Trudeau is currently under fire from both the left and right for his handling of the ongoing “Freedom Convoy” protests, which have made their biggest impact in the national capital, Ottawa, but have surfaced in multiple major cities and American border crossings. As of Thursday, truckers are blocking the largest crossing between the two countries – Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario – and have blocked a border crossing in Manitoba. Prior protests had already hampered traffic between Alberta and Montana.
Conservatives have condemned Trudeau for dismissing the protesters – who are calling for an end to all coronavirus-related civil rights restrictions – as “racist” and “misogynist,” as well as comparing them to Nazis. Leftists have condemned Trudeau for not doing much to stop the protests other than insulting the protesters, demanding a plan for resolving the crisis that Trudeau has yet to offer.
The prime minister made his return to Parliament on Monday after disappearing to an “undisclosed location” at the beginning of the protests, announcing that he had tested positive for Chinese coronavirus. He has yet to enjoy a Parliament session this week that has not erupted in outbursts of disdain towards him – both from conservatives demanding he apologize for his insults towards the protesters and from leftists demanding more federal intervention to end the protests. During one such exchange on Tuesday, an unidentified lawmaker urged the hecklers to stay quiet: “let him answer, he’s not good at it!”
While Parliament discussion much of the past week centered around the protests, interim Conservative Party leader Candice Bergen began the question and answer session on Wednesday asking about Trudeau’s most recent call to elections in September, which she branded as “unnecessary” and costly. Canadians had gone to the national polls in 2019, and lawmakers recalled that Trudeau had promised not to call elections as the Chinese coronavirus pandemic continued raging.
“As British Columbia was burning, Afghanistan was falling, and we were in the fourth wave of the pandemic, the prime minister called an unnecessary, 600 million [Canadian dollars, $474.3 million] election to capitalize on this crisis,” Bergen assailed. “According to a senior liberal MP [member of Parliament], a decision was made to wedge, to divide, and to stigmatize … why would he [Trudeau] do this to a country that is already suffering and...