A few months ago, Pierre Poilievre summarized the sorry record of the Trudeau government: “Everything seems broken.”.It provoked the prime minister to what looked to be a genuine rage. “Canada is not broken,” and when anyone says it is, “that’s where we draw the line.”.Okay. Then what?.By March, polls showed that 67% of Canadians thought Poilievre was right. There was a magnificent 83% agreement in Alberta. And, as for Justin, he had a 64% disapproval rating..It didn’t take a polling genius to connect the dots..The reason why two-thirds of Canadians thought the country was broken, whatever they meant by that metaphor, was because they understood Justin was responsible for breaking things. In commonsense terms, his policies have been disasters..Albertans and Canadians have in the past couple of days received confirmation once again, that Justin breaks nearly everything he touches..Many Calgarians noticed that Justin showed his face around town during Stampede. Nearly everyone I asked about his presence — an unscientific poll, to be sure — expressed their personal indignation that he came to Calgary at all. It was immeasurably worse that he was here during Stampede, a festival he despises..Several of my respondents used the word “insult” to describe Justin’s being here. Many of them referred to a TV clip showing his inability to flip a pancake without splatting it, nearly ruining his faux cowboy shirt. He had the same problem last year..Canadians outside Calgary and beyond the borders of Alberta got a similar message from every headline on the front page of Tuesday’s National Post..Starting at the bottom and working up, there is the story about the stupidity of Ben and Jerry berating Canada and the United States for being squatters on “stolen lands.”.Don Stevens, chief of the Native Americans on whose land Ben and Jerry were squatting to make ice cream, said his people were always interested in reclaiming ownership of their lands. He enjoyed the irony of puncturing woke pretensions. Sounds familiar..At the top centre of the front page the headline read: “We helped Chow win mayor’s seat, pro-Beijing groups say.”.Here, the story dealt with Olivia Chow’s victory in the Toronto mayoralty bye-election. It turned out that the Canada Toronto Fuqing Business Association and the Confederation of Toronto Chinese Canadian Organizations were active in helping Chow win by supplying “a large number of volunteers” to take part in her campaign..Both organizations have close connections to the United Front Work Department, a branch of the People’ Republic of China devoted to “working with” overseas Chinese..Of course, Chow’s organization denied any knowledge of assistance from these PRC fronts. But then, so did Ken Sim when he was elected mayor of Vancouver — despite official reports to the contrary..Let’s assume that neither Chow nor Sim was lying. All that means is that the PRC fronts kept a low profile or, to be blunt: they were adept secret agents — spies, then..However that may be, the significant feature of the Fuqing Association is that it is co-located in Markham, Ontario in the same building as one of the notorious “police service stations” run by the Communist Party of China to help Chinese expats think correct thoughts..The “service stations” are being investigated by the RCMP. CSIS reported that two of the three leaders of the Fuqing Association are in close touch with the Toronto Chinese consulate. That sounds familiar, too..So far, that is, the top and bottom of the front page reminded readers of the government’s unsuccessful but woke policy on First Nations and of Chinese government interference in Canadian politics..At the right-hand side at the top of page one, another headline noted the “public service up 40% under Trudeau.” By any measure, that is quite an achievement. But as Franco Terrazzano of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation asked: “was there a bureaucrat shortage in Ottawa before Trudeau took over?”.Moreover, when you look at the specific departments that grew the most, the two big winners were Employment and Social Development, which runs a large chunk of the Canadian welfare state and Canada Revenue Agency, which extracts money from Canadians to pay for it..One can only hope that these two stables of bureaucrats, one devoted to administering dependency, the other to fleecing productive Canadians, received more than their fair share of bonuses. In any event, bureaucratic growth is an excellent index of positive government priorities..Two departments shrunk, which is an equally good index of negative priorities. Cuts to the first, Library and Archives Canada, reflected the Trudeau government’s commitment to the fantasy of a “post-national state.” Who needs an archive or a library in such a place? Who needs history at all? Goodbye, Sir John A..Cuts to the second, National Defence, were also reflected in two headlines in the centre of the page..“It will take three years to make good on troop pledge to Latvia, PM admits,” said the first. The second: “Trudeau’s freeloading obvious in the numbers, and our NATO allies have little patience left.”.The first story referred to a commitment by Canada to provide a combat-ready brigade to defend Latvia, now a NATO ally. There are 800 Canadians there now as part of a multi-national battle group; eventually, someday in the future, there will be 2200 Canadian troops, a brigade..Don’t hold your breath because the second story indicated why nobody in NATO, certainly no one in Latvia, is likely to believe a word of what Trudeau said..The goal of NATO members is to devote 2% of GDP to defence expenditures. By counting generously, Canada spends 1.3% on defence..Last April Trudeau told our allies we would not meet the 2% goal..Not this year. Not ever..Yet Trudeau just re-committed Canada to the 2% goal. If he were serious Canada would need to spend an additional $18 billion, up from the current $36 billion. That’s a significant increase..More likely, Canada will vie with Belgium and Luxembourg in the race to be top NATO freeloaders..So there you have it. From sloppy pancake flipping to welching on NATO commitments, Justin has no credibility either in Stampede celebrations or in the grim business of being a NATO partner..Poilievre was right. Everything feels broken. It’s reflected everywhere. Thanks, Justin.
