GUNTER: Trudeau's about-face on Emergencies Act the move of a shameless political plotter | Edmonton Sun - Lorne Gunter:
February 23, 2022 - "Jagmeet Singh must be the most embarrassed person in the country today. Less than 48 hours after the federal NDP leader compromised every principle he and his party had ever stood for, just so he could support the Liberals’ invocation of the Emergencies Act, Singh had to watch Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pull a complete 180 and announce he was ending the state of emergency (presumably so he didn’t have to watch the Senate do it for him).
"Wait a minute, you say. Shouldn’t Trudeau be even more embarrassed? After all, Monday he was claiming there was still a nefarious plot to overthrow our democracy, but Wednesday he was insisting the bad bogeymen were all gone. Of course, he should be embarrassed.... But being a Liberal means being shameless. Nothing comes before preserving your party’s power. So, even if you have to make the biggest about-face in recent political history, if that’s what’s needed to keep your party from sliding further in the polls, you do it....
"Monday, Trudeau stood in the House of Commons and insisted his government needed — absolutely needed — to seize bank accounts, cancel mortgages, hold convoy leaders without bail, make arrests without warrants, ban otherwise lawful protests and exercise all sorts of police-state powers arbitrarily without oversight by Parliament or the courts....
"Wednesday afternoon, Trudeau said, 'We are confident that existing laws and bylaws are now sufficient to keep people safe.' But somehow they weren’t sufficient as recently as Monday afternoon when he insisted the plot to end Canada was so real it could only be thwarted by bringing into force the most restrictive law on Canada’s books? Then about 46 hours later: Oh, well. Never mind. Carry on, citizens. Nothing to see here. Only a conniving, dissembling, insincere political plotter without a stitch of modesty could pull that off with a straight face.
"Which explains Trudeau’s lack of shame, but not Singh’s. Somehow, Singh thought it was more important to spare the Liberals another election (for which his party is unready) than strike a blow for Canadians’ civil liberties. I’m guessing at least Singh feels some shame over his role, though.
"But while being disgusted with the Liberals and NDP, Canadians should also be grateful to the Senate. It is widely believed Parliament’s often-maligned upper chamber was about to defeat the Commons bill giving the Trudeau government authority to invoke the Emergencies Act. While the act specifically permits the Senate to defeat any single invoking of emergency powers without forcing the government to call an election, it still would have been a huge embarrassment for the Liberals to have been rebuked.
"And Liberal insiders claim they have devasting internal polls showing the party’s unfavourability rating has shot up and up after its use of the Emergencies Act. Now it’s up to voters to hold a grudge long enough to finally punish the Liberals at the polls next time."
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