Why Liberals Make Excuses For The Man In The Low Cottage

“I used to be one of those Pearson liberals who loved the UN. Then I realized that, while there are many things a modern liberal will live for, there is nothing they’re willing to die for.”

You know you’re a Canadian liberal when you see American states dropping their mandatory mask mandates and your reaction is, “This is no time to take our foot off the pedal with ‘Neanderthal’ science”.

You know you’re a Canadian liberal when the same government ministers who swore they’d never penalize Canadian travellers coming home now flip-flop, and you say, “Serves those privileged people right for disobeying the prime minister”.

You know you’re a Canadian liberal when, finding out the nation is at the bottom of Western nations in vaccine delivery you say, “But the cabinet is so diverse”.

You know you’re a Canadian liberal when the death toll for the nation has dropped sixty percent of what it was a month ago and you say, “But the variants…”

With apologies to Jeff Foxworthy, the #Covid-19 pandemic has not brought out the best in Canadians’ fortitude. In response to the indignities inflicted on them by Justin Trudeau and his cabinet the past year they’ve assumed the crash position . Fear is a new policy directive.

Whether it’s the cruel Hell Hotel at airports, the failure to get vaccines in a timely fashion or closing the borders before the virus struck in 2020, they’ve been subjected to some of the most incompetent governance possible. They’ve been lied to about testing, deceived about what is a Covid “case” and locked up like the Man In The Iron Mask

Despite all this— and 22,000 announced deaths— you’d expect a public storming the gates of Parliament and the provincial legislatures. It should make the January 6 Capitol riot look like the Santa Claus Parade. 

But no. Pollsters tell us that, while a large percentage of Canadians consider themselves angry about the past year, 56 percent of those polled say they’re cutting the Trudeau government slack because it’s a tough situation. What? They’re satisfied that a competent government could not have done better? That the society being ravaged was worth the five percent of all expected deaths in 2020 coming from/ with Covid?

It’s not like we lack examples of taking the path less travelled on WHO’s wandering map. As Sweden and Florida have demonstrated you could get the early part of the pandemic wrong, modify your course and save your society the ravages of suicides, OD, child depression and, oh yes, being $100 billion in debt. 

By dropping its mandatory mask rules Texas is simply saying to the wary that they’re still welcome to wear masks anywhere and stay home if they’re unsafe.  Simple. But that might require Canada’s deep thinkers showing the kind of fortitude of its Commonwealth cousins in Australia and New Zealand. 

Let’s face it, the political reaction of Canadian media to #Covid-19 collapsing their society was “Look at how crazy those American are!” Donald Trump and the fractious cultural war waged on U.S. cable news was heaven-sent for a prime minister hiding in a cottage without his family and facing only scripted questions from the press.

(Side note: Why hasn’t Trudeau been making appearances with his wife and family to boost Canada’s morale? He paraded them in the election. Is there a story here? And if not, why not? We’d ask the fourth estate but since they’re almost all on the government take, it would be impertinent.)

In the end Canada’s governmental and media chattering class defines itself less by what Canada is than by what Americans are not. If the dread Yankees are ‘fer it then Canada must be agin’ it.  This SJW act is a tale as old as time in Canada. 

Sometimes, as former BMO CEO Tony Comper points out about banking systems in his book Personal Account, http://brucedowbigginbooks.ca/book-personalaccount.aspx  Canada gets it right when the Americans score an own goal. But that’s an exception. And it threatens the Margaret Attwood set to ever admit Americans may be right.

The reflexive Canadian pose of I”m Okay, You’re Nuts” got its traction in the ‘60s when Lester Pearson proposed Canada as “honest broker” between American imperialism and Iron Curtain horrors.  This allowed Canada to play footsie with the world’s worst regimes while paying lip service to the air defence and other perks afforded by the U.S. 

Justin’s papa Pierre Trudeau then cemented the independent pose by throwing himself into the arms of Fidel Castro (or was that Margaret?) and unsavoury African and middle eastern goombahs. Flirting with dictators while still dipping Canada’s toe in the American pool became a high moral stance, exalted by the Laurentian cultural elites— reinforced by up to 40,000 draft dodgers and deserters. (Accepting Viet Nam war deserters “ennobled" Canada’s liberals. )

The Iran embassy caper in 1979-80 defined this liturgy. Canadians had to aid U.S. government employees in staying out of the hands of the Revolutionary Guard by running an escape operation through Canada’s Tehran embassy. Canada supplied passports, a safe house and its staff. It made for a great movie-- even when the producers downplayed Canada’s role.

Now, the Covid-19 crisis in the U.S.— an adjunct to the incendiary Donald Trump era— has provided much comfort for Canadians whose government was hitting trip wires all over the place. Adopting the Media Party’s petulant attacks on Trump it provided Canadian elites a wonderful distraction from the political blundering in Ottawa. 

Raking Trump on a daily basis over UV treatments or HCR regimes kept the media heat off the hapless man in the low cottage— while also ennobling Canadian elites to their soul mates in the globalist movement. 

Throwing the full responsibility for Trudeau’s capitulation to his Health bureaucrats endangers Canada’s moral high ground vis a vis America. The Yanks can’t be seen to succeed on vaccines where Canada fails. Thus, the liberals’ trope that Trudeau’s making the best of the crisis. As Randy Newman sang, “He may be a fool, but he’s our fool”.

Because you can tell you’re a Canadian liberal when America provides almost all your wealth and comfort but you get a warm feeling from thumbing your nose at them.

Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster (http://www.notthepublicbroadcaster.com). The best-selling author of Cap In Hand is also a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada's top television sports broadcaster, his new book Personal Account with Tony Comper is now available on http://brucedowbigginbooks.ca/book-personalaccount.aspx