Canada General Discussion (2019-)

[Benjamin Frank]

Deputy Speaker will be Chris d'Entremont. Also, the Conservatives didn't resign from the Committee, they are boycotting it, instead.

Thanks for the information. 

1.Chris d'Entremont was previously appointed as the Deputy Shadow Minister for Public Safety, will he be stepping down/removed from this post given this appointment as Deputy Speaker?

2.Boycott/resign, I think is more or less a distinction without a difference.  For instance, I'm pretty sure the Conservatives did not announce new appointments or re-appointments to this committee but then added 'though they have been appointed, they will continue to boycott.'

[Benjamin Frank]

There were an additional 28 deputy shadow ministers for a grand total of 83 in the official opposition shadow cabinet or caucus officers.

So ridiculous that "leadership" has so many people.

How many of Trudeau's ministers control zero or minimal budgets/staffs tied to their position?

I don't specifically know.  There are a couple points here more generally though:
1.I break down the cabinet into 28 senior ministers and 11 junior ministers. There are actually 29 senior ministries but Dominic Leblanc is responsible for two of them: Intergovernmental Affairs and Infrastructure and Communities.  Although my basis for this is more than just my personal views of the merits of each ministry, I don't know specifically every minister that should be considered a junior minister.

2.The Justin Trudeau government passed a law to remove the 'junior ministry' designation and make all ministers DeJure equal anyway.  However, I think a better way to look at that rather than this law is 'which ministers have a department or even their own Deputy Minister.

One sign over the last 6 years of a DeFacto junior minister is that Trudeau keeps doing away with them.  In the last Parliament there were ministries of 'Middle Class prosperity' and 'Digital Government' that have both been wiped out.  Previous to that, Bill Blair was the Minister of Border Security that was wiped out when he was named Public Safety Minister, and Kirsty Duncan was the Minister for Science (blue sky science) that was eliminated when she was dropped from the cabinet.

 A number of these portfolios that I classify as junior ministers I know don't have their own departments, but I don't actually know which ones of them:

1.Housing
2.Seniors
3.Mental Health and Addictions
4.Northern Affairs
5.Emergency Preparedness
6.Southern Ontario Economic Development Agency
7.Tourism
8.Rural Economic Development
9.Sport
10.Women and Gender Equality and Youth
11.Official Languages

Of these, Mental Health and Addictions and Housing are new ministries.  At this time in Canada both are important, but situations like these had been previously handled by Parliamentary Secretaries to Ministers with specific responsibilities.  

Rural Economic Development and Seniors are the only ones of these ministries to be handed off to a new minister.  Official Languages had been previously tied to the Heritage Ministry I think, Emergency Preparedness had been part of the Ministry of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness and Women and Gender Equality and Youth had been previously handled by a minister who had additional responsibilities.

I don't know where 'Sport' was prior to this, and Tourism had been part of the Ministry of Economic Development which combined all 6 of the regional economic development agencies into one ministry.  The minister for Southern Ontario Economic Development, Helena Jaczek, is the only minister for whom this is their sole responsibility in cabinet.

Overall, there are 39 Ministers including the Prime Minister, which is about 1/4 of the caucus.

[Benjamin Frank]

Northern Manitoba NDP MLA Danielle Adams died in a car crash last night.       
There might be more political aspects to this, but I don't think now is the time.

https://winnipeg.ctvnews.ca/manitoba-mla-dies-after-car-crash-near-thompson-ndp-1.5701554

[Benjamin Frank]

There were an additional 28 deputy shadow ministers for a grand total of 83 in the official opposition shadow cabinet or caucus officers.

