Trudeau shirked duty, not Ford

Vincent J. Curtis

19 Oct 22

RE: Ottawa Mayor, PM accuse Ford of inaction, inquiry told.  CP story by David Fraser.

“Prime Minister Justine Trudeau and Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson both accused Ontario Premier Doug Ford of shirking his duty to help disperse the ‘Freedom Convoy’…”  A better case can be made that Trudeau shirked his duty, which was to defuse a situation caused by his choice of inane policy.  But tyrants fear looking weak, and so Trudeau chose confrontation over compromise.

It would have cost Trudeau nothing to have met with a delegation of the Convoy to discuss a redress of their grievance, which was the mandatory vaccination of truckers.  At the back end of the last COVID wave, Trudeau could well have said that some other way would be found that meets the government’s goals and removes the truckers’ grievance.

But he didn’t, and so force would be necessary to disperse the Truckers, who weren’t going away despite the pleas of politicians without answers.

Ford did use the OPP to break up the blockade at the Ambassador Bridge on February 13, before the Emergencies Act was declared, and it required a lot of OPP presence to pull it off.  Ottawa had to wait its turn, for despite the city’s sense of its own importance, the blockade at Windsor was costing a $1 Billion in trade every day.

The harassed Mayor, a liberal stalwart, would blame Ford instead of Trudeau for his misery.  But politicians are supposed to deal with people they don’t like.  It was Trudeau’s job to defuse the situation that he created.

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