While I don't like Justin Trudeau (or, Sockboy, as I like to call him), and have never voted for him, I'd really like one of the Caucasian "F*ck Trudeau" people to explain exactly what they think he's done to them, in their actual day-to-day life (I understand why Indigenous people are pissed at him, however). I mean, it wasn't the federal government issuing mask and vaccine mandates, for the most part - it was our provincial governments...you know, the ones almost exclusively run by Conservative party leaders? They control all health regulations for all employment fields and businesses that aren't federally controlled (there are very few of those, by the way...just inter-provincial trucking, airlines, and banking, really, outside of the military and RCMP).
I'm not saying people have nothing to complain about, but I do think they're diluting their own issues by ranting about things that have nothing to do with Trudeau. If they really want specific changes, they should be communicating that...with the appropriate governmental authorities, rather than blaming someone who has little control over provincial actions.
Ostensibly, the issues were mask and vaccine mandates. However:
"Up to and including August 19, 2022, a total of 370 reports with an outcome of death were reported following vaccination. Although these deaths occurred after being vaccinated with a COVID-19 vaccine, they are not necessarily related to the vaccine."
Source: https://health-infobase.canada.ca/covid-19/vaccine-safety/
That's 370 people from a total of nearly 60 million doses given, and not all of those deaths were likely to have been caused by vaccines. (I could only find two deaths in Canada, specifically triggered by the AstraZeneca vaccine, but I'm likely missing some of the reporting on that.) Nearly 45,000 people have died from the virus in Canada, though that number is widely believed to be underreported. I prefer my quadruple-vaxxed odds, personally.
For those who believe there's a microchip in them, one only needs to take a look at the size of the needle they have to use to microchip a pet (12-gauge for the older chips, and 15-gauge for the newer, much smaller ones - source: https://www.microchipidsystems.com/faq-items/develop-mini-chip-for-pets/). The chips themselves can be felt under the skin of the animal, even though they're smaller than a grain of rice.
Vaccine needles are super small - only 22- to 25-gauge, according to the CDC. They simply do not have the carrying capacity for microchips.
Chipping is done subcutaneously, which is just under the skin. COVID vaccines are an intramuscular injection, which means you're basically stabbed with it. Two completely different methods. Additionally, most people carry around cell phones that can be remotely activated unless you can pull the battery - which most cell phones no longer allow you to do, since they prefer you buy a new device rather than replace the battery. If the government chose to be that heinous, they would be far better off listening to your conversations than merely getting your location information from a tracking device (which your phone also does).
People seem to spend their entire lives being pissed off at the wrong leaders (or just for the wrong reasons), because they have no real understanding how government functions in Canada, and also seem to have no understanding of the actual definition of dictatorships or communism, much less the difference between communism and socialism (there's a big difference, I promise you).
Most of the people who complain about Alberta having to pay a lot of money have no idea how deeply in debt Alberta was at one time (a large number of the people who hate Trudeau hail from Alberta). During the Great Depression they defaulted on their debts, and it's the only province to have ever done so. It was the Social Credit party in charge at the time, who got into power on a platform of religious fundamentalism and radical monetary theory. Religious fanaticism does not make anyone wise, and certainly not in the realm of financial matters - particularly if they base financial decisions on religious beliefs. The general problem with the Alberta economy is a total lack of diversification. Apparently they've never heard the phrase, "Don't put all your eggs in one basket." They're still making the same mistake. Oil is dead - it just hasn't learned to lie down yet.
While I hate to spoil the trucker pity-party, very few people who went to the rally in Ottawa were employed as truckers. 90% of truckers were already vaxxed when the rally took place, and it was led by people who weren't even involved in the industry. The vast majority of truckers cannot afford to take even a single day off that isn't required by normal trucking regs. They have far bigger concerns than being afraid of needles, and the rally distracted from those real concerns. Particularly when the hate flags started flying (Nazi and slavery symbolism, in addition to the Trudeau flags). Trying to argue your point of view doesn't fly when the hate flags are flying. More informed people turn deaf.
Sadly, I've seen "Every Child Matters" flags alongside "F*uck Trudeau" flags, and they were at the rally, too, where the other hate flags were flying. Those Trudeau flags weren't really seen anywhere until that rally. Considering the history of slavery in Canada, where Indigenous people were enslaved alongside Black people, I find that a little shocking. I'm not sure why anyone who cares about Indigenous rights would be flying the Trudeau flag, since most people associate the flag with hate groups. I do understand their anger toward Trudeau, but from a PR perspective, they would be far better served creating a different flag without the negative connections and connotations. Something that carries a real message, perhaps.
It seems most Canadians need to retake a history class (there are many free university courses online) on the things that have happened in Canada over more than just the last five years - looking for the root causes of the things they're seeing today, instead of just the present situation. [I'm talking about Caucasian people here, since many Indigenous people are all too well aware of their history, and the actions of the Canadian government.]
Economic policy takes about ten years to come to fruition in the real world, so the majority of what Trudeau has been dealing with, economically, throughout his three terms has been fallout from Harper's smoke and mirrors budget that sold off most of Canada's assets at a fraction of their value, and a global pandemic that's broken most other countries' economies, whilst we retain an A+ credit rating. The first year Trudeau was in office, Ft. Mac had their big fire, and Canada had zero money in the pot for emergencies. None. It was all gone. I speak as a former accountant and investment analyst, so I do know exactly what I'm talking about. I looked at the budget from Harper very carefully (what little he allowed the public to see, since he was never transparent). The fact that Trudeau's government has been able to provide any sort of support for Canadians during COVID is almost miraculous.
