Watching the Trump administration hunt down adversaries and undocumented migrants, Canada’s political class is utterly terrified. They worry the same thing could happen to them here, under a Conservative government.They are particularly concerned about recent words from Pierre Poilievre, during an interview he gave on the Northern Perspective podcast. “Many of the scandals of the Trudeau era should have involved jail time,” Poilievre told the podcast hosts. “I mean, Trudeau broke the criminal code when he took a free vacation from someone with whom he had government business. It’s just — like, it’s right there in the criminal code.” .SLOBODIAN: When ostriches and whales die, so does Canada.Poilievre went on to label the RCMP as “despicable” for not charging Trudeau for either the Aga Khan affair or the SNC-Lavalin scandal. But Canada’s political class doesn’t care too much about that. What they do care about is avoiding jail time.“So where is Pierre Poilievre’s notion,” MP Elizabeth May warbled on Parliament Hill, “that the prime minister should be jailed? It’s deeply worrying right now because this is the kind of thing going on in Trump’s United States.”There it is, “Trump’s United States.” The overriding theme that many who hate Poilievre and populism latch onto and cannot let go. .“Political enemies can become persecuted then through law enforcement,” she said. “And you end up having former friends, colleagues, associates of Donald Trump. Once they’re no longer friends, they should be in jail. I don’t like that kind of language in Canadian politics.”This is a fundamental attribution error by May, but she’s hardly the only one guilty of it. Persecuting political enemies in the US began upon its founding with tarring and feathering. Indeed, Trump was persecuted during the Obama and Biden administrations in a similar humiliating fashion. Several of his political allies were criminally charged, including Steve Bannon, Roger Stone, Peter Navarro, and Michael Flynn. But Trump didn’t try to jail his allies — Democrats did..OLDCORN: Saskatchewan should follow Alberta’s lead on drug courts and learn from Portugal.Last year, Trump was found guilty on a total of 34 criminal charges. He was scheduled for sentencing before the American people elected him for a second term. He was then unconditionally discharged. US Senator Lindsay Graham believes the FBI’s persecution of Trump was politically motivated. Recall the texts of FBI agent Peter Strzok, for instance, attempting to soothe his anxious mistress, FBI lawyer Lisa Page, over fears that Trump would be elected. “No. No, he won’t. We’ll stop it,” Strzok promised. Former FBI director James Comey has suggested much worse.But it’s hard to acknowledge any of these realities while enduring Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS). Good thing we don’t suffer from that in Canada, eh?.For Canada’s political class and media, recalling the numerous sins of our last prime minister, Justin Trudeau, and the fact that he might still be prosecuted, makes their hairs stand on end. They’re panicking. Every Shoppers’ Drug Mart within 10 clicks of a gated community is sold out of Pepto-Bismol.But that’s just not enough. So they rationalize.“The shrewd version of Mr. Poilievre would know better than to offer up such a direct line of comparison between himself and the US President by talking about jailing his political opponents,” columnist Robyn Urback suggested in The Globe..RACHAEL THOMAS: In pursuit of a better country, from sea to sea.Copying Trump is apparently a sign that you’ve lost the plot, even if it means that you dared to listen to your constituents. The Globe also released an editorial lambasting Poilievre. Their Ottawa Bureau Chief — the journalist who broke the SNC-Lavalin story — Robert Fife, said on CBC’s Power & Politics, “One would wonder if he’s trying to go full MAGA.”Canadian lobbyists, or “the swamp” as Trump refers to their equivalent in the US, have their own thoughts. .“This is not a one-off,” NDP strategist Jordan Leichnitz asserted on the Curse of Politics podcast. “This was the latest in a series of Trumpy moves, tips, nudges, dog whistles, whatever you want to call it.”Really? “Trumpy” is one of a myriad of “Trump” adjectives that are very much dog whistles for radical leftists, including the ideologues who gutted the NDP..MacLEOD: The cumulative chill: Canada’s legislative overreach on free expression.“He’s moved into that apple-eating, ‘turn the asshole-ery up to 11’ zone,” lobbyist Dave Herle added. I’m not a fan of smugness, but it’s a frequent failure of Canadians that we are far too sensitive, while somehow retaining our ability to judge others and let them know about it. Like the Brantford Boomer did. .And now tension is freely flowing across the border such that TDS may be evolving into PPDS (Pierre Poilievre Derangement Syndrome).The National Post’s John Ivison, sadly, went on a hardcore PPDS rant, using the opportunity to attack what he sees as populism’s conspiratorial thinking.“The very idea that the RCMP is biased towards the Liberals is laughable,” he mused..HEINRICHS: Can anything change Canada's declining birth rate?.Who exactly is laughing? RCMP members have historically been involved in numerous scandals. But Ivison continues with his denouncement of all things populist. “This is familiar conspiratorial ground for the Poilievre of yesteryear, who expressed his support for the Freedom Convoy leadership and talked of a World Economic Forum plot that would “rob everyone of private property.”The cozy world the political class and the mainstream media have settled into is threatened with uncertainty. Yet so are the less cozy lives of everyday Canadians. Ranting and raving against Pierre Poilievre — PPDS — isn’t going to solve either problem. All it serves is to show the very sharp divide that continues to exist in Canada between the have and have-not citizens. It’s a reminder elites and others continue to dismiss the needs of everyday Canadians as “grievances” — unworthy of discussion.
