CHP
Commentary

​There are limits to public credulity and tolerance for blatantly reckless behaviour with public funds. The failed attempt by Prime Minister Trudeau to funnel $43.5 million of taxpayer money to his friends at the WE Charity Foundation fell outside those limits. The optics were bad. The amounts were staggering. The lies uttered to cover it up were appalling.

​Let’s talk about numbers—really, really big numbers. Let’s start with a number that most of us have never seen in our bank accounts—one million dollars. A million is one thousand thousands and it looks like this: $1,000,000.00

​If you think that liking the colour blue more than the colour red makes you a conservative, you might be a fan of Peter Mackay, Erin O’Toole, and a bunch of other faux-cons. But if you believe that principled stands on a wide range of issues are necessary to be considered a true conservative, you might be looking for other options.

​“The True North strong and free” is in trouble. If Canadians stand up for our God-given rights, often called Charter rights, then we are bigots and bullies. If we grovel before the juggernaut that seeks to destroy the fabric of our society, we kiss our rights goodbye one by one.

​I really miss the country I grew up in. It was called “Canada”. It wasn’t perfect, by a long shot; but it was ’way, ’way better than anything else I knew or had heard of.

​Recent violent protests and riots in the US and around the world have focused on a particularly egregious example of what the protestors are calling “systemic racism”, particularly in police forces. The brutal killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin has been unfairly portrayed as a common occurrence in the US today and long threads are being drawn from this horrific event back to the days of slave markets and all that was repugnant about attitudes prevalent in the Deep South prior to the Civil Rights movement led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the last century.

​#DefundthePolice is trending. Individuals and city councils are demanding radical changes — everything from disbanding police forces, to defunding them completely, to cutting their funding substantially. Why? Because of charges of racism and videos that show brutality committed by some police officers.

​Governments at all levels are allowing—and often imposing—the viewpoint that . . . truth is relative, what used to be wrong is now right, what was once considered sinful is now moral. . . and related nonsense they think our ears are itching to hear.

​This past week, American cities were burning. At least 11 people have died in the riots, hundreds have been injured, thousands arrested. Untold millions of dollars of damage have been done to businesses. Dozens of law enforcement officers, including Secret Service officers have been injured. Vast crowds of rioters and looters masquerading as “social justice warriors” have turned downtown sectors of major American cities into ugly, “no-go” zones. Curfews have been routinely ignored. Police cars have been torched. The rule of law and respect for those enforcing the law seems to have vanished, at least from the point of view of the rampaging mobs.

​Yet one more display of self-serving behaviour by parties with MPs in the House. Four federal political parties—the Liberals, the Conservatives, the NDP and the Greens—are helping themselves to yet more taxpayer money . . . while the very taxpayers they claim to represent are having to tighten their belts.

​With extremely limited freedom of assembly, what is the business model for Lego going forward? Or Ikea, for that matter? OK, ok, that is a different type of assembly — but seriously, the freedom of “peaceful assembly”, guaranteed in the Charter, has been taken from us. How long before we get it back?

​It’s all about choice. Some people like to tell others what to do, what to think, what to say and what not to say. For a tyrant—whether a bureaucrat, a judge or a prime minister—it’s enough to say, “because I said so”. In the new world of COVID restrictions, shuttered businesses, and social distancing, some who call the shots are seeing just how far they can push their agenda.