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How is this possible? To let the left tell it, Canada is a liberal utopia.

(Bloomberg) -- Canadians have done as they were told during the pandemic. They lined up for shots until the country had one of the developed world’s best vaccination rates; they endured some of North America’s longest lockdowns; and they’ve complied with a wide assortment of curfews and quarantines.

But even in a society known for its civility and deference to authority, many are reaching their limit.

Pent-up frustration and rage have burst into the downtown core of the nation’s capital, with hundreds of truckers and other protesters occupying Ottawa’s streets for nearly a week to oppose vaccine mandates. The group has been championed on Fox News and by podcaster Joe Rogan, Tesla billionaire Elon Musk and former President Donald Trump. Demonstrators have started to build makeshift shelters and collect propane tanks, vowing to stay until vaccine mandates are lifted.

The populace may disapprove of their un-Canadian-like antics, but there is a growing sense of support for the main message they’re delivering -- strict Covid restrictions no longer make sense. The protests have been the talk of the nation, around dinner tables, on talk shows and social media. And they serve as a warning shot not just to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau but to leaders everywhere: If even Canada is starting to resist pandemic measures, what does that mean for the rest of the world?

“People are starting to ask, what is the point or what is the efficacy of these restrictions?’” said Shachi Kurl, president of the Angus Reid Institute, a research firm in Vancouver.

A late January poll by the institute found 54% of Canadians want to end restrictions and let people self-isolate if they’re at risk. That was up 14 percentage points from just a few weeks earlier. Omicron, a variant that’s highly infectious but appears less likely to cause serious illness, has changed the perception of risk, Kurl said.

The reaction is “not knee-jerk. It’s just been building,” she said.

As Covid fatigue turns into angst, weary government leaders must decide whether it’s time to start treating the virus as an endemic disease, like seasonal flu. Experts have warned that might be premature. But if Canada is any guide, there will likely be growing public pressure to remove restrictions, whether the science supports that or not.

Trucker Convoy Protests Covid-19 Vaccine Mandate
© BloombergTrucker Convoy Protests Covid-19 Vaccine Mandate

In Ottawa, protests saw thousands of people gather in front of Canada’s parliament buildings last weekend. (A separate protest blocked an important border crossing in the west for days.) The numbers have dwindled this week, but police expect they will grow again this weekend, and trucker demonstrations are also planned in Toronto.

Inside the capital, it’s the ongoing presence of hundreds of rigs that has made this a unique event. Although there has been almost no violence or property damage, the crowd of trucks lends the demonstrations a menacing air, with the implied threat of heavy machinery in the streets. The city center is almost entirely blockaded, with trucks spilling out into residential neighborhoods. Drivers blast deafening air horns all day and, in some cases, deep into the night.

Is Covid Becoming Endemic? What Would That Mean?: QuickTake

The protests started in reaction to Canadian and U.S. laws that went into effect in January, requiring truckers crossing the border to be fully vaccinated. They have morphed into a fury over Covid restrictions more broadly. Measures to control omicron hit the economy hard in January, resulting in the country losing 200,100 jobs during the month, Statistics Canada said Friday.

“I’m here because I’ve been segregated from my family,” Cody Ward, a 30-year-old father of three, said while hanging out in the four-door sedan he drove in from Nova Scotia. Parked less than a mile from the House of Commons, near an intersection with apartment buildings and a Catholic church, Ward was surrounded by scores of trucks, lined up three lanes across.

Ward said that some extended family members won’t let him into their homes because he’s unvaccinated and he blamed Canada’s politicians for creating a divisive environment. He said he’d arrived in Ottawa on Tuesday and is prepared to demonstrate for weeks, or even months.

Trucker Talk
© BloombergTrucker Talk

He’s not a trucker, but he’s been taken in by an “Adopt-a-Trucker” program set up by protest organizers, and a local couple is giving him food and shelter. About a third of Canadians support the protest, while 36% think Trudeau should scrap the vaccine mandate for truckers, according to new polling from Innovative Research Group.

Trudeau -- who labeled the trucker convoy a “fringe minority” -- has shown no sign of reversing his government’s vaccine mandates. He campaigned and won last year’s election promising to protect health care and impose new travel restrictions on the unvaccinated.

