Cobbled-together notes and thoughts on the Freedumb Convoy, the New Right, and the Left. Written Wedneaday, February 9.
The appeal by the Ottawa Police brass for 1800 additional officers from other police forces seems absurd. But it also seems quite possible that the Ottawa Police brass cannot rely on their own ranks to carry out the actions they desire. One has to wonder: were orders disobeyed and ignored? Are "loyal" outside forces required to get the job done?
Furthermore, it is quite clear that Ottawa Police cannot rely on private towing companies to do their dirty work. These business owners would likely be blackballed in their industry and be isolated by their competitors.
For example, small business owners in Regina who showed support for the locked out refinery workers in 2020 were subjected to harassment, threats, and property destruction by the very strikebreaking business owners that form the Yellow Vest/United We Roll backbone of the Freedom Convoy.
Ottawa Valley's notoriously right-wing business owners would definitely inflict a penalty on local competitors who supported authorities in towing vehicles and breaking up encampments.
Concrete and circumstantial evidence prove that the Freedom Convoy is the public arrival of an organized, militant and dynamic vanguard of the small and regional business classes. Ideologically and structurally, these forces are clearing a path for a massive assault on the working and poor majority in Canada, and they are taking no prisoners.
The opportunists inside the Conservative caucus, aided by Harper's incredibly undemocratic and authoritarian Reform Act, have ousted O'Toole in what is a clear victory for this new fash-friendly business owners' rebellion. Poilievre is seeking the leadership and is clearly bent on re-incorporating this new right into the Conservative Party, and in doing so will move the party even further right.
Now their disruptive extra-parliamentary actions have spread out and demonstrate that the base and audience for their breakaway parties continues to be maintained. The next big test is the Ontario election. Right-wing splits from the Ontario PCs have resulted in three new right-wing parties, of which the PPC-affiliated Ontario First party is best poised to build on its substantial support in rural and deindustrialized Ontario. The PPC scored around 10 percent in numerous SW Ontario ridings, and the prospect of vote-splitting is real. The new right could easily claim another coup if they cut Ford down to a minority.
But as many have pointed out, where is the left? The new right have spent the last 7 years organizing, from Pegida to Yellow Vests to United We Roll, the PPC to Wexit. The PPC was the only dynamic force in the 2021 election, and it is unsurprising its extra-parliamentary wing (which is not entirely PPC) is the only dynamic force in Canadian politics 6 months later.
For the left, there is much to learn from them in how a two-track strategy of extra-parliamentary agitation and independent electoral efforts can, over the span of years, can begin to generate a real base of support and exert a degree of power which we just don't have right now. The left project is of course different, but this obvious two-track strategy has to be adopted, developed and employed.