analogy in political ‘science’.
I’m in my 70’s and the tiresome phrase, ‘in this day and age’, it again seems ‘we’ sure have defaulted to knee-jerk reactions aplenty and really lost cohesion culturally and socially on every level around the world which is vibrating at such a higher pitch of vainglory and ‘perverted incentives’. The Trucker Drive is a valiant effort of showing concern and rightly seeking redress and a healthier equilibrium in and for the national identity – whether Canadian or another.
Bon Chance, Canada. Good Luck, World.

Last edited 2 years ago by Julie Kemp
Charles Elliston
Charles Elliston
2 years ago

I wonder what the author will now say after the extraordinary action of Trudeau in introducing the emergency actions? The one thing about this protest is that it has been covered by a large number of ‘live streamers’, so claims of confederate flags and desecration of the war memorial, the infiltration of extreme right wingers can easily be disproved in real time. In fact over the two or three weeks the only violence I have observed is from the authorities. The riding of horses into a peaceful crowd for example. As for it only being a protest of the truckers is easily dismissed, the streets over the period being filled with a steady flow of people from all generations and walks of life giving their support.

Nicky Samengo-Turner
Nicky Samengo-Turner
2 years ago

“The world does not pay much attention to Ottawa”… he says… ditto Canada….

Elaine Giedrys-Leeper
Elaine Giedrys-Leeper
2 years ago

Not all sweetness and light in downtown Ottawa, looking at Angela Hewitt’s twitter feed (trying to practise Bach’s Art of Fugue).

Ian Stewart
Ian Stewart
2 years ago

Excellent article. Rather amusing to see the activist Unherd commenters railing against the socialist conservatism of Canada that permeates its culture.
Keep shouting guys – the wind is listening.

Last edited 2 years ago by Ian Stewart
Will Cummings
Will Cummings
2 years ago
Reply to  Ian Stewart

And you don’t need a weatherman to see which way the wind blows
Bobby Zimmerman

Russell Hamilton
Russell Hamilton
2 years ago

I enjoyed reading this informative article. I was reminded of Australia here: “Thus, modern Canada was born in 1867 with the motto “peace, order and good government” — a somewhat authoritarian-sounding reply to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. That motto might have been used by our Governor-General in 1975, when, using the powers of the Queen, he turfed out the elected (Labor) government and installed (a conservative) one more to his liking. No revolution ensued. We on the left waited patiently until 1983 when the electors voted in a Labor government and ‘peace, order and good government’ were reinstated.

Last edited 2 years ago by Russell Hamilton
SULPICIA LEPIDINA
SULPICIA LEPIDINA
2 years ago

Really?
Have you already forgotten the deplorable behaviour of the Australian Government during the recent Scamdemic?
So much for “good government”. It was even worse than us*!

(* with the notable exception of Wales, Northern Ireland & Scotland.)

Last edited 2 years ago by SULPICIA LEPIDINA
Doug Pingel
Doug Pingel
2 years ago

The GG dissolved parliament because of an impasse over the Supply Vote (Federal Budget). As the GG had been a Labour politician it is wrong to say that he “turfed” them out in favour of a Parliament more to his liking’. He wanted a resolution of the Budget problem and a general election seemed, to him, the best way out. I was living in Lane Cove at that time as a crew member of a Brit ‘O’ Boat attached to Aussubron one based in HMAS Platypus, Neutral Bay. I do remember the comments of Labour politicians at the time but as the GG replied – He was given that job to be fair to all Australians not just Labour supporters.

Last edited 2 years ago by Doug Pingel