Anger towards Justin Trudeau always comes back to the pandemic

If you’ve seen (or heard about) the proliferation of F*ck Trudeau signs and flags across Canada, and were wondering where that level of anger at the prime minister comes from, a large part of it originated with COVID. Conservatives (and PPC voters) still hold Justin Trudeau accountable for a global pandemic. They’ve never forgiven him for wanting to keep Canadians safe, and implementing safety measures at the recommendation of Health Canada in order to stop the spread of a deadly, hyper-contagious virus. (The fact that most pandemic restrictions were imposed by provincial governments doesn’t seem to register with the “F*ck Trudeau” crowd.)

Canada did well in managing the pandemic relative to other peer countries. The irony is that if the federal government hadn’t taken COVID seriously, Justin Trudeau is the first person Conservatives would have blamed for the increased death toll.

It’s a tough time for incumbents

There’s been a clear anti-incumbent movement following the pandemic. COVID caused economies all around the world to collapse. In response, governments injected fiscal and monetary stimulus into their economies. This, combined with supply chain issues (and of course greed) caused prices to increase. Thankfully, inflation in Canada remained within the Bank of Canada’s target range throughout 2024.

To the Canadians still arguing against pandemic relief: What should Canada have done instead? Had the government not created financial support programs like the CERB and CEWS, Canadians would have had to live on their savings and credit cards during the lockdown — and for many, that would not have even been possible. Was the government’s COVID response perfect? Of course not — this was an unprecedented and historic crisis. But we would all be in a far worse position if the government hadn’t supported Canadians during COVID. As Justin Trudeau stated, “We took on debt so Canadians wouldn’t have to.”

The politicization of science

The trucker convoy should never have been permitted to occupy Ottawa, where they were allowed to block traffic, disrupt people’s everyday lives for weeks and politicize science. The convoy, whose organizers were a right-wing group of anti-vaxxers and QAnon conspiracy theorists, cost downtown Ottawa up to $200-million in sales and wage losses and halted almost $4-billion in trade with border blockades. The province and Ottawa police were given fair warning that the intention of the convoy was to overthrow a legally elected government. Incidentally, Pierre Poilievre openly supported the convoy — despite reports of Nazi imagery, Confederate flags, urination on war memorials and the desecration of the Terry Fox statue — which ultimately led to him becoming the leader of the Conservative Party.

Poilievre sought CPC leadership using the rallying cry of “freedom” in order to attract support from the anti-vax movement and angry crowds who’d camped out in downtown Ottawa.

Justin Trudeau is still paying the price for the convoy’s politicization of science.

In fact, you could argue that much of the F*ck Trudeau movement — designed to give rise to the far right in Canada — emerged from exploitation of the resistance against pandemic restrictions. This cause was aided tremendously when (less than two months after the end of the trucker convoy) Elon Musk acquired Twitter and turned the platform into a far-right social network where misinformation and hate speech are allowed to live and spread unchecked.

Most Canadians trust science

The vast majority of Canadians believe in science and understood that pandemic restrictions were implemented in Canada and around the world to keep us and our loved ones safe. However, many on social media still criticize the pandemic response as a disguise to reinforce an anti-science narrative supported by a very loud minority of Canadians. It’s no surprise that there’s a clear correlation between support for the Conservatives and anti-vax sentiment. A study by the Angus Reid Institute found that Conservatives are more than 5 times more likely to be anti-vax than Liberal and NDP voters. Overall, 50% of CPC voters are sceptical of vaccines.

According to a separate study by Léger, Canadians say that Trudeau’s management of the COVID-19 pandemic is among his greatest accomplishments — not that Pierre Poilievre and the CPC would ever care to admit this. Credit where it’s due: The Trudeau government deserves praise for the way they handled the pandemic. It’s time to stop pretending otherwise. ■

“Pierre Poilievre proudly supported the Freedom Convoy — the one with the ‘Fuck Trudeau’ signs and Swastika flags — which wanted to overturn a legitimate government simply for (checks notes) trying to stop the spread of a deadly, hyper-contagious virus.”https://t.co/w1ehKi8MQ8
— Cult MTL (@cultmtl) December 8, 2024

Anger towards Justin Trudeau always comes back to the pandemic

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