These are the 36 Conservative M.Ps left out:
British Columbia
1.Rob Morrison
2.Mark Strahl
3.Mark Dalton

Alberta
4.Chris Warkentin
5.Shannon Stubbs
6.Rachael Harder
7.Glen Motz
8.Arnold Viersen
9.Earl Dreeshen
10.Gerald Soroka
11.Michael Cooper
12.Greg McLean
13.Len Webber
14.Bob Benzen
15.Pat Kelly
16.Tom Kmiec
17.Ron Liepert

Saskatchewan
18.Rosemarie Falk
19.Kelly Block
20.Jeremy Patzer
21.Robert Kitchener
22.Cathay Wagantall
23.Michael Kram

Manitoba
24.Dan Mazier
25.Ted Falk
26.Marty Morantz

Ontario
27.Cheryl Gallant
28.Alex Ruff
29.Kyle Seeback
30.Dean Allison
31.Leslyn Lewis
32.Dave MacKenzie
33.Marilyn Gladu
34.Colin Carrie

Quebec
35.Joel Godin

New Brunswick
36.John Williamson

Some of them are not really left out, as the Deputy Speaker (Bruce Stanton retired, so maybe Joel Godin or Marc Dalton?) is not named yet, neither are commission chairs (Warkentin was Ethics chair, Gladu was Status of Women chair (through I assume she will be replaced), Kitchen (not Kitchener) was chair of Government Operations, Block was chair of Public Accounts and Allison was co-chair of Regulations).

The new Ethics chair is Pat Kelly (Calgary Rocky Ridge). Karen Vecchio (Elgin-Middlesex-London) for Status of Women. Government Operations and Public Accounts first meeting is on Thursday.

Public Accounts chair is Tom Kmiec (Calgary Shepard) and Robert Kitchen has been returned as Government Operations chair.

Thanks! Surprised Marty Morantz wasn't elected Public Accounts Chair.

[Benjamin Frank]

There were an additional 28 deputy shadow ministers for a grand total of 83 in the official opposition shadow cabinet or caucus officers.

These are the 36 Conservative M.Ps left out:
British Columbia
1.Rob Morrison
2.Mark Strahl
3.Mark Dalton

Alberta
4.Chris Warkentin
5.Shannon Stubbs
6.Rachael Harder
7.Glen Motz
8.Arnold Viersen
9.Earl Dreeshen
10.Gerald Soroka
11.Michael Cooper
12.Greg McLean
13.Len Webber
14.Bob Benzen
15.Pat Kelly
16.Tom Kmiec
17.Ron Liepert

Saskatchewan
18.Rosemarie Falk
19.Kelly Block
20.Jeremy Patzer
21.Robert Kitchener
22.Cathay Wagantall
23.Michael Kram

Manitoba
24.Dan Mazier
25.Ted Falk
26.Marty Morantz

Ontario
27.Cheryl Gallant
28.Alex Ruff
29.Kyle Seeback
30.Dean Allison
31.Leslyn Lewis
32.Dave MacKenzie
33.Marilyn Gladu
34.Colin Carrie

Quebec
35.Joel Godin

New Brunswick
36.John Williamson

Some of them are not really left out, as the Deputy Speaker (Bruce Stanton retired, so maybe Joel Godin or Marc Dalton?) is not named yet, neither are commission chairs (Warkentin was Ethics chair, Gladu was Status of Women chair (through I assume she will be replaced), Kitchen (not Kitchener) was chair of Government Operations, Block was chair of Public Accounts and Allison was co-chair of Regulations).

The new Ethics chair is Pat Kelly (Calgary Rocky Ridge). Karen Vecchio (Elgin-Middlesex-London) for Status of Women. Government Operations and Public Accounts first meeting is on Thursday.

Public Accounts chair is Tom Kmiec (Calgary Shepard) and Robert Kitchen has been returned as Government Operations chair.

Thanks! Surprised Marty Morantz wasn't elected Public Accounts Chair.

He is not even sitting on that committee, he is only seating on the Foreign Affairs committee (of which he is vice-chair).

Well, he should be!

[Benjamin Frank]

I agree it's disappointing, but there isn't much incentive for them to vote for the OLP or ONDP either, though.

Considering Ford needs Ford-Trudeau voters in the GTA to win I am not sure I agree with this take. These people are perfectly comfortable voting for the Liberals (as evidenced by the recent federal election where the Liberals basically swept the region). If PCs are going introduce restrictions and be the same as OLP/ONDP then these voters may decide their vote based on other issues which may not be great for the PCs.

