to analyze. Since coming to power in 2015, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has overcome all odds: from risky opinion polls that ultimately ended in two narrow electoral victories, in 2019 and 2021, to moral scandals that have weakened him without winning them. . But the endless conflict between Canadian truck drivers from the “Freedom Caravan,” who have been besieging Ottawa since January 29 – and whom a police operation was trying to expel from downtown on Saturday, February 19 – is exploding hard. His image: a leader considered “resilient”, who appeared on this occasion as a passive head of government, even if he was powerless to pull his country out of the crisis.

Undoubtedly, their inertia in the early days of the conflict was due to the poor assessment of the real strategy of the small groups at the origin of the conflict. Justin Trudeau wanted to believe that truck drivers’ opposition to the vaccination obligation, which was imposed on January 15 for the right to cross the border with the United States, was the result of ‘Marginal and noisy minority’. But their claim, to revoke the vaccine passport, soon proved to be a hoax. By posting on social media, “protocol agreement” calling for the dismissal of the government, Unity Canada is what it was: a far-right group led by supporters of the QAnon conspiracy movement and Canadian separatist activists, with a clear political agenda, namely to destabilize Canadian democracy. The authorities had taken time to gauge the multiple ramifications of the movement with the American far-right (alt-right), which would have brought him financial support, and possibly arms.

The opponents are divided

The unpretentiousness of Justin Trudeau, who allowed trucks to settle in the capital without reacting, according to Patrick Tellon, professor of law at Laval University (Quebec) was explained by a mixture of noble convictions, “The prime minister is sincerely keen to respect basic rights such as freedom of assembly.”and for undisclosed reasons, “He was pleased to see his opponents divided over this movement.”. Indeed, the Conservative Party imploded: the hard-line conservative wing got its leader’s head, accused of not fully supporting the truck drivers. The preferred candidate to succeed him, the Liberal MP from Ontario, is now calling for “Canada is once again the freest country in the world”. The goal is to please an anti-competitive constituency, drawn to the sirens of a small populist party, the Canadian People’s Party, whose sole slogan is to denounce the character. “despot” Authorities in a health crisis.

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