Barely a year into the Democrats’ experiment of installing the hapless Joe Biden as president, crises inevitably unfolded. Nobody believes that Biden can put out the fires that are being lit around the world. Foreign leaders may perceive the next three years as an opportunity to get away with mischief that would never occur under the strong leadership of President Trump. “Politics abhors a vacuum” is the cliche that accurately describes how bad things happen when there is a void in leadership as there is now.
In our large northern neighbor of Canada, a 21st-century version of martial law was imposed by a petty tyrant who should have promptly resolved the trucker convoy dispute without placing the entire nation under house arrest. The western provinces of Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan and the eastern city of Quebec all oppose Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s never-before invocation of the draconian Emergencies Act to deal with peaceful protesters having legitimate grievances.
This dictatorial Canadian law authorizes the government to seize bank accounts and compel individuals and private companies to crack down against peaceful protesters. The long-term damage wrought by this infringement on civil liberties in our most important neighbor is immeasurable and could even spill over into our own country.
Perhaps Biden is so quiet about dictatorship in Canada because his advisers would like to see him do likewise here. After all, Biden himself ordered private employers to impose his vaccine mandate, until the Supreme Court stopped him in a 6-3 vote. Canada is too close to the United States to ignore these totalitarian actions, and not just geographically. Canada and the United States are both key parts of modern western civilization. When Canada embraces tyranny, it draws others in, too.
Throughout history, both real and imagined emergencies have been used to justify a shift from freedom to tyranny. The true test of any free society is its ability to embrace freedom in bad times as well as good. Sadly, Justin Trudeau has ensured that Canada failed the test. The United States would do well to learn a lesson from his failure and embrace freedom in all seasons.