The problem is, the OLP is in a bad place. They constantly lag behind in fundraising, they haven't attracted much top talent (and lost one in Michael Couteau, who traded being the most prominent Liberal in the ON legislature for a position as a Trudeau backbencher), and the leader offers nothing in particular. Nor is the NDP ascendant, Horwath continues to be a pretty unremarkable leader, and unless Ford reeeeeally screws up, I can't see the NDP making gains.

The best hope for the anti-Ford wing of Ontario politics is that the NDP holds onto about 30% of the vote and most of their current seats, the Liberal recover to about 25% and pick up traditionally Liberal seats in Toronto and parts of the 905, and Ford alienates just enough of his base to see turnout drop - culminating in a minority situation where the centre-left can gang up on the PCs.

Not if you consider bankers to be top talent.  The Ontario Liberals have so far nominated about 10 former bankers as candidates. I'm not sure what's behind that.

1.Kanata-Carleton, Shahbaz Syed, Export Development Canada Financing Manager/Former Bank Risk Manager

2.Oakville-North Burlington Kaniz Mouli, RBC Senior Manager - Change and Engagement

3.Kitchener-Conestoga, Melanie Van Alphen, Former Scotia Bank Manager of Customer Service and Senior Personal Banking Officer

4.Oshawa, Catherine Moses, Bank Vice President of Compliance

5.Brampton South, Marilyn Raphael, T.D Asset Management Vice President Business and Product Governance

6.Richmond Hill, Roozbah Farhadi, Scotia Bank Small Business Development Manager

7.Don Valley West, Stephanie Bowman, Former Scotia Bank Senior Vice President, Former Bank of Canada Finance Committee Member

8.University-Rosedale, Andrea Barrack, T.D Bank Global Head Sustainability and Corporate Citizen

also
1.Kingston and the Islands, Ted Hsu, the former Liberal M.P for the riding from 2011-2015 (and the only PhD physicist in Parliament at the time) was previously the Morgan Stanley Tokyo Office Executive Director

2.Mississauga-East Cooksville, Dipika Demela the MPP up to the 2018 election who is running again was an RBC Corporate Banker

[Benjamin Frank]

Ontario has a long history of being fairly nanny statist in its mentality so its not really out of character.  Yes may seem so for a Tory government, but Ford seems to want to be liked more than sticking to principles so no surprise.  If PCs had a different leader, they would have ignored this.

After all Ontario, Ontario still banned Sunday shopping and I believe even Sunday liquor sales at restaurants until early 90s.  And for liquor rules, Ontario seems quite archaic for anyone from Europe save maybe the Nordic Countries.  Likewise until recently speed limits were only 100 km/h on 400 highway series when in most European countries, they would be 120 or 130 for similar designed highways.  So it does sort of fit within the party.  Western Canada I find is much less risk averse than Ontario, Quebec, and Atlantic Canada.  What is interesting is no province in Atlantic Canada has gone into lockdown as unlike Ontario, they haven't had a really bad COVID wave until now and are smashing records with more than half their cases in last month since beginning of pandemic yet none of them have gone into full lockdown.  All have restrictions, but they are comparable to BC or most European countries save England and Netherlands (former looser than anything in Canada, latter comparable to Quebec minus the curfew).

It was the Bob Rae NDP government that lifted the ban on Sunday shopping in Ontario.  It was an interesting exercise for me because this was the first time I realized that interest groups act differently when a party they support is in power to one they oppose, and that interest groups will even outright lie.

The initial impulse of the NDP on Sunday shopping was to conduct a survey because they were afraid of backlash from the people who would have to work on Sunday who might not want to.  Sunday shopping had been illegal in Ontario since I don't know when, but the reaction to this from the business community, especially the retail businesses, was as if the NDP was suddenly the government considering implementing the ban on Sunday shopping, not the government that was considering lifting the ban.

For years and years, because the retail businesses supported both the P.C and Liberal governments, they said nothing about Sunday shopping. As soon as the NDP became the government, they started saying "the government, this NDP government, is hurting the economy and hurting you the consumer with their Sunday shopping ban."

