‘The last time I’ve seen numbers close to this were in the final days of Brian Mulroney,’ says Maru pollster
As Freedom Convoy marks its second week entrenched in the Canadian capital, a new poll is providing some of the clearest evidence yet that this affair could end up dealing a catastrophic blow to the leadership of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Although Canadians sympathize with the anti-mandate demands of Freedom Convoy, they increasingly hate the protests themselves. A new Maru Public Opinion poll found that 56 per cent of Canadians don’t have an iota of sympathy for Freedom Convoy — and two thirds wouldn’t mind seeing their blockades cleared by military force.
But Canadians are also turning their ire on a “weak” government response and an intransigent prime minister whom they blame for “inflaming” the situation. The Maru poll, which was conducted from Feb. 9 to 10, found that only 16 per cent of Canadians would vote for Trudeau based on his actions of the last two weeks.
“The last time I’ve seen numbers even close to this were in the final days of Brian Mulroney,” said John Wright, executive vice-president of Maru Public Opinion and a 32-year industry veteran. “I think this could cost him his job.”
Before the first anti-mandate protesters had even rolled into the capital, Trudeau was branding the protest as a “fringe” and “unacceptable” minority with whom he refused to meet. Following the convoy’s arrival in Ottawa, Trudeau stayed the course, saying he was “disgusted” with demonstrators, who he charged with being in the thrall of “conspiracy theories.”
At the same time, the prime minister has largely avoided any direct role in countering the blockades.
For the protest’s first weekend, Canadians didn’t even know where Trudeau was. In the days since, blockades in Ottawa, the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, Ont., and at border crossings in Alberta and Manitoba have been left in the hands of local law enforcement. Tellingly, it was Ontario Premier Doug Ford — not the federal government — who declared a state of emergency on Friday to counter blockades in Ottawa and Windsor.
Wright says poll numbers point to a misjudgment on both counts. Forty-four per cent of respondents believed that Trudeau’s statements had “inflamed” the situation. While 53 per cent have said he “looked weak in the face of threats to the country.”
“On the ground, at least, the Canadian public sees that our democracy is at threat and the very institutions that are supposed to be doing things about it are largely impotent,” said Wright. “I don’t think the prime minister gets it.”
The Canadian public sees that our democracy is at threat
The Americans would seem to agree. Both Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg this week urged Trudeau to “use federal powers to resolve this situation.”
Trudeau’s uncompromising stance on Freedom Convoy has also drawn criticism from the Bloc Québécois, itself no fan of the protest. Earlier this month, Bloc Leader Yves-François Blanchet urged Trudeau to “put on his prime minister suit” and refrain from “provocation” in the face of a growing national crisis.
A theme among Maru poll respondents was that whatever Trudeau’s actions these last weeks, they haven’t looked particularly prime ministerial. Only 29 per cent of respondents said Trudeau “has acted like a Prime Minister should” in dealing with the truckers, while 48 per cent thought Trudeau was “not up to the job of being Prime Minister.”
In the background of all this is a simmering frustration that the Trudeau government continues to hang onto harsh COVID restrictions even as governments around the world declare an end to the pandemic.
While Canadians are breaking faith with Freedom Convoy as a movement, they’re increasingly on board with the protests’ demands to end COVID strictures across Canada. A new Angus Reid Institute poll has found that 54 per cent of Canadians now support an immediate end to all COVID restrictions in favour of treating the disease more like the flu.
It’s a stunning turnaround for a population that has been quite supportive of COVID strictures thus far. Just last summer, an incredible 69 per cent of Canadians still favoured lockdowns as an appropriate response to rising COVID cases.
Recent days have seen COVID strictures lifted across the country, with premiers and provincial health officials now openly saying that many restrictions have lost their utility in the face of mass-vaccination and the Omicron variant, which has been less deadly.
“Proof of vaccination has been an effective policy, but its effectiveness has run its course,” Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said this week in a statement announcing the immediate suspension of all extraordinary COVID restrictions.
Nevertheless, the Trudeau government has resolutely refused to offer anything but minor relaxations to federal strictures. Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos signalled Friday that mandatory PCR testing at the border could soon be abolished for vaccinated Canadians. But Canada’s 3.7 million unvaccinated remain banned from air travel, rail travel and government employment, with no hint from Ottawa on when those strictures might end.
Blockades aside, Trudeau is now facing a joint House of Commons motion from the Conservative Party and the Bloc Québécois calling for an end to COVID-19 restrictions by the end of this month. He is also facing opposition to COVID strictures from within his own caucus. Quebec Liberal MP Joël Lightbound said in remarks this week that he “profoundly despises” Freedom Convoy, but that amidst ongoing lockdowns, “I’ve heard from parents worried to see their kids sink into depression and slowly lose their joy of living.”
But in a Friday press conference, Trudeau did not mention any plan to end COVID strictures. “We’re fighting a virus, we’re not fighting each other,” he said.
The Maru poll was conducted among a random selection of 1,506 Canadian adults who are Maru Voice Canada online panelists. A comparable probability survey of this size would have a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 per cent, 19 times out of 20.
BELGRADE, Serbia – Canada’s Denis Shapovalov is back in the winner’s circle.
The 25-year-old Shapovalov beat Serbia’s Hamad Medjedovic 6-4, 6-4 in the Belgrade Open final on Saturday.
It’s Shapovalov’s second ATP Tour title after winning the Stockholm Open in 2019. He is the first Canadian to win an ATP Tour-level title this season.
His last appearance in a tournament final was in Vienna in 2022.
Shapovalov missed the second half of last season due to injury and spent most of this year regaining his best level of play.
He came through qualifying in Belgrade and dropped just one set on his way to winning the trophy.
Shapovalov’s best results this season were at ATP 500 events in Washington and Basel, where he reached the quarterfinals.
Medjedovic was playing in his first-ever ATP Tour final.
The 21-year-old, who won the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF title last year, ends 2024 holding a 9-8 tour-level record on the season.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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