What Is A Conscientious Voter To Do?

I think we all realize that democracy in many parts of the world, including our own, is in a state of malaise. The threats we face are not simply the obvious ones like cyberattacks, shadowy sources of funding for insidious trucker convoys and rampant disinformation.

Many of our problems are from within, with leaders who stand for little but a deep avidity for winning elections. That certainly seems to be the case in Ontario today.

There is the current premier, Doug Ford, in full campaign mode as he promises to surrender over $1 billion in rebates for licence sticker renewal fees going back to 2020; henceforth, there will no longer be fees, making the billion-dollar revenue loss permanent.. As well, the ending of two toll roads will leave an additional deep gap in provincial coffers, because, according to Doug, it's our money, not the government's.

Ford is counting on people selling their votes to him on the basis of slim individual savings at a future cost of slashed programs that all Ontario has access to. And in that, he may not be wrong, as he is not the only cheerleader for this 'relief.'

Predictably, but odiously, Ontario NDP has jumped on the bandwagon, something leader Andrea Horwath seems to have a particular knack for. (One may recall that in a previous election foray, all she could talk about was helping small businesses, with nary a word about working folk.)

Marin Regg Cohn writes:

If political leftists can’t beat the right-wing premier at his own game, they might as well join him in cutting government revenues. Which is why the loudest victory lap, after Ford’s Tories rescinded tolls in Durham, came from NDP Leader Andrea Horwath.

 “Today is a victory,” Horwath exulted after Ford’s announcement, congratulating her Oshawa MPP Jennifer French — a New Democrat facing a tough re-election battle against the Tories — and the local activists she teamed up with to “free the 412 and 418” highways. Never mind that Bob Rae’s NDP government pioneered toll roads with Highway 407 in the 1990s, today’s New Democrats are firmly opposed.

Next, Horwath announced she was going along with Ford’s campaign-style announcement Tuesday to remove the annual license plate renewal fee. It wasn’t an NDP priority, she pointed out — small beer, perhaps — yet Horwath pointedly refused to say how she would make up the money to pay for her party’s other priorities.

It seems that whenever Horwath's party, instead of displaying principle and integrity, pursues anything that might get them into office while still insisting they are being steadfast.

“When it comes to the amount of money that’s being refunded, all of those pieces, I’m not particularly opposed to it,” Horwath told reporters.

Yet in the same breath, she restated NDP priorities to spend more on education, housing, health care, long-term care and child care. Where would that money come from?

Apparently, she is making some of the same assumptions about the mental acuity and character of the electorate that Doug Ford is making.

What is a conscientious voter to do? 

 

Truly Vile, Truly Racist

For those who have the delusion the trucker convoy that held Ottawa hostage for three weeks was but a benign display of patriotic fervour, please explain to me how a threatening, racist punk like Pat King became one of its leaders.

Warning: the following is quite vile, but it exposes the ugliness of King very effectively:

P.S.  Fellow Albertan Kerry Komix, who offered to put up 50K at his bail hearing today, is sure that these videos have been altered. Having met the miscreant four weeks ago, she had this to say:

"I do know that's not the person that I know," Komix said of the videos. "I know he loves everyone and does not discriminate, that's the person I know." 

I Rather Enjoyed This

Hope you do too.

H/t Alberta MD War Room

The Mockery They Deserve

While one shouldn't minimize the seriousness of what is going on in Ottawa, Jordan Klepper of The Daily Show metes out some well-deserved mockery of the mooks who have kidnapped our nation's capital.

Enjoy!

Such A Quandary

With such a fluid situation in Ottawa, what are opportunistic demagogues to do?

H/t Theo Moudakis

Breaking News!

 

Given the failure of police to stare down the hijackers in Windsor, Public Safety Minister Bill Blair says we are going to have to learn "to live with blockades."

Drs.Theresa Tam and Kieran Moore concur.

- more to come.

Threats From Within and Without

                                  

 

There seems to be a growing acknowledgement that the trucker siege of Ottawa and various border crossings is not simply a home-grown movement to end Covid-19 mandates. Increasingly, it looks like both an international and a domestic effort to destabilize democracy and sow distrust of our political structures.

Judging by the impotent response of various levels of government, it seems the latter is being accomplished, although a few minutes ago Ontario Premier Doug Ford declared a state of emergency. What action that translates into is yet to be seen.

A number of journalistic investigations are currently ongoing, one of which Owen writes about today in his blog, citing David Climenhaga's piece in The Tyee about American influence and funding of these illegal actions. Both are well-worth your time.

While the interference of external actors is significant, there is, unfortunately, formidable domestic facilitation of what has essentially become an insurrection. Judy Trinh notes the involvement of former military and RCMP personnel:

The group Police on Guard, formed during the pandemic, has endorsed the truck convoy.

The organization says it has "boots on the ground" in Ottawa and has linked to YouTube videos of its members participating in the protest.

Furthermore, the leadership team for the protesters calling themselves the Freedom Convoy includes:  

• Daniel Bulford, a former RCMP officer who was on the prime minister's security detail. He quit last year after refusing to get the vaccine and is the convoy's head of security.

• Tom Quiggin, a former military intelligence officer who also worked with the RCMP and was considered one of the country's top counter-terrorism experts.

• Tom Marazzo, an ex-military officer who, according to his LinkedIn profile, served in the Canadian Forces for 25 years and now works as a freelance software developer. 

While all three have interesting backgrounds, Quiggin's is especially noteworthy.

During his tenure at the RCMP, Quiggin was a member of the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (INSET), which was created to thwart terror threats following 9/11. At INSET, Quiggin worked alongside top officials at CSIS, Canada's spy agency, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and municipal police forces.

 Bulford, the former RCMP officer, seems to have a cozy relationship with the authorities:

"[Police] all know that this group is here for everybody, and I make a point of saying to other police officers, when I see them, it's like, 'Just so you know, in my mind and in my heart, we're doing this for all of you as well,'" said Bulford.

 A Twitter video posted by Trinh this morning speaks volumes. Be sure to watch the entire, incredible clip:

This spirit of fraternity is in addition to the skills that have been brought to the siege.

Michael Kempa, an associate professor of criminology at the University of Ottawa, says the convoy's policing and military expertise can be seen in the co-ordination of their activities in downtown Ottawa.

"They have this sort of military or police or at least survivalist training. Look at the sophistication of what they're setting up in terms of an encampment in downtown Ottawa," said Kempa, who studies policing across Canada.

"It looks like a military operation."

As examples, Kempa pointed to the tents and wooden structures used for kitchens that organizers have set up and the supply chain that has sprung up across the city to keep people fed, working and protesting. 

All in all, a very well-orchestrated and well-coordinated operation that did not emerge at random. If we are to retain faith in our government structures, something the insurrectionists are trying very hard to erode, it is now time to act with resolve and dispatch to end the hostage-taking of Ottawa and at our various border crossings.