Featured Comment

SDA regular Petter O’Donnell wrote something exceptionally thought provoking last night:

The percentage who might support the convoys may well be fairly low (my guess 20 to 30 per cent) but then another 50 per cent are probably fed up with the mandates but just hope in the abstract that they will go away because “experts” will say they are no longer needed. So that 50 per cent need to be educated about the fact that experts are not likely to lean that way because the other 20 per cent not yet covered in this analysis are those who like this situation and are woke enough to get what it really means, i.e., global socialist revolution (with them in charge, elections from now on are just to be show theatrics designed to ratify what the elites have already decided must be).

How might this convoy event reach that silent and rather undereducated (in the school of reality) 50 per cent? Only by articulating a message they can possibly understand. Chasing Charlie Angus around the back streets of Ottawa is not going to be that message. Neither are angry cries of outrage against Jewish bankers and “all those people” from “over there.”

This is in part because a very considerable portion of the 50 per cent are in fact those people from over there.

There are a few articulate people who might be assets in Ottawa and I hope they find their way to that benighted town and take part. But how exactly can this be structured so that the best possible message emerges? We know the media will twist the words of those they interview, who are bound to be largely flummoxed by the sudden appearance of a camera crew and microphone, and blurt out inner feelings that, while sincere and understandable, will sound like “Grrrr” to most neutrals.

This is why we have political parties. In a normally functioning country, when this disorganized congregation of like-minded people arrived in Ottawa, they would find important, well-known people that they voted for, ready to provide their facilities and expertise, and their credibility which would negate the media mischief, and keep the tasked police agents at a safe distance with nothing to exploit. This is where even the great Trump failed, had he employed the services of sensible advisors and not his son in law etc, he would have been told that Jan 6 was a cluster waiting to happen, and would seriously damage his chances of achieving his stated goal of litigating the fraudulent election.

I don’t know if Pollievre or Bernier read SDA very much, but for the sake of our country and for liberty and all things that are sensible, good and sane, you two and a few others need to get together and shepherd this flock when it is fully assembled, and speak for them. I cannot conceive of O’Toole being of any use here, he should just take a two-week vacation.

This can work. But it can also fail in a miserable and grotesque way too, and no doubt there are those planning just such an outcome. Watch out for them. It might be a good organizing principle to say, anyone who actually lives here should not join in, we can’t trust anyone in this city. I sure wouldn’t.

56 Replies to “Featured Comment”

    1. Trudeau is a useless piece of flesh masquerading as a human being. He isn’t fooling anyone.

    2. And the CBC is full ahead on a documentary celebrating the steady hand, the keen insight and even the heroism of Dear idiot Leader as he ably guides us through these harrowing times.

  1. The percentage who might support the convoys may well be fairly low (my guess 20 to 30 per cent.
    ***********************

    Right now we have no proof of who supports them. But people are sure funding the (Go-fund me) account with a fair amount of cash! Which the left is trying to squash.

    Support is coming from some-where.

    1. This is Maxime’s moment. All he has to do to grasp it is say (like JFK in Berlin),

      “I AM AN UNACCEPTABLE!”

      and (like Ronald Reagan, ironically, also in Berlin),

      “Mr. Trudeau, TEAR DOWN THESE MANDATES!”

  2. What is ultimately going to force the hand of the authorities is the collapse of the economy. The truck convoy is drawing attention to the catastrophic effects of crashing highly complex systems with nonsensical regulations. Jordan Peterson tweeted about this just recently.

    1. At the end of the day, no matter if violent skirmishes arise from imported players, or the media manages to regain its grasp of its audience through manipulation and smears, or the army is called to clear the streets. Even if you manage to send the truckers packing.

      The truckers will be even more demoralized. Those trucks will never haul another load and they will tighten their belts and let the elite literally EAT THEIR WORDS.

    2. The truckers should shut Ottawa down completely….starve them. Don’t let the shelves in the grocery stores be restocked. It’s time they realized that their lives depend on things like fossil fuels, farmers, truckers, etc. Their essentials don’t just “happen” by magic. Too many have forgotten that and there are far too many who never knew it.

