Canada

When a cache of weapons was found in a tiny Canadian village that has become a symbol of the far right, it didn’t take long for new conspiracy theories to start circulating.

COUTTS, Alberta — The village’s only restaurant offers smiles and two pamphlets, one denouncing Covid-19 vaccines for children, the other saying the United Nations’ mission includes creating a “microchipped society” for “tracking and controlling.”

So pervasive is the belief here that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is a dictator-in-the-making that even a top official in the village admits she “may have” a flag telling Canada’s leader where to go — rudely.

The head of a group with ties to the Freedom Convoy says they are planning to leave an Ottawa church after a judge ordered the group can be evicted.

Ontario Superior Court Justice Sally Gomery granted an application on Friday by the owners of St. Brigid’s in Lowertown to evict The United People of Canada from the property.

Things are getting interesting as regards our neighbor to the north. They suffer the same creeping tyranny that America does, but handle it a bit differently.

We all remember — or should remember — the preacher Artur Pawlowski, of Calgary’s street church. He fearlessly called out the police who invaded his church over ridiculous COVID regulations, calling them Nazis.

The first big showdown between Justin Trudeau and Pierre Poilievre has come and gone and the best both leaders can boast is that they walked away with a draw.

While much sound and fury was expected on Thursday when the prime minister faced off for the first time against the new leader of the opposition, the spectacle was not all that noisy or furious.

In fact, you’d have to go back to that rainy, sodden Canada Day in 2017 — the country’s 150th birthday party — to find a fireworks show that similarly fizzled.

Pierre Poilievre’s Big Tent: How Pierre Poilievre won the battle for the soul of the Conservative party

Alberta’s minister of labour and immigration has taken to social media to criticize Ottawa’s “tyrannical” pandemic travel restrictions and thank “freedom convoys” for their efforts against them.

In a tweet responding to news about the federal government potentially ending COVID-19 border requirements, Kaycee Madu said the measure was “never was about science but about political control and power.”

“Thanks to all those citizens, freedom convoys, who had the courage to mobilize against these tyrannical policies,” read the remark on Madu’s Twitter account on Tuesday.

What do Montreal’s Anglophones have in common with Quebec City’s Francophones? More than you might think. Anglo Quebecers are hybrids. Their attitudes are often closer to those of Francophone Quebeckers than those of Anglophones in the ROC. This can also hold true of their political persuasion.

There are growing signs many will vote for the fledgling Conservative Party of Québec. Pollsters predict Quebecers will elect a CAQ majority government on Oct. 3. However, how both groups vote could reverberate until the next federal election.