- by Shea Angus

I read something from John Maxwell that said “Why you lead and the way you lead are important. They define you, your leadership, and ultimately your contribution.”

Right now in Canada, leadership is something we’re desperately lacking. Just recently, Erin O’Toole lost a vote from his own caucus and promptly resigned as leader of the Conservative Party of Canada. Candice Bergen has stepped up to act as interim leader for the Conservatives while they do the work to choose another leader.

Most critically though, we’ve been failed, badly, by our Prime Minister at a critical time in the history of our country. Just today, Liberal MP (at least he is still a Liberal MP at the time of writing) Joel Lightbound delivered a speech during a press conference where he lambasted the leadership the Prime Minister has shown throughout the pandemic.

Lightbound opened his speech by condemning the racist symbols on display by some demonstrators and the far-right groups that have made appearances during the protests. Lightbound also said “When it comes to the broader demonstrations we’ve seen in Ottawa, Quebec City, and across the country, I will abstain from the kind of generalizations that we’ve heard these last few days.”

That right there, is what we call leadership. At immense personal risk to himself and his political career, Lightbound called out the Prime Minister for his dismissive and divisive rhetoric over the past two weeks.

Before the protesters even arrived in Ottawa, Prime Minister Trudeau demonstrated his lack of understanding of the concerns Canadians who participated or supported the convoy had. Instead of condemning the hateful individuals themselves, Prime Minister Trudeau elected to paint the entire movement as a “small fringe minority” who “hold unacceptable views”. He made it clear he had no interest in hearing or understanding the concerns of Canadians who were there with concerns about COVID policies, lockdowns, or vaccine mandates. Concerns that a recent Angus-Reid poll suggested 54% of Canadians want to see scrapped.

We’re now well over a week into this convoy protest and Trudeau has backed himself into a corner. He’s done his best to paint the convoy and its supporters in the worst light possible in an effort to not engage with them. As a result, the convoy has become even more disruptive, and throughout the entire protest, after doing nothing but dismissing these people and making them feel unheard, the Prime Minister disappeared leaving the City of Ottawa and law enforcement left holding the bag. What can the Prime Minister do now? Try and sit down with or address the concerns of a group of people he’s been saying are holding unacceptable views?

De-escalation, it seems, is not part of Prime Minister Trudeau’s leadership strategy.

Lightbound noted that “both the tone and the policies of my government changed drastically on the eve and during the last election campaign. From a positive and unifying approach, a decision was made to wedge, to divide, and to stigmatize.”

This is perhaps the most heartbreaking point that Lightbound made in his speech. For those that may be unaware, wedge issues in politics are dirty tactics employed by every party. Unfortunately, they’re far too common in Canadian politics and elections.

By definition, they exist to divide people in a way that will elevate the politicians that are using them.. In 2015 the Conservatives used the idea of wearing face veils during Oaths of Citizenship ceremonies as a wedge issue that they thought would benefit them. Now, Lightbound confirms, the Prime Minister has opted to use the pandemic as his wedge issue. Politicizing vaccines, mandates, and policies because he thinks it would electorally benefit him in an election.

You can see it in how Prime Minister Trudeau addressed the convoy before it arrived in Ottawa. He said, “It’s important to underline that close to 90% of truckers are vaccinated, like close to 90% of Canadians.” He continued to explain that “Canadians have stepped up to do the right things.” just before he suggests that Canadians who were part of or supported the convoy don’t “represent the views of Canadians who have been there for each other”.

Instead of recognizing that 54% of Canadians (a vast majority of which are already vaccinated and have been following all the rules) are tired of COVID restrictions, he tries to frame it as the vaccinated vs the unvaccinated. If he succeeds in that framing, then he benefits from that in an election as the champion for the 90% of vaccinated Canadians.

At one of the most critical times in history, Prime Minister Trudeau has opted not to lead by example, but to divide us for his own self interest. Instead of rising to the occasion to unify Canadians, the Prime Minister has decided to feed our base instincts as we turn on each other over things like our vaccination status.

I opened this piece by quoting John Maxwell who said “Why you lead and the way you lead are important. They define you, your leadership, and ultimately your contribution.” Well our Prime Minister has elected to serve himself by dividing us all. That is what defines him, his leadership, and his contribution to this moment in our history.

When the first signs of protests emerged about COVID restrictions, Prime Minister Trudeau said, “We all had a difficult year. Those folks out protesting, they had a difficult year too, and I know and I hear the anger, the frustration, perhaps the fear. I know we have to be there for each other, to support each other. We need to meet that anger with compassion.”

Remember the good old days when Prime Minister Trudeau rejected “politics of fear and division”? Where’s that Prime Minister? We could surely use him now.