Memories of the protests will fade among observers. But participants will forever remember the empathy they received from the Conservative leadership hopeful
www.theglobeandmail.com
OPINION
Pierre Poilievre’s support for the convoy is not the fatal political decision it seems
ROBYN URBACK
PUBLISHED 8 HOURS AGO
Pierre Poilievre speaks to journalists on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on Feb. 16.BLAIR GABLE/REUTERS
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“I’m proud of the truckers and I stand with them,” said Pierre Poilievre, the current front-runner to be the next leader of what was once known as the law-and-order party, on a podcast recorded on Feb. 10. By that time, protesters had been squatting in downtown Ottawa for more than a week, blaring their horns at all hours and harassing local residents and essential workers. Blockades at Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, Ont., and the border in Coutts, Alta., had stalled or completely halted the transport of millions of dollars worth of goods between the U.S. and Canada. Yet Mr. Poilievre, who has harped about the economic consequences of federal COVID-19 restrictions for months, waved off the economic consequences of this lawless action. “Canadians have finally had it,” he said.
Mr. Poilievre’s position didn’t waver as the situation escalated over the next week. “Freedom is on the move,” he tweeted on Feb. 14, purportedly in response to the lifting of proof-of-vaccination requirements in Saskatchewan, but clearly in the language of the convoy. That day, RCMP arrested 13 people – some of whom have since been charged with conspiracy to commit murder – and seized a cache of weapons at the Coutts border blockade. Mr. Poilievre nevertheless maintained that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau could end the protests that day by simply lifting the vaccine mandate for truckers, as if any of this was still, or ever, about the trucking mandate, and as if the best way to deal with hostage takers is to yield swiftly to their demands.