FILDEBRANDT: If Canadians want an election, a new convoy may be the only way to force one

Canada is quickly descending into failed state territory as we approach the three-year anniversary of the Freedom Convoy. It has a government lacking in democratic legitimacy. Its governing party is by some polling measures the least popular in the country's history. Its ruling party lacks the key constitutional requirement of holding the confidence of the House of Commons. Its leader has lost the moral right to govern, even among its own elected MPs.In mere days, Donald J. Trump will be sworn in as president of the United States, promising a 25% tariff on Canadian goods, representing an existential threat to the trade-reliant Canadian economy. And as Canada faces this generational challenge, Canada has no effective government. President Trump will either refuse to negotiate with a Canadian delegation which has no mandate to represent Canada or — more worrisome — he will negotiate with a weak government he knows he can walk all over. During the Liberal leadership race, candidates will be mighty tempted to descend into (Pierre) Trudeau-esqe anti-Americanism to drum up (post) nationalist support from a reflexively anti-Trump Liberal membership base. That may serve their short-term political interests well, but it would leave Canada in an impossibly no-win negotiating position. And then that Liberal leader will very likely go on to lose the general election anyway. In the best-case scenario from where we sit today, Canadians will have to wait half a year before a new government is sworn in with a democratic mandate to deal with Trump. No matter how you slice it, the Liberals are in an impossible position. There is only one answer to the deep crisis enveloping Canada.An election. Right. Bloody. Now. Every single day that the Liberals keep Parliament suspended and focus on delaying the inevitable, they sink Canada deeper into an economic and political crisis. Every day they focus on trying to save the furniture with internal political bunfights, is a day that what little regard is left of Canada's institutions deteriorates into contempt. No amount of political intrigue is going to place the Liberals back into a position of being seen by Canadians as a credible government able to meet the moment of crisis. Only an election can clear the air and return some small degree of legitimacy to our government. The Liberals won't win that election, but if they do, fine. At least someone will have a mandate to address this threat. Right now, no one does. That is why premiers like Danielle Smith and Doug Ford have had to fill the power vacuum left by the vandals occupying Parliament Hill. But Trudeau will not allow an election. He has prorogued (suspended) Parliament so that the Liberals can select someone else to take the fall in the next election. But how much damage will Canada suffer in the meantime? How many jobs will be lost? How far into depression will we fall? How far will they drag the legitimacy of Canada's very government through the mud? The Liberals debase themselves, and Canada. They refuse to allow an election and live up to their own tut-tutting about democracy. If Canadians want an election, they will have to demand one. Boldly. In January 2022, Canadians — led by regular Albertans that most had never heard of before — decided that the authoritarian actions of the Trudeau-Singh government had gone too far, and they organized the Freedom Convoy. That convoy made its way from the West — and eventually the East — converging on a panicked Parliament Hill. They threw the Liberals and the entire governing class into spasms of still more authoritarian pique. Completely unable to grasp what this "small, fringe, minority" really wanted, they and their government-funded media allies painted them as violent, degenerate fascists. When that failed, they invoked the War Measures [Emergencies] Act, which had only thrice been used before in Canadian history: World War One, World War Two, and the FLQ terrorist crisis. They forcibly dragooned unwilling tow truck drivers into forced labour and sent armed goons to violently clear out the bouncy-castle rabble. Then they engaged in lawfare against their political opponents, which is still ongoing. But the Freedom Convoy sure as sßiess scared the hell out of them, and they realized that they had pushed the people too far. The lockdowns and mandates ended. January 2025 marks three years since the Freedom Convoy took its stand against the authoritarian Trudeau government. But in 2025, that government lacks even the basic moral authority to govern. It is desperately afraid of an election that it knows it will lose in a historic fashion, so much so that it has suspended Parliament. The Liberals have surrendered any claim that they might have at this point to represent the country. If Canadians really want an election, a new convoy may be the only way to force one.

FILDEBRANDT: If Canadians want an election, a new convoy may be the only way to force one

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