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Evan Saugstad: In politics, timing is everything – Alaska Highway News

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​​On Feb. 23, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a surprise announcement – Canada’s emergency against the Freedom Convoy was over, shocking most that he would capitulate so easy. So what was the new and secret intelligence to make such a sudden U-turn?

Consider this: in politics, timing is everything and Trudeau was just handed a golden opportunity to bury his vitriolic past and mistakes. He received word that Russia was beginning to invade Ukraine, and voila – time to make his announcement.

Normally, given that the Senate was still debating the merits or need of such an emergency and that Trudeau was hearing from his co-opted bankers that people in large numbers were afraid of him and his dictatorial stance and were now taking their money out in droves, that civil liberties groups were gaining traction in their assertions that this fake emergency was trampling on people’s rights, and that his bought and paid for friends over at the NDP were beginning to get cold feet in supporting such measures, it might seem odd that he would capitulate instead of doubling down with more hate speech against those he does not like, as he normally does.

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Nope, none of that mattered anymore.

In my expert and learned opinion, Trudeau’s backroom handlers told him in no uncertain terms that he was to immediately call a press conference, to get in front of the Canadian people and tell them that he had now determined that the emergency was over and that we could go back to pretending it was real and no longer valid. You see, he was told that by doing this now, in a few minutes the biggest news story of the year would be that Russia was now attacking the Ukraine, and by the next morning any news story about his persecution of Canadians would be banished to the back pages and soon forgotten by his friends in his media.

How prophetic and, as sure as death and taxes, come the next morning, try to find a story about Canada’s fake emergency when the world is watching the Ukraine declare a real emergency as the Huns were now at their door. And, I don’t think they needed to debate theirs.

I’m sad for Ukraine with its real emergency, and sad for Canadians that Trudeau once again sidesteps telling the truth. But it isn’t over, it just remains to be seen if he and his backroom machine can now co-opt the Parliamentary inquiry. An inquiry dominated by Liberal and NDP members blocking any real discussion, not that we will ever hear about it as all is completed in secrecy and only Trudeau’s version can be released.

There will also be a public inquiry within a year but given the propensity of the Liberals to block, drag out, and otherwise obstruct anything meaningful and/or of value to Canadians, we may likely never hear from that one until Trudeau is long gone and we have had another election.

Now that I have time to reflect on this sordid affair, what else is of note or importance?

Do reports of Tamara Lich’s presiding judge being a former candidate for Trudeau’s Liberals have anything to do with her still being in jail on mischief charges when axe murderers can be back on the street before the police can finish the paperwork?

Are the reports that the police never gave a list of convoy donors to banks and asked their accounts to be frozen mean anything, when the banks were given a list of accounts to freeze and told that all money directed toward those accounts could also be frozen? Doesn’t it only take a minute for banks to search their databases and gather such information, and given their release from all liabilities, then forward such info back to the police?

Will any of the millions raised in support of getting dissenting voices to Ottawa ever be given back to their respective donors, or directed to those intended to receive such largess?

Will Ottawa businesses and residents sue their city for falsely claiming the downtown was dangerous and that all business should be closed? Will Ottawa council ever admit it could have erected fences around any building and across any street they so chose and without Trudeau’s blessings?

Will we ever hear from former Ottawa Police Chief Sloly why the politicians would not use a “political” solution to end the impasse, rather than police resorting to clubs and threats of bullets?

Will we ever know what Trudeau promised Jagmeet Singh to have him play along in the game of charades? 

Will we ever find out if the swastika flag bearer was a plant or not? 

How long will it take for our national media to recognize and come to grips that this was Canada’s largest act of civil disobedience that resulted no buildings or police cars being torched, not a single business looted, not a single police person injured, and, until directed otherwise, police were able to freely talk, discuss, and negotiate with “protesters” with no threats of violence or intimidation and no requirement for guns drawn or clubs raised?

Will the average Canadian who watches the same national news source, morning and evening, ever wake up to understand that what they saw was a carefully scripted narrative that broadly supported Trudeau’s unsubstantiated assertions and mandates that portrayed all protesters as extremists, supremacists, annoying people that do not belong, misfits, etc., etc.?

Will the majority of Canadians who openly hated and advocated for extreme measures of persecution of the unvaccinated ever come to grips that expressing hatred to fellow Canadians is not cool? Will they ever accept that this misdirected hatred was at the express pleasure and direction of many of our political leaders and public health authorities?

Can we expect that late some Friday afternoon a civil servant will post on some obscure website that Canada has finally created a plan to end the persecution of the unvaccinated in Canada and that we will now all be allowed to resume our normal lives and rights as Canadians, while Trudeau simultaneously announces that all guns he has confiscated will be sent to the Ukraine to help in their efforts to defend their country?

Finally, will we ever accept that all effective protests do involve the disruption of fellow Canadian’s normal lives? Will we remember what women did to make their voices heard and then achieve the right to vote in Canada?

And I’m still waiting for an all clear to give in support of the defence of our truckers who went to Ottawa and are now paying the financial price for advocating for rights for all fellow Canadians.