[Benjamin Frank]

I agree it's disappointing, but there isn't much incentive for them to vote for the OLP or ONDP either, though.

Considering Ford needs Ford-Trudeau voters in the GTA to win I am not sure I agree with this take. These people are perfectly comfortable voting for the Liberals (as evidenced by the recent federal election where the Liberals basically swept the region). If PCs are going introduce restrictions and be the same as OLP/ONDP then these voters may decide their vote based on other issues which may not be great for the PCs.

The problem is, the OLP is in a bad place. They constantly lag behind in fundraising, they haven't attracted much top talent (and lost one in Michael Couteau, who traded being the most prominent Liberal in the ON legislature for a position as a Trudeau backbencher), and the leader offers nothing in particular. Nor is the NDP ascendant, Horwath continues to be a pretty unremarkable leader, and unless Ford reeeeeally screws up, I can't see the NDP making gains.

The best hope for the anti-Ford wing of Ontario politics is that the NDP holds onto about 30% of the vote and most of their current seats, the Liberal recover to about 25% and pick up traditionally Liberal seats in Toronto and parts of the 905, and Ford alienates just enough of his base to see turnout drop - culminating in a minority situation where the centre-left can gang up on the PCs.

Not if you consider bankers to be top talent.  The Ontario Liberals have so far nominated about 10 former bankers as candidates. I'm not sure what's behind that.

1.Kanata-Carleton, Shahbaz Syed, Export Development Canada Financing Manager/Former Bank Risk Manager

2.Oakville-North Burlington Kaniz Mouli, RBC Senior Manager - Change and Engagement

3.Kitchener-Conestoga, Melanie Van Alphen, Former Scotia Bank Manager of Customer Service and Senior Personal Banking Officer

4.Oshawa, Catherine Moses, Bank Vice President of Compliance

5.Brampton South, Marilyn Raphael, T.D Asset Management Vice President Business and Product Governance

6.Richmond Hill, Roozbah Farhadi, Scotia Bank Small Business Development Manager

7.Don Valley West, Stephanie Bowman, Former Scotia Bank Senior Vice President, Former Bank of Canada Finance Committee Member

8.University-Rosedale, Andrea Barrack, T.D Bank Global Head Sustainability and Corporate Citizen

also
1.Kingston and the Islands, Ted Hsu, the former Liberal M.P for the riding from 2011-2015 (and the only PhD physicist in Parliament at the time) was previously the Morgan Stanley Tokyo Office Executive Director

2.Mississauga-East Cooksville, Dipika Demela the MPP up to the 2018 election who is running again was an RBC Corporate Banker

Apart from Catherine Mosca in Oshawa, all of those have a good chance of being elected too.

Ted Hsu is a very good get for the Liberals. I don't know if he's the reason the NDP incumbent Ian Arthur chose not to run again, but I think he was very highly regarded in the riding when he decided to not run for reelection federally.  I spoke to a handful of scientists about him after one lecture, and they thought of him highly as well.  Of course, the Federal Liberals were in opposition then.

[Benjamin Frank]

This is truly embarrassing for the polling industry.
https://twitter.com/CanadianPolling/status/1484217461088129030
NDP between 22-36%
Liberals between 19-36%

Only P.Cs relatively consistent between 31-37%

Edit to add: if the Angus Reid survey is removed as a rogue poll, the NDP are fairly consistent in these polls at between 22-27%.

The P.C's are still between 31-37%

But, the Liberals are still fairly over the map at between 26-36%

[Benjamin Frank]

My god, O'Toole is scrambling. I really did like him and defended him for some time after the election (in fact, while I voted Liberal, my views have been shifting to the right and I would have been comfortable voting Conservative, only made up my mind last-minute). But his inability to stake out a clear position on anything is really starting to sour me on the guy, and a lot of other Canadians if leadership approval polls are any indicator. The CPC could go into yet another leadership race, god help us

https://twitter.com/AndrewScheer/status/1485731133404889090
His predecessor is delusional enough to think he can get his old job back.

It's also entirely phony since the U.S put in the same rule. Any Canadian trucker has to be vaccinated in order to get into the United States as well.

