The Maple Leaf Lounge

[Owain Taggart]

Story on the CBC this morning that if the truckers were a protest by black and racialised people, they would have been cleared out by now.

The problem isn't even so much the truckers themselves, but the radical extremists hijacking the protests. I mean, anyone could have predicted what was going to happen. It wasn't a great idea to begin with, and even with truckers trying to distance themselves from the anti-vaxxers, it always had an air of something that would get ugly due to the opening the truckers were giving extremists. But to complicate issues further, you also have some truckers who are also extremists with their own agenda. The whole thing is a shitshow and it was poised to be that way from the start.

 

[Marc]

The problem isn't even so much the truckers themselves, but the radical extremists hijacking the protests. I mean, anyone could have predicted what was going to happen. It wasn't a great idea to begin with, and even with truckers trying to distance themselves from the anti-vaxxers, it always had an air of something that would get ugly due to the opening the truckers were giving extremists. But to complicate issues further, you also have some truckers who are also extremists with their own agenda. The whole thing is a shitshow and it was poised to be that way from the start.

Somebody I know was foaming at the mouth on facebook about trudeau's about swastika being present at the rally and saying he was a lying piece of shit. Was tempted to link the interview with the tory MP where one can be clearly seen in the background but try not to shit on other people's facebook postings even when they get political (and this person is usually pretty decent).

It's also involved with bitting my tongue on some responses to my mother-in-law's posts about the nurses etc and the truck drivers who are doing their job but also there are many others in the supply chain. Think the m-i-l just ignores them.

 

[Avro Arrow]

No love for the "truckers" clogging up Centretown here in Ottawa.

Hopefully things can get back to normal for you soon.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

No love for the "truckers" clogging up Centretown here in Ottawa.

I'd call them something that rhymes with truckers...

 

[Owain Taggart]

Somebody I know was foaming at the mouth on facebook about trudeau's about swastika being present at the rally and saying he was a lying piece of shit. Was tempted to link the interview with the tory MP where one can be clearly seen in the background but try not to shit on other people's facebook postings even when they get political (and this person is usually pretty decent).

Oh, yeah I've seen something along those lines, ie lots of replies attached to an article that was written by a reporter in the heart of the downtown core, claiming that he was lying about the stuff he was seeing. A reporter with children, who couldn't sleep due to all the truckers honking their air horns all night for the last several nights.

And then we have the roadblock in Alberta created by the extremists preventing the other truckers from doing their job, which frankly is quite childish.

I'd call them something that rhymes with truckers...

Mothertruckers?

 

[DEWLine]

And another one in Manitoba at Emerson to go with the one at Coutts, Alberta...



I'm going to just stick with "truckers" with the quote-marks, personally.

And @Avro Arrow? I don't live in Centretown. I live out in the eastern suburbs, outside the Greenbelt. But I find it too easy to empathise with people who do live and work in Centretown. Bullies, friends...

 

[Marc]

and o'toole is out as tory leader.

Now watch the party lurch to the hard right with another leader out of Alberta who thinks the rest of country wants the same sort of crap that goes on there.

https://www.thestar.com/politics/fe...toole-makes-final-appeal-to-keep-his-job.html

Was also mentioned on the CBC this morning that andrew scheer has been stirring things behind the scenes.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Well that was quick, and good riddance!

 

[Avro Arrow]

Always amusing to watch the Conservative Party self-immolate.

O'Toole had the right idea... moving more to the centre politically is probably the only way they're getting back into power in this day and age. The further to the right they go, the more unelectable they become. (I've never been a CPC supporter, but if they did manage to split the progressive vote and eke out a victory, an O'Toole-led CPC government was a lot less scary to me than one led by some of the alternatives.) But he was always going to be split between moving the party to the centre and pleasing his base. Which led to the constant flip-flopping... as the joke went, if you don't like O'Toole's position on something, wait five minutes and it will change.

It's almost like they need to split the party into two separate parties: one for the more progressive conservatives, and one for those who want to reform things to bring back a more social conservative focus.

 

[Marc]

It's almost like they need to split the party into two separate parties: one for the more progressive conservatives, and one for those who want to reform things to bring back a more social conservative focus.

I gather for the more moderate conservatives there's still a lot of anger at the way peter mackay sold out the PC's to the reform party and the red tories have been squashed ever since.

 

[Owain Taggart]

It's almost like they need to split the party into two separate parties: one for the more progressive conservatives, and one for those who want to reform things to bring back a more social conservative focus.

Brings to mind the short-lived Conservative Reform Alliance Party.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ I see what you did there.

 

[Owain Taggart]

But it's entirely true! It's short-lived because they had announced the name of the new party and then a few days later backpedaled on it once they realized what the acronym spelled. Certainly reads like something out of The Onion though

See this story for instance:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-party-changes-embarrassing-acronym-1.240933

My favourite line:

Even Prime Minister Jean Chretien made light of it Monday. "I have a problem too when they have a name that you couldn't pronounce in front of the kids," he said.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Candice Bergen was named as the interim CPC leader.

No, no, the other one.

 

[Marc]

GoFundme has pulled the plug on what's been collected for the truck drivers protest on the grounds that while it might have started out with the intention of being a peaceful protest but it's gone beyound that point and become and occupation.

So the remaining $9mil will either be returned or donated to charity (hopefully ones that will piss of the far right brigade that's infiltrated the process).

GoFundMe pulls plug on fundraiser for Ottawa convoy protesters (msn.com)

and global news had a report that one of the protest leaders was saying that no-one had been arrested/charged (he had good sources) by police but I'm sure the Ottawa police would like to dispute that including the one charged with firearm offences.

 

[Marc]

while we have the conservative politicians backing the anti-vax mandate truck drivers, it's a pity they won't stand up and support the drivers on better pay and conditions.

https://www.thestar.com/business/op...safety-low-wages-gig-work-and-fatalities.html

 

[Owain Taggart]

Well, Bergen certainly isn't making a good first-impression as interim. "Good people on both sides.." Puh-leeze! It pretty much mirrors those famous words said right after the Capitol Insurrection.

 

[Avro Arrow]

^ To be fair, we already knew from last year that she didn't seem to have any problem aligning herself with the MAGA crowd, so this is not entirely unexpected.

 

[Owain Taggart]

True, I guess it's more the fact that she didn't waste time.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Pierre Poilievre has officially thrown his hat into the ring for leadership of the CPC. (Although in his campaign launch video, he claims he is running for "prime minister", but I'm sure that's just hyperbole, rather than him not understanding what the leadership contest is actually for.) He is apparently the frontrunner, just in general, not just because he's the only one officially in the race right now.

As a definite non-Conservative, I probably wouldn't have been too worried about O'Toole becoming PM (although I still wouldn't have wanted them to win because of others in the party). But the thought of PM Poilievre does worry me, a lot.

He famously decided not to run in the last leadership race because he wanted time to focus on his family. I guess they've had enough focus for now.