Yet the backlash is being felt by political leaders. Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole, Trudeau’s primary rival in the 2021 election, was dumped by his caucus this week in a putsch led by lawmakers who disliked the party’s turn to the center. For some, his refusal to embrace the protesters’ cause was another sign of weakness. After deposing him in a vote on Wednesday, a few went out and posed for pictures with the truckers.

Quebec’s premier backed down on a threat to impose a special tax on unvaccinated residents. The government of Saskatchewan, in the heart of country’s more conservative west, said it will scrap all restrictions soon, including proof-of-vaccination requirements for public places.

“Eradicating Covid is not realistic and Covid zero is not achievable,” Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said Thursday, imploring residents to live normal lives. “Have dinner with your friends. Go to the movies. Go to your kids’ games, most importantly. You should do all of these things without constantly assessing if your every activity is absolutely necessary.”

Last edited by Jutu
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@JH1961 posted:

Patriots HATE Communists, dictators, and tyrants. Liberals HATE everyone that doesn't agree with them.

The GOP has no platform other than...

Democrats are killing babies

Democrats are taking your guns

Democrats are taking your freedom....

Not one of you can give an example.


The GOP has fed you that crap for the entirety of my lifetime.... they're still feeding it to you.

They've fed you a steady diet of hate... and you can't get your belly full.


Hatriots gotta hate.

The GOP has no platform other than...

Democrats are killing babies

Democrats are taking your guns

Democrats are taking your freedom....

Not one of you can give an example.


The GOP has fed you that crap for the entirety of my lifetime.... they're still feeding it to you.

They've fed you a steady diet of hate... and you can't get your belly full.


Hatriots gotta hate.

Well here you go

https://news.yahoo.com/term-ab...-left-145707120.html

https://www.washingtontimes.co...s-eye-confiscation-/

@HIFLYER2 posted:

Just so you know.... 'late term abortions' are illegal in the US, unless the life of the mother is in danger.... in all 50 states.... that's just another of those GOP talking points that really has zero bearing on anything.... much like the CRT laws they're passing , now.
Reagan, the 1st Republican God, ban military style weapons from the public... now, let a Democrat even talk about it and you guys go nuts.... Same old song and dance the GOP has put out for over 40 years... and you guys are still buying it...

I'm still waiting on Clinton to take my guns... then Obama still has a few years... before Biden can have a turn.... I'm guessing Jimmy Carter is too old to come for them , now?

unicorn, guess your news source doesn't show quotes of democrats pushing abortion up to birth? you might want to change source. plus as elections get closer watch their narrative change.

Reagon wasn't a god and i am not taking time to research what he did or didn't do.  I am sure there are things he did that I don't agree with. Example allowing amnesty under the democrat promise of a wall. Which never happen. I guess your news source doesn't show clips of Biden, Obama and many democrats wanting to take our guns. Or of them wanting to tax guns, ammo til someone can't afford.  There are several social media sites, media sources that will give you the truth, or at least talking points if you can criticle think.

@1130 posted:

unicorn, guess your news source doesn't show quotes of democrats pushing abortion up to birth? you might want to change source. plus as elections get closer watch their narrative change.

Reagon wasn't a god and i am not taking time to research what he did or didn't do.  I am sure there are things he did that I don't agree with. Example allowing amnesty under the democrat promise of a wall. Which never happen. I guess your news source doesn't show clips of Biden, Obama and many democrats wanting to take our guns. Or of them wanting to tax guns, ammo til someone can't afford.  There are several social media sites, media sources that will give you the truth, or at least talking points if you can criticle think.

Critical thinking would be...
the GOP has told me for 40 years that Democrats will take my guns.

After 40 years, I still have my guns.

Result: The GOP is using fear to keep me voting for Republicans.
There you go, Sparky.... how's that for critical thinking?

@JH1961 posted:

The truckers' protest has been 100% peaceful. That can't be said for ANY of the BLM or Antifa protests.

When you don't know the answer, it's better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.

In a statement on Sunday, the Ottawa Police Service said it has launched 60 criminal investigations from the protests, stemming from mischief, property crimes and thefts all the way to hate crimes.

To date, the Freedom Convoy members have committed NO ACTS OF VIOLENCE against persons OR property. You CANNOT say that if BLM or Antifa. Any arrests made of it's participants have been for what amounts to what 'The State' deems to be 'Disorderly Conduct', which can be applied to pretty much ANYTHING 'The State' chooses it to be.

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