Evan Saugstad lives and writes in Fort St. John.

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Vaughn Palmer: Brad West dips his toes into B.C. politics, but not ready to dive in – Vancouver Sun

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Opinion: Brad West been one of the sharpest critics of decriminalization

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VICTORIA — Port Coquitlam Mayor Brad West fired off a letter to Premier David Eby last week about Allan Schoenborn, the child killer who changed his name in a bid for anonymity.

“It is completely beyond the pale that individuals like Schoenborn have the ability to legally change their name in an attempt to disassociate themselves from their horrific crimes and to evade the public,” wrote West.

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The Alberta government has legislated against dangerous, long-term and high risk offenders who seek to change their names to escape public scrutiny.

“I urge your government to pass similar legislation as a high priority to ensure the safety of British Columbians,” West wrote the premier.

The B.C. Review Board has granted Schoenborn overnight, unescorted leave for up to 28 days, and he spent some of that time in Port Coquitlam, according to West.

This despite the board being notified that “in the last two years there have been 15 reported incidents where Schoenborn demonstrated aggressive behaviour.”

“It is absolutely unacceptable that an individual who has committed such heinous crimes, and continues to demonstrate this type of behaviour, is able to roam the community unescorted.”

Understandably, those details alarmed PoCo residents.

But the letter is also an example of the outspoken mayor’s penchant for to-the-point pronouncements on provincewide concerns.

He’s been one of the sharpest critics of decriminalization.

His most recent blast followed the news that the New Democrats were appointing a task force to advise on ways to curb the use of illicit drugs and the spread of weapons in provincial hospitals.

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“Where the hell is the common sense here?” West told Mike Smyth on CKNW recently. “This has just gone way too far. And to have a task force to figure out what to do — it’s obvious what we need to do.

“In a hospital, there’s no weapons and you can’t smoke crack or fentanyl or any other drugs. There you go. Just saved God knows how much money and probably at least six months of dithering.”

He had a pithy comment on the government’s excessive reliance on outside consultants like MNP to process grants for clean energy and other programs.

“If ever there was a place to find savings that could be redirected to actually delivering core public services, it is government contracts to consultants like MNP,” wrote West.

He’s also broken with the Eby government on the carbon tax.

“The NDP once opposed the carbon tax because, by its very design, it is punishing to working people,” wrote West in a social media posting.

“The whole point of the tax is to make gas MORE expensive so people don’t use it. But instead of being honest about that, advocates rely on flimsy rebate BS. It is hard to find someone who thinks they are getting more dollars back in rebates than they are paying in carbon tax on gas, home heat, etc.”

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West has a history with the NDP. He was a political staffer and campaign worker with Mike Farnworth, the longtime NDP MLA for Port Coquitlam and now minister of public safety.

When West showed up at the legislature recently, Farnworth introduced him to the house as “the best mayor in Canada” and endorsed him as his successor: “I hope at some time he follows in my footsteps and takes over when I decide to retire — which is not just yet,” added Farnworth who is running this year for what would be his eighth term.

Other political players have their eye on West as a future prospect as well.

Several parties have invited him to run in the next federal election. He turned them all down.

Lately there has also been an effort to recruit him to lead a unified Opposition party against Premier David Eby in this year’s provincial election.

I gather the advocates have some opinion polling to back them up and a scenario that would see B.C. United and the Conservatives make way (!) for a party to be named later.

Such flights of fancy are commonplace in B.C. when the NDP is poised to win against a divided Opposition.

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By going after West, the advocates pay a compliment to his record as mayor (low property taxes and a fix-every-pothole work ethic) and his populist stands on public safety, carbon taxation and other provincial issues.

The outreach to a small city mayor who has never run provincially also says something about the perceived weaknesses of the alternatives to Eby.

“It is humbling,” West said Monday when I asked his reaction to the overtures.

But he is a young father with two boys, aged three and seven. The mayor was 10 when he lost his own dad and he believes that if he sought provincial political leadership now, “I would not be the type of dad I want to be.”

When West ran for re-election — unopposed — in 2022, he promised to serve out the full four years as mayor.

He is poised to keep his word, confident that if the overtures to run provincially are serious, they will still be there when his term is up.

vpalmer@postmedia.com

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LIVE Q&A WITH B.C. PREMIER DAVID EBY: Join us April 23 at 3:30 p.m. when we will sit down with B.C. Premier David Eby for a special edition of Conversations Live. The premier will answer our questions — and yours — about a range of topics, including housing, drug decriminalization, transportation, the economy, crime and carbon taxes. Click HERE to get a link to the livestream emailed to your inbox.

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Fareed’s take: There’s been an unprecedented wave of migration to the West – CNN

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Fareed’s take: There’s been an unprecedented wave of migration to the West

On GPS with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, he shares his take on how the 2024 election will be defined by abortion and immigration.


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Haberman on why David Pecker testifying is ‘fundamentally different’ – CNN

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New York Times reporter and CNN senior political analyst Maggie Haberman explains the significance of David Pecker, the ex-publisher of the National Enquirer, taking the stand in the hush money case against former President Donald Trump.

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