The trucker convoy and the potpourri of Canadian political hypocrisy
National Post, 29 January 2022
Most confounding, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, champion of the workingman, does not particularly care for this group of workingmen
The trucker convoy has become something of a spotlight, shining brightly upon matters otherwise hidden. Herewith a pandemic protest potpourri.
Let’s start with the least important, but most confounding. Jagmeet Singh, NDP leader, champion of the workingman, does not particularly care for this group of workingmen. Too many untoward opinions in that group, he huffed.
You would think that he might be more sympathetic to the problem of fellow-travellers, as just this week on Twitter, Winnipeg NDP MP Leah Gazan denounced Canada’s modest economic aid for Ukraine as supporting an “anti-Semitic, neo-Nazi & fascist militia,” and characterized Ukraine as a “horrifying” bastion of “white supremacy and fascism.”
If the whole is to be condemned for the part, then the entire NDP federal caucus should be confined to rhetorical quarantine on foreign policy matters.
Then there was the matter of Singh’s brother-in-law, Jodhveer Singh Dhaliwal , being one of the largest donors to the trucker convoy. He gave $13,000 to the GoFundMe campaign. It was nice reminder of the wealth of the Singh family, champions of the downtrodden; Jagmeet of the bespoke suits and his education at a very expensive private school in the United States.
Once Dhaliwal discovered “what the money was used for,” he asked for his money back. Maybe Leah Gazan told him it was really funding Ukrainian anti-Semitic militias.
Or perhaps Singh had a word with his brother-in-law, echoing his public comments that, “We have to very clearly denounce hate and give it no air to breathe and no space to take hold.”
The image comes to mind of Singh administering a dose of hate-denouncing, air-denying jiu-jitsu — he is a former Toronto martial arts champion — to Dhaliwal, persuading him to make alternate arrangements for his philanthropy.
The other opposition leader, Erin O’Toole, did a bit of tactical ju-jitsu himself, announcing that he would meet the trucker convoy, having, as is his custom, said the opposite earlier.
The old Teamster line is that, “If you got it, a truck brought it.” Perhaps somewhere in that long line of trucks, O’Toole might find a consistent set of principles and policies. He hasn’t got it yet; perhaps the truckers will bring it. Or failing that, they might lend Conservatives the latest GPS device to figure out where O’Toole might be taking his stand on any given day.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is in a rather serendipitous COVID isolation for a few days. Whether he will really be at home or in Tofino, B.C., remains to be seen, as PMO press bulletins on such matters are notoriously duplicitous.
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