I kind of agree this rule is kind of silly. I know that truckers don't just stay in their trucks, but they still have to follow all the safety protocols every other Canadian does in any other establishment.

[Benjamin Frank]

In 2019 Andrew Scheer had no trouble going after the 'bodily autonomy' of stigmatized people.

"Justin Trudeau was asked specifically about that and he said, well, they weren't going to do it right away. A lot of their candidates, people running under the Liberal banner, are calling for decriminalization of hard drugs," he said.

"So for parents out there who are worried about what their government might do in the future for other types of hard drugs, they need to be very concerned about what Trudeau will do."

Not only that, but he specifically called for mandating hard drug addicts to be forced to ingest other substances against their will.

"We believe the focus should be on recovery programs. That's where we're going to put our investments, not decriminalizing hard drugs," he said.

Many recovery programs involve the forced substitution of one drug for another.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/scheer-trudeau-decriminalization-drugs-1.5324106

[Benjamin Frank]

Interim Conservative Leader Candice Bergen.



And

[Benjamin Frank]

I doubt it's a coincidence that Bergen, the MP from the riding with the highest number of votes going PPC, was made the interim leader and has been unabashedly pro-trucker. The Tories probably figure that the Liberal and Trudeau brands are going to be so tarnished by the time the next election comes around that they'd lose to literally anyone (see: Premier Doug Ford), whereas if the PPC is able to seriously contest rural seats then the Conservatives have basically no path to a majority. However controversial they may be, nobody (except maybe traumatized downtown Ottawans who never vote Tory anyway) is going to be casting their ballot based on trucker protesters in a year, much like how the rail blockades had minimal impact on the last election.

The only real potential for a backfire would be if Trudeau suddenly decided to hold an election in the middle of the CPC leadership race, while they're still busy pandering to their base. In that case they'd actually have to deal with the disconnect now when people actually care, but I'm pretty sure it would also be completely unprecedented and early elections typically backfire on Prime Ministers. Still, with the inflation and supply chain issues I have a hard time imagining Trudeau having any better luck a year from now and at least right now there is a(n increasingly narrow) majority supporting mandates and lockdowns.

I think it's almost certainly a coincidence. Although Candice Bergen is one of the 'loudest voice' flamethrowers she was a (junior) cabinet minister under Stephen Harper, the House Leader under Andrew Scheer and then Deputy Leader under Erin O'Toole.

So, she has connections to all wings of the party and was easily the most obvious choice as interim leader given her qualifications.

[Benjamin Frank]

I don't support the broader 'truckers', but good on Joel Lightbound.

I find it more than a little odd that many of the same people who are praising Lightbound also criticized Prime Minister Trudeau for exercising his free speech rights in telling it like it is in regards to the Ottawa occupiers/terrorists, and said that if Trudeau had just self censored that these terrorists' feelings wouldn't have been hurt.

[Benjamin Frank]

https://twitter.com/DavidColetto/status/1490798380708208646
There's one point against the "people who are mad about the truckers will flock to Trudeau!" theory

In Windsor news, the mayor is calling for a hundred more cops but the blockade remains in place. They were hoping it would shrink but it's actually added some mobile homes and seems well supplied. For reference Windsor PD has 500 cops and London has 600, so bringing in 100 isn't as easy as it sounds. Of course the enormous Toronto PD could help, but they've already sent a contingent to Ottawa and Toronto has real crime to deal with.

This is real crime.

[Benjamin Frank]

Premier Jason Kenney on the 'othering' of people he dislikes vs the 'othering' of people he likes.

https://twitter.com/CBCFletch/status/1491273458877366275

[Benjamin Frank]

I don't support the broader 'truckers', but good on Joel Lightbound.

I find it more than a little odd that many of the same people who are praising Lightbound also criticized Prime Minister Trudeau for exercising his free speech rights in telling it like it is in regards to the Ottawa occupiers/terrorists, and said that if Trudeau had just self censored that these terrorists' feelings wouldn't have been hurt.

Well, no need to quote me, since I am not one of those people, and haven't been politicising this.

I didn't say you were. 

