I want to ask Yorkton-Melville Conservative MP Cathay Wagantall one very simple question concerning her comments in Tuesday’s Herald (“Wagantall says Parliament needs to resume”, p. 15): How did “the Liberal government and our weak Prime Minister” Justin Trudeau put Canada in such a “precarious place with the United States” that U.S. President Donald felt that he could get away with imposing a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian imports, destroy us economically, or annexing our nation as “the 51st state”, thus, in HER opinion, making it “so dangerous for our country”?
Trump’s oft-stated agenda in this second presidential go-round is to seek retribution against those who “politically weaponized” the nation’s legal forces following his first stint as President. Equally important in this delusionary view of reality has been the contempt he has shown for the laxness of typically democratic nations’ leadership in of controlling their political agenda, and failure to use their power to snuff out opposition to their rule.
Trump has frequently referenced the resistance he encountered in the “toxic” Chrystia Freeland during the 2016 NAFTA renegotiations, thus explicitly stating that she would be one of the “targets” towards which he would be directing his attention. As well, Trudeau is the type of individual that would appeal to Trump’s instincts to victimize: already the subject of voter disapproval in his home nation, he is regularly used as a punching bag by Opposition and Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, and is particularly reviled by the types of voters to whom Trump’s propensity to utilize language in a manner that appeals to individual personal grievance. To Trump, these are all signs of sensing weakness, and so he attacked.
This man’s tools, crude though they are, are those of the school yard bully – name calling, intimidation and ridicule, and he’s used them often against President Biden over the last four years when the Department of Justice was “investigating” his many underhanded schemes gone awry, and especially his reluctance to cede the 2020 election, resulting in riots in the Capitol.
The result of Trump’s continued verbal assaults upon President Biden and his family, not to mention Department of Justice officials has unfortunately enabled MAGA to create a cultist mentality in voters; that is, you either “loved” Trump – or hated his guts. By utilizing his ability to kindle voter resentment through acknowledging the frustration of working families seeing their hopes of ever achieving the “American Dream” fading away, this resulted in the metamorphosis of public opinion wherein it didn’t matter what “facts” were telling them, Trump was “their man”, and thus the MAGA cult was born.
Here in Saskatchewan, political observers have noted that the cultist mentality for accepting Saskatchewan Party doggerel is only starting to be rejected in rural Saskatchewan, where, for instance, the alleged “closure of many rural hospitals” is still accepted as the Gospel, even as these same individuals embrace the methodology of health care practice that requires the consolidation of services necessary to assure everyone retains access to such care. For our current cult leaders such as Scott Moe, their desperation to retain the power that comes with government formation necessitates their continuance to rely upon such mythology. Long ago they lost the ability to embrace the concept of forward thinking necessary for this province to diversify and strengthen its own economic agenda. Thus, even in 2020 during his one debate with NDP Leader Ryan Meili, Moe had to constantly allude to his party having some “plan” which would soon be posted on the party’s election web site.
Such documentation never did appear.
Wagantall’s leader, Pierre Poilievre, has been accused of using a network of bots and paid web sites to cast aspersions upon persons associated with this government, particularly Trudeau and Jagmeet Singh, Leader of the federal NDP Party. Moreover, his simplistic cachet of slogans, be they “Axe the Tax”, “Build the homes”, Stop the Crime” or “Fix the Budget” even now still lack substantiation of an initiative to justify or even limit voter choices to these four items.
Still, and despite such increasing weakness in the Conservative Party’s appeals to the Canadian electorate, Wagantall’s concerns regarding Parliament being prologued at the moment carry with them the increasingly frantic intent with which the party desperately wants – and needs – a federal election NOW.
Even in his article, local journalism initiative reporter Ryan Kiedrowski bluntly reminds us that even were Trudeau to end the proroguing of Parliament, “an election will [most likely] result as both the Conservatives and NDP have been vocal about a vote of non-confidence at the first opportunity.” Still, Wagantall carries on, oblivious to the actual threats to both the Canadian economy and the nation’s sovereignty by simply confirming what we already know: the Conservative Party’s first action will be to “push to defeat this government for the vote of non-confidence”, as they “have amazing plans in place”: plans, we might add, that have no substance or current explanation that could give voters confidence that such a move might detract from our current leaders all be onside in dealing with the menace that is Donald Trump.
Behind this wall of insecurity lies another issue that the Conservative Party considers more important than our national security. Less than two months ago, pollsters were predicting a 230-plus majority government for the Conservatives. However, since Trudeau announced his intention to step down as the Liberal leader, polls are indicating that the Conservatives’ support is now dropping in an accelerated fashion. Even more disturbing to party hierarchy is the recently announced news that more than 400,000 Canadian voters have awakened from their Covid stupors and are now registering to vote in the Liberal leadership race, a contest that upon reading the tea leaves today suggest that former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney will be our next PM.
Given that NDP leader Jagmeet Singh and NDP MP Charlie Angus have firmly placed their foot upon supporting a “Team Canada” approach to the Trump menace, it now appears unlikely that their party will continue to vote against any non-confidence motion brought before Parliament by Conservatives. In addressing Trump’s “concerns” respecting border security and the smuggling of drugs, particularly fentanyl, into the United States, Trudeau has presented the same plan as had previously been shown to President Biden, in effect and with the support of the American public has caused Trump to “reconsider” his position on imposing tariffs on Canada – at least for the next 30 days, and winning the respect and praise of many Canadians, including Pierre Poilievre.
For the Saskatchewan federal NDP, there’s a lesson to be learned here: even minority Parliaments are capable of providing good government. Thus, were they to convince sufficient numbers of voters that a Liberal MP candidate cannot be expected to win a seat in this province for the foreseeable future, make such remarks a staple in any future campaign rhetoric.
Yorkton – Melville is as good a place to start that process…