    3. I talked to someone who is installing a bunch of equipment. 7 truck loads from various parts of the US. They got one truck, the rest are sitting trying to find drivers willing to come to Canada. Maybe an extra $10,000 per load would help, but no guarantees.

      The project is at a standstill. I suspect this is happening lots of places, and by the time it hits public consciousness it is already a catastrophe.

      I suspect OTool is getting his share of screaming businesses, and has moved slightly in response. But the NDP and Liberals are not hearing this reality, and their priors are being confirmed by media and their supporters.

      If they were smart they would listen to the truckers, including those who are swearing at them. It is information that they really need. But they won’t.

  3. Judging by the letters to the editor in this morning’s Ottawa Citizen, the pearl-clutching, liberal loving ninnies in this benighted city hate, hate, hate the convoy and all it represents. A good famine wouldn’t come amiss. It might not wake most of them up, but watching the idiots spiral into madness would be entertaining.

    1. Those same idiots believe anything the Lieberal bought-and-paid-for media feeds them. If “experts” found the only protection against COVID were plastic bags over their heads secured around their necks with duct tape…most of them would succumb to asphyxiation.

    2. Good. But you that the Ottawa Citizen has the veracity of the Toronto Brown Star. It always has been a crap “news”paper.

  4. Absolutely right on. The reason(s) we have Skippy is charge despite the fact he is disliked in the extreme, is that a) many of his ‘supporters’ are loyal to the Liberal party, not its leader and b) there is no government-in-waiting with credible leadership. That is why we need a new Canada Party led by someone who supports reasonableness in all things. I nominate John Manley.

  5. That comment is right, Robert. The vast majority of people on this convoy are not savvy to the inner workings of the elite and the erudite political operatives. They are just people who know something is wrong and can’t express it in totally articulate terms, but they want to do something (like plain old farmer me). They have been let down by the official opposition. They need a spokesperson to pull this effort together help them communicate their total concern. The frustration these citizens feel will only compound if they are not heard.

  6. Hey for your readers and someone might want to pass this Brownstone Institute report that just came out to the Freedom Convoy spokes persons or organization members to hone issues and points for interviews. Lockdowns Did Not Save Lives, Concludes Meta-analysis
    Link: https://archive.is/XFKgB

    Since there’s a lot of scope for fiddling with studies that make up a meta-analysis, here’s the full selection strategy that the authors used:
    They screened over 18,000 studies, most of which weren’t related to the narrow lockdown efficacy question.
    1,048 studies remained, where most were excluded for not answering the two core eligibility questions:
    Does the study measure the effect of lockdowns on mortality?
    Does the study use an empirical diff-in-diff approach?
    Of the 117 studies that remain, the authors exclude 83 that were duplicates, used modeling, or synthetic controls. Structural-break studies weren’t enough, the authors argue, “as the effect of lockdowns in these studies might contain time-dependent shifts, such as seasonality.”
    34 studies thus make it into their analysis, and they are divided into three segments: mortality impacts associated with the stringency of Covid policies (following the much-publicized Oxford metric); Shelter-in-Place studies; and studies that target specific non-pharmaceutical interventions.

  7. This is Maxime’s moment. All he has to do to grasp it is say (like JFK in Berlin),

    “I AM AN UNACCEPTABLE!”

    and (like Ronald Reagan, ironically, also in Berlin),

    “Mr. Trudeau, TEAR DOWN THESE MANDATES!”

    1. If the media doesn’t cover it, report it, or film it, it didn’t happen.

      That’s how the media rolls their propaganda

      1. And us wee small taxpayers are subsidizing the rich media owners to feed their lies and propaganda to us.

        It can’t be tough to be a Media scumbag. There are so many.

    1. “…we live in a country where a large percentage of the population simply does not think…”

      FTFY

  8. The people are dysfunctional. A normal society with moral, freedom loving people, would never have allowed the insanity we are dealing with to occur.