[Benjamin Frank]

No, whole cities are not being burned down in protest.  That is an outright lie.

Well, right wingers bought the myth of these new rules, since the vast majority of BLM protests didn't involve riots or otherwise illegal acts.

Beyond that, all 100% of these terrorists are blocking the streets of downtown Ottawa, impeding traffic and forcing businesses to close.  This, in itself, is subject to an injunction.

I find it more than a little odd that many of the same people who are praising Lightbound also criticized Prime Minister Trudeau for exercising his free speech rights in telling it like it is in regards to the Ottawa terrorists

I bet you also think that waterboarding is no big deal. 

[Benjamin Frank]

Why are people constantly comparing BLM and Anti-Vaxx protests?

The majority of people approved of the BLM protests overall (but not the bad stuff) , found the protest's message moral, and hoped the movement continued. The majority of people do not approve of the anti-vaxx convoy, find the protest's message immoral, and hope the movement ends.

I will add that it's somewhat understandable that this is happening at the end of omicron, but 90% of these protestors felt the same way about ending all restrictions in 2021 and possibly even 2020, so that doesn't necessarily apply in all contests of the phrase "I agree with the protestors".

Sorry, you don’t get to decide what’s moral or not.  Also, the polls are rigged.  These protests have been largely peaceful.  

A good chunk of them have been terrorizing the city and the residents want them gone. Including a lot of residents that aren't particularly political. The mall had to shut down because they can't justify becoming an omicron hot spot and facing a class action lawsuit from all the employees that work there.

I didn’t hear you saying this when BLM burned down entire cities last year.  Why do you suddenly care about lives and property?  Cause it fits your political agenda?  Hilarious.

As linked to in the other thread on this on the U.S political discussions, the Commission from the major Police Chief's Association itself said that most of the destruction were caused by small groups of vandals/anarchists who infiltrated BLM protests.

I guess it's easy to grandstand when you're an ignoramus.

[Benjamin Frank]

As linked to in the other thread on this on the U.S political discussions, the Commission from the major Police Chief's Association itself said that most of the destruction were caused by small groups of vandals/anarchists who infiltrated BLM protests.

I guess it's easy to grandstand when you're an ignoramus.

You could say the same thing about the Ottawa protesters.  One idiot who was not connected to the movement was flying a Nazi flag.  One idiot draped a Canadian flag over the Terry Fox monument.  One idiot vandalized the war memorial.  Much like you argue the actions of some BLM supporters are not representative of the BLM movement, I can also argue that the actions by these few foolish individuals do not represent the freedom convoy movement.

1.The occupiers/terrorists have made this point repeatedly.

2.That leaves out that the honking, which seems to have stopped, is a form of torture and that every one of these occupiers/terrorists is impeding movement which is a criminal act subject to an injunction.

Unlike the BLM protests, everything these occupiers/terrorists are doing is illegal.

So, no, your analogy fails and only an ignoramus could make such a stupid analogy in the first place.

[Benjamin Frank]

No, whole cities are not being burned down in protest.  That is an outright lie.

Well, right wingers bought the myth of these new rules, since the vast majority of BLM protests didn't involve riots or otherwise illegal acts.

Beyond that, all 100% of these terrorists are blocking the streets of downtown Ottawa, impeding traffic and forcing businesses to close.  This, in itself, is subject to an injunction.

I find it more than a little odd that many of the same people who are praising Lightbound also criticized Prime Minister Trudeau for exercising his free speech rights in telling it like it is in regards to the Ottawa terrorists

Remarkably hypocriticial

I have no idea what you are talking about. There are no bigger hypocrites than pseudo moral religious types.

[Benjamin Frank]

Candice Bergen is calling on the protestors to go home. It seems like the convoy's political capital has run out, and frankly, they've done it to themselves, as things have gone on long enough and gotten noticeably more unhinged. The CPC is right in trying to disown this, in case things get violent, but it would have been a lot smarter to take a neutral stance in the first place.

