President Trump’s populist message has obviously spread across our northern border, as the “yellow vest” movement has grown there demanding the ouster of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his globalist policies.
By Mark Anderson
Conservative Canadian activist groups have joined forces over the last three years and now are bringing France’s “yellow vest” movement into the fold, as group members take strong issue with Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and what they see as his globalist-Marxist policies.
Although Canada’s “yellow vests” may not be quite as forceful as those who birthed the populist movement in France, Trudeau’s apparent perfidy and his distressing declaration that Canada is the world’s first “post-national” state very well could spark a repeat of what’s been happening in France.
British Columbia resident Tanya Gaw of the Canadian Coalition for Responsible Government and members of several other groups, including Act for Canada, regularly take to the streets across their vast nation to protest Trudeau’s policies, including his move to pinch Canadians ever-harder with the carbon tax that’s tied to what these groups see as a phony “climate change” ideology.
They also say that Trudeau’s especially loose immigration laws are watering down Canada’s cultural and national identity.
“We’re having 170 rallies per weekend—some at city halls, some at highway overpasses. It’s an opportunity for the people to get united,” Ms. Gaw told AFP. “The Oct. 21, 2019 federal election is our opportunity to get Justin Trudeau out of office. Now that the yellow vest movement is here in Canada, this is fabulous. We’ve been getting lots of people honking and showing their support with thumbs-up at the rallies.”
Asked whether the stark contrast between President Donald Trump and Trudeau has had a discernable effect on Canadians’ political outlook, Ms. Gaw said that despite frequent distortion of Trump’s words and actions by mainstream Canadian media, “there are many supporters of Donald Trump in Canada. Trump has given this grassroots movement a big push in Canada and even in the EU.”
Ms. Gaw and her fellow activists are eyeing Member of Parliament Maxime Bernier of the new People’s Party of Canada as a potential replacement for Trudeau. She recalled that Bernier, when he was a Conservative Party member, took on former House of Commons Speaker Andrew Scheer in the spring of 2017 in the election for the party’s leadership. The race was close, but Scheer got elected to the leadership post under questionable circumstances, including the destruction of some 7,000 ballots, making a desired recount impossible.
This apparent election theft was coupled with betrayal. Scheer—once considered to be an able leader for Canadian social and constitutional conservatives—eventually followed the script often used by sold-out Republicans in name only in the U.S. and abandoned his core supporters by dropping his opposition to same-sex marriage and watering down his opposition to abortion.
“He did an about-face on these social issues,” Ms. Gaw said, adding that while some people claim Bernier will split the ticket, more and more people are jumping ship from both the Liberal Party and National Democratic Party, which could very well help the People’s Party. Bernier started the Peoples Party from scratch, and has reportedly laid the groundwork for brisk growth as disenchantment toward Trudeau grows.
These activists’ concerns also extend to Canada under Trudeau adopting highly objectionable United Nations policies, such as what Ms. Gaw described as “vile sex-ed resources” going into Canadian schools connected to the UN’s promotion of the LGBTQ movement, unchecked immigration and open borders, and, among other matters, the rise of political Islam with allegations, based on a special report, that the government is giving tax dollars to terrorist outfits via Islamic charities.
Signs at the groups’ rallies say things like “Trudeau is Treason,” “Stop Globalism; No Carbon Tax,” and, “We did not elect the United Nations to govern our country.”
As for the yellow vests, whose website is UnitedYellowVestsCanada.ca, they’ve issued a mission statement which says, in part: “We, the citizens of Canada, have come together under the yellow vest banner for the sole purpose of protesting and rallying against our successive establishment governments who have sold our sovereignty to the UN through the carbon tax/pipelines (Paris Agreement], the migrant compact, and ultimately the sustainable development agenda.”
Another component of this burgeoning grassroots movement is a planned truck convoy to the national capital of Ottawa, Ontario, slated to take place Feb. 19, according to organizer Ron Barr.
Mark Anderson is AFP’s roving editor.
They’re coming for ya’ Justin! Oh, my! Look at all those pitchforks!