    1. Nothing has been more successful than the Canadian Education System.

      Canadians are so dumbed down that not only will they believe just about anything, they love their Mommy Government so much, they volunteer to be Lab Rats.

      Experimental monkeys for Big Pharma.

      Now that’s hugely successful dumbing down.

  9. Good and perceptive comment! Add to the mix of confusion that the government has, most likely, paid agitators amongst the truckers and supporters. The potential for this going awry is high.

    All those not in Ottawa: pray that this goes well. I don’t mean “hope vaguely.” I mean literally: kneel down. Acknowlege that God exists and is in control, that He loves us, that He wants what is good for us. Ask Him to protect the truckers physically and spiritually for the duration of the protest. Trust that God will relieve us from this, but know that it may not be immediately, and pray for strength to endure in the meantime.

  10. Standard govt practise, develop group identification for people and then pit 1 group against the other. There will be no accountability for the govt and bureaucracy that allowed the pandemic stockpile to go out of date w/o replenishment, that spend millions of dollars based on SARS experience and then tossing the pandemic playbook in the garbage. Bring on the famine

  11. While the use of an articulate spokesman for this protest would be good, one can’t count on the mainstream for anything but at best, snark, and at worst denigration. Thirty years ago, I was involved in the largest protest in Victoria’s History (25000 forest workers, family and related businesses and community). On the morning of the protest, I spotted Ian Hanomansing in a restaurant and I approached him and asked him if he wanted me to put him in touch with some of the organizers (spokesmen). He glared at me for a second and said nothing and turned and walked away. They had their story and it wasn’t going to be tainted with the words of the organizers. I saw in a near exact manner the same thing happen at a pro pipeline rally a few years ago only they gave the organizer his 30 seconds which is about all you can hope for. The big difference now is that their wasn’t alternative media then.

    1. Just heard a SecurityPro on Roy Green.. He says they are watching for p-r-ou-d B-ys!.. What a lot of brainwashed fools.. And Lubyanka News had that antifa supporter Canhate or SPLC North spokes man on last night.. I am so pissed I’m incoherent… GRRRR!

  12. ” This is where even the great Trump failed, had he employed the services of sensible advisors and not his son in law etc, he would have been told that Jan 6 was a cluster waiting to happen, and would seriously damage his chances of achieving his stated goal of litigating the fraudulent election.”

    the courts made it clear that there was no way to litigate the election by using technicalities to dismiss every lawsuit (ie: Standing, timeliness, moot, etc)

      1. And there is a reason for that….it won’t accept votes agreeing with the convoy….at least it wouldn’t take mine.

  13. Please don’t forget, every two bit politician from Mayors and Reeves on up, was complicit in this.

    What ever happens in Ottawa, happens.
    This is bigger than any frickin politician.

    1. Years ago I read an article on municipal politics. It said that if you want to push far-left ideology, go for local government.

  14. Good comment. Very few people understand how far we’ve come already, with the use of emergency measures to override laws and the Charter, the neutering of Parliament and the opposition, and transforming the media into a propaganda arm of the government. And now with a minority to scapegoat, we are following the path of Nazi Germany in the early 1930’s. This government will not bend or moderate or compromise. Everything the media says is to accomplish the goal of enhancing and centralizing power. This is no time to be naive about what could happen next.

  15. I’m not so sure support is below 30%, the full court press to characterize this protest as some alt right, Neo-nazi rally by all major Canadian media outlets and all political parties (save tepid support from the Cons and PPC) suggests to me that the chattering class knows exactly where the fault lines are and that they may have overplayed their hand. Anecdotally I had a conversation with a Toronto Beaches liberal for life who told me he’s gone into full “Trump” supporter after two years of this nonsense. Bari Weiss on Maher, Evangeline Lilly at a protest stateside, Elon being Elon, the “consensus” is looking shakier and shakier from where I sit.