As for why I, personally, don't like Trudeau, I looked at his voting record before he ever got into office - something most people never bother to do. He was an MP and was happy to vote in favour of things like Bill C-51, introduced by Harper, which restricted many of our rights and freedoms in Canada - particularly the right to privacy, so if you want to complain about privacy violations, that would be where to start. He was supposed to amend it, but never did - not a surprise when he voted for it. He never fulfilled his promise to get rid of first-past-the-post voting, and it's no longer even on his radar - his government created a convoluted survey no one knew how to answer, so they could cherry-pick the result they liked, which supposedly gave them the justification to go back on their promise.
I'm disgusted he never shows up for Indigenous rights. He also voted for Keystone XL, and bought the newly-defunct Transmountain pipeline expansion, paying far more than it was worth, considering it wasn't yet a functioning pipeline (and likely never will be now - the first one is still going, but leaks on the regular). His claims of being environmentally friendly are a joke, as are his claims of being friendly to Indigenous people. Many of them wanted him to remove the Haida tattoo he sports, because it's like a slap in the face.
While I instinctively agree with the anger at his many trips using up a lot of jet fuel, when he could just as easily use secure forms of video calling, I also realize there are other factors at play on the global stage - sometimes it's a lot easier to talk in person (which I despise, but am forced to acknowledge) and get things done, and there's now the added security risk of Russia being a lot more determined to listen in on our political meetings with other nations. China (with their 'unlimited friendship' with Russia) also makes all of our tech. All of it. It's truly stupid, and I've been yelling about it for years, but there isn't a nation in the world (that I'm aware of) that uses their own proprietary chips or motherboards, even in their most secure facilities.
The US is finally getting a clue there, and they'll eventually be making their own, but otherwise every single comms device we have was made by a Chinese company. Every cell phone, every computer, you name it. And that includes all the 'smart' devices in people's homes. They've already been caught adding miniscule spying chips to everyday tech. Motherboards, CPUs (despite major production largely being shifted to Taiwan, China still has power over Taiwan), GPUs, etc., are nearly all made in China. Think about it. CSIS and C-SEC computer systems were all made by Chinese companies. That's our internal and national security. The only thing Canada has done is require the removal of Huawei tech from our 5G network. The big telcoms are in the process of doing so now. That's just one company that was literally caught stealing technology from Canada (they bankrupted Nortel, a major Canadian employer).
There's one big hiccup with regard to removing Chinese tech, however. Stephen Harper signed a deal with China right before he left office, that forbade Canada from infringing on China doing business within the country, and allowed China to resolve any disputes outside of Canada's court system. It was one of his many backroom deals Canadians were not informed about until it was too late, and most Canadians still aren't aware the contract exists.
Sadly, leaders like Pierre Poilievre are cut from the same cloth as Stephen Harper, and they're happy to brag about it. There were good reasons Erin O'Toole didn't bring Harper in to vouch for him during the last federal election - he's hated by most Canadians. Instead, O'Toole decided Brian Mulroney was a better option, despite him being ousted for taking literal bags of cash from lobbyists and getting ousted from his role as Prime Minister. In other words, a crook was less hated than Harper. Harper had more scandals than any other PM in Canadian history. Thus far, Trudeau has had seven scandals whilst in office, though not all have been directly related to him, and there was one in particular that wasn't actually a scandal (Elbowgate - there's plenty of video showing what did, and didn't, happen). Harper had more, and they were of a particularly serious variety, such as election fraud (the Robocall scandal being just one of them).
Any scandal is bad, frankly, so I feel little interest in supporting anyone who ends up in the middle of them. In Trudeau's case, his multiple brown-face scandals are enough for me to conclude he's unsuited to lead a country full of people of varying ethnicities. It showed him as the overly-entitled child he seems to be to this day. He shows little understanding of the needs of anyone who couldn't afford private school. Even the recent 'help' for people to buy a home has an age limit, when there are plenty of people in Canada who have never been able to afford to buy a home - age has little to do with being priced out of the market. Far too many adults are still earning minimum wage, and fifteen dollars an hour (depending on the province) is nowhere near enough to buy a home, when the median price is (as of this writing) just shy of $700K.
I hate finding myself in the same camp as those who can't iterate their reasoning with regard to their anger and disgust toward Trudeau, however. I'm definitely angry with, and disgusted by, him, but I'm also not interested in associating with what amounts to a hate group in my mind. I find myself increasingly frustrated with the lack of awareness shown by a majority of Canadians, including those in power. Problems that could be solved with just a few moments of forethought and empathy are being swept under the rug as if they don't matter. Question Period in Parliament looks like squabbling children, rather than serious politicians trying to get work done for the people who hired them. The fact they're visibly enjoying the byplay makes it worse. It's not funny. People in Canada are dying of exposure and starvation, whilst our government employees are chuckling and having a good time getting nothing done for them.
That's where the anger needs to go, frankly. It's happening in every legislative system in Canada; from Queen's Park in Ontario, to the Alberta Legislature, to our federal Parliament. Canadians are human beings, and we deserve a hell of a lot better than we're getting from our staff. One thing Trudeau should note, however, is that when people disengage from politics, it's usually not the Conservatives who do so.