What's crazy is, nobody's come out of this looking good. The convoy is losing support by the day. Both Trudeau and Ford are being criticized for their response - Trudeau in particular is also getting caucus dissent (I think there's more than Lightbound and Rouillard, a governing party's MP doesn't call the government's policy divisive and unfair without getting kicked out - unless there are others backing them). The Tories have hitched their wagons to an unpopular movement, and are trying to distance themselves this late in the game.

On the Liberal side, I suspect the desire was to keep it a one day story, which they did.  

The Canadian media is one of the most responsible for what's going on with their lies that there are magical Kumbaya solutions to political problems that can satisfy everybody's concerns.  And, I suspect the Liberals just decided there was no need to fight this media stupidity at this time as well.

[Benjamin Frank]

In terms of dominating the conversation and making the end of mandates and restrictions a key issue they might be one of the most successful protest movements in recent memory. I'd imagine protesters and governments all around the world are taking notes of the power multiplying effect of trucks and industrial equipment, as well as the pressure exerted by strategic blockades at key ports of entry.

This isn't directed at you personally, but there does seem to be a woeful lack of knowledge of history from many people all over (including me at times, no doubt.)

This multiplying effect of trucks is nothing new, as you seem to be suggesting here.  

Although the Ottawa and southern Alberta police, and I guess, the Oshawa police force were caught off guard, other police forces in Canada knew how to keep the truckers from stopping.  The reason is that this is nothing new.  Security forces have had to deal with these things before.  I doubt it was new even then, but this is from 25 years ago:

As Tony Blair returned nine days ago from the UN special assembly in New York, he confided that the French president, Jacques Chirac, had assured him his government would not crumble in the face of protests by its lorry drivers. The revolt against petrol duty would not spread across Europe.

As Blair was speaking, a small group of self-described nobodies were driving slowly through the darkness towards the Shell Stanlow refinery at Ellesmere Port and a date with a history. The convoy had been born out of a meeting convened by Brynle Williams, a loquacious sheep and beef farmer from Cilcain, north Wales.

The meeting, at Ruthin cattle market the previous Monday, had been addressed by politicians including Peter Rogers, a Conservative member of the Welsh assembly. Mr Rogers became a farming hero after he addressed farmers picketing Irish lorries at Holyhead in November 1997 in a protest that spawned the militant farmers' movement.

As Tony Blair returned nine days ago from the UN special assembly in New York, he confided that the French president, Jacques Chirac, had assured him his government would not crumble in the face of protests by its lorry drivers. The revolt against petrol duty would not spread across Europe.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2000/sep/16/uk.labour

Slightly different, but I imagine that the first time a 'group of nobodies' played a significant role in history with transportation is when the Russian train conductors refused to take General Kornilov and his troops to Moscow to stage a counterrevolution.

The reason I think it hurts that people don't know history, is I think it causes people to overreact that everything is a 'crisis' that needs to be stopped before it sets a precedent.

Not related to this here, but there are many who seem to think that left wing 'cancel culture' is something new.  This is about the tv show (version) of Amos 'N' Andy:

This time, the NAACP mounted a formal protest almost as soon as the television version began, describing the show as "a gross libel of the Negro and distortion of the truth", and that pressure was considered a primary factor in the show's cancellation, even though it finished at #13 in the 1951–1952 Nielsen ratings and at #25 in 1952–1953 Blatz was targeted as well, finally discontinuing its advertising support in June 1953.  

(Blatz Brewing was the show's sponsor.)

And then:
The show was widely repeated in syndicated reruns until 1966 when, in an unprecedented action for network television at that time, CBS finally gave in to pressure from the NAACP and the growing civil rights movement and withdrew the program. It was pulled from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's television network, which had been broadcasting it for almost a decade. The series was not be seen on American television regularly for 46 more years. The television show has been available in bootleg VHS and DVD sets.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amos_%27n%27_Andy

[Benjamin Frank]

"59% of U.S. Voters Support Canadian Truckers in ‘Freedom Convoy’ Protest"

Rasmussen, lol.

[Benjamin Frank]

https://mobile.twitter.com/markstrahl/status/1495472037438967808?ref_src=twsrc%5...

https://twitter.com/EmmMacfarlane/status/1495606438969978883




If you believe this story, you might be a moron.