  16. After 2+ years, has the Trudeau govt not figured out how to use a telephone or Zoom or whatever? So he’s been exposed to “covid” and is working from home. So what. Call the organizers and engage in a conversation. Onus is on him to sort this out. If something untoward happens make sure JT is held accountable because the protest organizers have taken all reasonable precautions to prevent problems. The convoy started almost a week ago. The PTB knew it was serious about $4m ago. The decision to ignore/vilify was tantamount to reckless endangerment. LSM complicit because they also could have reported this early enough for problems, and let’s pray there are none, to be avoided.

    1. He is not only a coward, he is a arrogant snob who considers everyone beneath him.

      Even if he did possess the fortitude to meet directly or by other means a single representative, such an idea would require humanising “lesser beings”.

      He would rather hide, then claim that he stood up to the “fringe” and be a bigger b@$#@rd than before.

  17. According to all available sources, only a few blocks downtown and the scenic routes into Ottawa are blocked. The 417 and 416 are open.

    Why?

    Chief Big Screen, when he wants cash, doesn’t Just drive his rig into the centre of the nearest white town and pose for the cameras. He and his braves block the only roads in and out, and stay there till whitey blinks.

    There should be a rig blocking each on/off-ramp on the 417, each bridge to Quebec and every major local thoroughfare that could serve as a practical substitute (174, Hunt Club, Prince of Wales, Carling, etc.). Any entitled civil servants needing to spend your money at the mall should be obliged to walk if it’s that big a deal.

    Just to be sure the Libranos don’t disappear, block the road to the airport too.

    Right now, if you live more than a few blocks from parliament, it’s easy to pretend the truckers aren’t there. I live just east of King Edward and I can barely hear them.

    This is war. We keep losing because few are willing to fight it.

    1. There’s a LOT more trucks still coming from the Western Convoy.
      And many more cars and private vehicles not to mention our friends from the USA.
      So those roads will get clogged regardless just from sheer volume.
      Hope the locals don’t get pissed having vehicles blocking and parking on the side streets.

  18. He may be a regular and ‘thought provoking’ but he lost me with his opening sentence –
    “The percentage who might support the convoys may well be fairly low (my guess 20 to 30 per cent)”
    and I stopped reading right there – Who cares what his guess is – My guess (if anybody cares) is it well
    above 50% support Canada wide –
    FWIW I am pretty regular and have read SDA at least twice a day for the past few years –

  19. Consider that those who work as long-haul truckers are getting fewer (RE: the trucker letter post from a few days ago).

    Also consider that not every trucker wished to be jabbed and that it wasn’t an issue before.

    I do believe that a large number of existing long-haul truckers are supporting this movement, as well as farmers and people from various walks of life.

    This has become a pan-movement, if you will.

  20. I stopped reading at “jewish” banker. Holy fox creek. The author took an intelligent response and threw it in the dumpster. It’s almost as though he’s not a true conservative but an agent provocateur! Ask yourselves this, how many anti-Semitic friends do you know? How many are Liberal? How many are conservative?

    1. I suggest you misunderstood his use of “jewish bankers”. He was saying that racists won’t be a part of the solution and don’t make up the people in this protest.

  21. I think the truckers have already succeeded to some extent. There is a very big demonstration taking place in Victoria today. (Let that sink in for a minute.) I walked past the leg buildings today at noon and at least two or three thousand people had already assembled, with more arriving all the time. An endless stream of big trucks, pickups and cars was circling the downtown streets honking and displaying flags and signs. Bystanders were waving and giving thumbs up. At this writing, about 3pm, it’s still going on and I can hear air horns from three blocks away. I talked to two guys who had just arrived from up island. They said the convoy of vehicles was about 40km long.

    It was also very good natured. Despite all the slimy smears from Trudeau and the lapdog media everyone will know that this this was just an outpouring of regular people who are fed up with the doctatorship and the feds in general. It seems like a lot of Canadians have cast off their servile compliance and decided to take a stand – and without seeking approval of the “authorities.” Best thing I’ve seen happen here in years.

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