Liz Peek: Truckers speak for millions – tell Biden, Trudeau they are not the enemy
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/truckers-biden-trudeau-not-enemy-liz-peek
What if … Justin Trudeau had met with the truckers the day they first arrived in Ottawa?
Instead of bolting and hiding out in an “undisclosed location,” what if Canada’s prime minister had emerged from the Privy Council building and talked to the Freedom Convoy drivers about their demands?
Might Trudeau have defused the entire protest? Would the truckers have been satisfied that their cause was heard and gone home?
After all, these are truck drivers, not thugs. Even under the microscope of a censorious press, during those first heady few days, when massive crowds appeared from nowhere to cheer on the drivers, they committed no crimes, no injuries, no looting. There was not a single arrest, much to the disappointment of the liberal media.
More recently, as police moved in to dismantle the blockade at the Ambassador Bridge at Windsor, almost all the demonstrators peacefully decamped. CNN sounded downright disappointed to report that none went to jail.
The truckers are speaking for millions of working people in Canada and around the world who are sick of COVID restrictions and increasingly skeptical of the “science” behind them. Canada’s drivers were set off by a new rule, imposed even as the pandemic crested, that required all truckers entering the country from the U.S. be vaccinated or self-quarantine. The rule seemed unnecessary considering that 85% of the truckers had taken the shot, and that most spend the majority of their time alone.
The new mandate also seemed whimsical in that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other medical authorities have now proclaimed immunities from surviving COVID just as effective against infection as the vaccines. Truckers were praised as selfless essential workers as they continued to work through the pandemic, putting themselves in harm’s way. Presumably, many got sick and now have antibodies; they may not need the vaccine.
What was Trudeau scared of? That the crowd of burly drivers might scoff at his perfectly coiffed hair? Not be properly reverent of his literature degree from McGill University? That the truckers might not respect a lifelong politician whose career rested on the fame of his father?
Instead of engaging with the truckers, Trudeau ran like a rabbit, only to emerge from hiding to demean the protesters as a “fringe minority.” The irony is, of course, that Trudeau himself represents a minority, with his Liberal Party setting a record last fall for the lowest vote share of any party to ever form a government, winning a mere 33% of the popular vote. As in 2019, the Conservatives won the popular vote.
Trudeau’s response was reprehensible. His unwavering hostility was joined by officials in Nova Scotia who declared it illegal for people to cheer on the Freedom Convoy, threatening to impose fines of up to $10,000 for waving the Canadian flag. Ontario Premier Doug Ford more recently threatened truckers with $100,000 fines and a year in prison. Can these politicians hear themselves? Needless to say, faced with such tyrannical overreach, the truckers doubled down. The blockades on crucial U.S.-Canada border crossings have caused supply problems and began to shut down manufacturing in both countries.
The protests may come to the U.S., as we predicted. And Joe Biden is poised to make exactly the same mistakes as Trudeau. Already his henchmen in the press have labeled the convoys right-wing extremists – because, you know, they don’t bow to Anthony Fauci and didn’t attend Ivy League schools.
The Freedom Convoy puts Biden in a pickle. When he recently sat down with the Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany, he celebrated our countries’ shared values, including “the foundational commitment to the dignity of workers and the need to treat all people with respect.” Question for Joe: does that include truckers?
The reality is that Biden, like Trudeau, is a lifetime pol who has never worked with his hands and has no regard for people who do. He celebrates labor, writ large, because he is tight with union leaders who fund his campaigns, but workers? Not so much.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters helped elect Biden. Their website claims that during the election, they “made 340,000 phone calls and sent … out 1.3 million pieces of mail and reached more than 350,000 members via digital advertising.” In addition, the Teamsters spent over $6 million for Democrat-aligned PACs.
What did they get in return? A White House that “prioritizes collective bargaining, worker organizing and unions,” rightly claim the bosses. Biden is indeed working to help Big Labor rebuild their dwindling ranks, all to fund the union bosses’ coffers and raise money for Democrats.
Biden, in the final days of the campaign, promised Teamsters he would have their backs, saying “We need to protect you, pay you…” That was then.
Not only will the Freedom Convoy showcase Biden’s phony affection for blue-collar workers, it comes at an awkward time. Officials across the country are dropping mask mandates, responding to recent findings that the masking provided little protection and also to polling showing that voters have had enough of the theater and questionable science.
As the New York Times reported, numerous polls show “the desire to return to normalcy has approached or even overtaken alarm about the coronavirus itself.” Why not? People understand that the most vulnerable among us – the old and those weakened by comorbidities – need to be vaccinated and boosted, possibly on an ongoing basis.
But as the potency of the virus wanes, many are ready to accept that COVID-19 is like the flu, a recurring health risk to some but mostly not lethal and certainly no reason to put our lives on hold.
Justin Trudeau and Joe Biden could learn a thing or two from the prime minister of Sweden, who recently announced that her government was dropping all COVID restrictions, declaring, “The pandemic isn’t over, but it is moving into a new phase.” How refreshing. How smart.
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