The protest is super unpopular in canada. It could just as easily be a random canadian citizen who is pissed about the protest and wants to prove that the protest is not grass roots but foreign meddling.
[1] https://globalnews.ca/news/8610727/ipsos-poll-trucker-convoy...
Polarized in every way imaginable.
Tables at
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5a17333eb0786935ac112...
24% of 18-34 and 34-55 support the truckers and what they are doing
27%/26% support them but not the way they are doing it
49%/50% think they are completely wrong and need to be stopped regardless
There's no real difference between young and middle age, although over 55s skew significantly to "stop them". Not much difference on income, but educational attainment shows significant skew, with university educated far less likely to support the truckers
I don't think your statement is at odds with gp's. A legitimate concern doesn't make it popular.
However, the greater issue is a lack of organization and so nothing (very little) is going to get done (much like with BLM).
The best thing ruin collective disputes is to add more noise and discourse so that the original cause is lost in the shuffle and the majority just sit back and shrug. "I can get behind solving one problem at a time, but when they're shouting for 20, I can't be bothered to care."
Re: getting things done, so far it seems counter-productive in the sense that now the government doesn’t want to seem “weak” and relax restrictions, even though it’s what reasonable governments are doing at this point. I’m not going to put this at the feet of the organizers (whoever they are); it simply deepens my already deep disappointment with the Canadian government since thats a political move.
That said, I agree this is most likely the work of an individual. For all its usefulness in raising money, GSG has probably never been subjected to a real-world pentest by a highly motivated attacker. Not to mention the legions of attackers one would expect from such a polarising subject. This was unfortunate but entirely predictable.
https://theconversation.com/majority-of-canadians-disagree-w...
It also seems unlikely that, say, the workers at factories who were prevented from working are rich people…
OTOH, this poll https://abacusdata.ca/ottawa-survey-freedom-convoy/ suggests that about 22% of Canadians support the convoy and 67% don't.
Do people like restrictions? No, nobody likes restrictions. Do people like restrictions that save lives? Still don't 'like' them but believe sacrifice is necessary for the greater good.
Do I support people's right to protest? Yes, but... You can't honk all night Block major infrastructure for days Desecrate war monuments Flood 911 with fake calls
Etc.
Do people want to continue with restrictions that have pushed the opioid epidemic to a new high [1]. Pushed mental health in youth to 'completely unsustainable' levels [2]. Stolen normal development/socialization from children & young adults using restrictions that were not always clearly evidence based [3]. And, all this considering the current outlook of the virus is far more positive than it once was.
The Angus Reid poll phrased their question like this, for anyone interested:
>It's time to end restrictions and let people self-isolate if they're at risk.
[1]: https://bc.ctvnews.ca/deadliest-year-in-b-c-s-opioid-crisis-...
[2]: https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/completely-unsusta...
[3]: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/01/kids-masks...
I suspect how much people support "people's right to protest" is directly proportional to how much they support The Cause. If they don't support The Cause, they want protesters to be as out of the way as possible (ie. "free speech zones"). If they do support The Cause, anything up to and including violence/vandalism is justified, because a few causalities would be canceled out by all the positive effects that The Cause would bring.
Abacus never fails to find support for government approved narratives.
Hmm, where I have heard that rhetoric before...
The claim can be proven or disproven with elections. But I think that Trudeau would win rather easily pitted against this extremist, apparently foreign funded fringe.
Even Canada's conservatives don't want to be associated with them anymore.
They’ve just performatively asked truckers to leave, so that they can always point to that later in their election campaign. Why would they want them to leave?they don’t.
This is a wedge issue, and as such they're casting their votes to alienate a huge (likely majority) of voters away from your platform before the leader has even been selected.
Secondly, this protest has been a huge news vacuum attracting non-stop coverage. This is bad for a party that needs to drum up any support for a leadership race to carry them more seats in the next election. By the time this plays out, the conservatives could be half way through their election and most Canadians may not even know the candidates.
Plus, politicians who do vote against their constituents' wishes can run in a district that's more friendly to that vote.
Given the unfair media coverage, is it any wonder?
There seems to be, including in your own post, a lot of ad hominem attacks ("one person had a confederate flag! some people in the US support the cause too! this means it's totally evil") rather than addressing the human rights the protestors are fighting for, and it's a shame. But it's no surprise given the opposite media coverage for the opposite type of protest (violent riots) two summers ago.