What a Difference a Generation Can Make

 


Justin Trudeau skipped another campaign appearance today over security concerns, this time in Bolton, Ontario.

Dozens of angry protesters, who outnumbered Liberal supporters, gathered near the Bolton rally and began chanting obscenities before Trudeau could make his address.

Trudeau said the event was cancelled because they couldn't ensure people's safety at the event.

He added that he has never seen this level of anger or intensity on a campaign trail, including his time as a kid when campaigning with his father, former prime minister Pierre Trudeau.

"I think this is something that Canadians, all of us, need to reflect on, because it's not who we are," he said.

This has to rekindle memories of another campaign event, 53 years earlier, when newly minted prime minister Pierre Trudeau was vowing to fight Quebec separatism.  Trudeau the Elder took a front row seat overlooking a St. Jean Baptiste parade in Montreal.  A riot ensued. Other officials fled as rioters threw rocks and bottles. Security tried to usher PET to safety. Instead, he shook them off and returned to his seat, defiantly staring down the rioters.

It may be unfair to compare father to son. Perhaps, perhaps not. Either way, we may never know his kind again.

On a different note, what does it say for our society that election campaigning can be derailed by vulgar mobs out to disrupt such events? Should a gaggle of anti-vaxxers be given the power to attack our democratic process? Are we heading for Trump-style rallies held with screened audiences in airport hangars?

I don't have a lot of time for anti-vaxxers, especially with the spread of the Delta variant. Their flaccid arguments are dispelled when we look to what's happening in America's slave states where their ilk hold sway and their hospitals struggle to cope with the aftermath.  These people are a public health menace - period.

Comments

  1. Northern PoVAugust 28, 2021 at 10:38 AM

    With his ridiculous, early election that nobody wanted, Jr. seems to have opened Pandora's box.
    Who-da thunk it, eh?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Disaffected LibAugust 28, 2021 at 2:20 PM

      Back in 2015 I had such high hopes that we might see progressive government again, wiping out the stain of Stephen Harper. All I wanted was a glimmer of the vision for Canada we found in this prime minister's father. Had he only fulfilled one campaign promise, electoral reform, it would have been enough and an invaluable benefit to the nation.

      This election is all about power, not improving the country. And we may wind up with a Tory government for it. If O'Toole somehow wins, the blame will rest squarely on Justin Trudeau.

      Perhaps someone far more capable and experienced such as Mark Carney could succeed JT. He has a firm grip on both the economy and the climate crisis. We could use a little A-list talent right about now.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Up in Smoke. 300 Sq. Mi. of Amazon Rainforest Lost Every Day.

Image
  The Amazon rainforest is disappearing at what should be an alarming rate. 312 sq. mi. or 808 sq. kms. every day. Over the past 30 years humans have destroyed a patch of the Amazon equal in area to the states of Texas and New Mexico . The Amazon – historically a great carbon absorber, since trees take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen – now releases more carbon than it stores, which adds to, rather helps to reduce, our global climate crisis. Deforestation rates decreased slightly from 2004 to 2012. But since then, they’re back on the rise, especially in the past couple of years, since Jair Bolsonaro became president of Brazil. In 2018, as Bolsonaro campaigned as a patriotic man of the people, scientists predicted that once the Amazon lost more than 25% of its tree cover, it would become a drier ecosystem, all because deforestation changes weather patterns (due to how trees respire), which in turn reduces rainfall. Furthermore, as the forest becomes fragmented, areas surrounded by
Read more

The Cognoscenti Syndrome

  There is a group of people I think of as the Cognoscenti, people who are well educated, very informed and of rapidly diminishing relevance. Their ranks include writers such as Chris Hedges and Glen Greenwald. These are people who have honed an almost Puritanical value system, readily finding fault in any direction. They are scathing in their attacks on Republicans and Democrats alike to the point where they become nihilists. They don't endorse. They prescribe. This is where they fail. They're unable to advocate for anything that might resonate with the public whose interests they argue are being trammeled. Donald Trump was bad but Joe Biden is scarcely better. This is where their elitism comes in.  74 million may have voted for Trump but, hey, they didn't know any better. The mob that stormed the Capitol. They were just victims of the system venting their frustrations. All the racism, bigotry, xenophobia, misogyny, white nationalism - inevitable side effects of their oppr
Read more

"Creeping Normalcy" in the Plague Age

Image
  Britain is experiencing a new wave of Covid cases, 40,000 per day .  Yet it hasn't caused much reaction from the public. It sounds like the legendary stiff upper lip, the "Keep Calm and Carry On" resolve. Health officials think it's something much more troubling. “We’re in a phase where we still have large numbers of people dying from this disease,” said Linda Bauld, professor of public health at the University of Edinburgh. “But it has gone into the background. We’ve become used to something that has not gone away. I think there’s been a desensitisation to the mortality.” On Thursday, the UK reported more than 45,000 new coronavirus cases – the most since mid-July – and more than 800 deaths were reported in the past seven days. Hospitalisations are rising, with one-fifth of ICU beds occupied by Covid patients, and the latest figures showed an estimated 200,000 pupils absent from school. The UK is faring far worse than its European neighbours, with a rate of death
Read more