Liberals try to pull a bait-and-switch

Five weeks ago, Justin Trudeau prorogued Parliament in a blatant attempt to circumvent scrutiny and accountability.

The WE scandal was dominating the headlines, and his hand-picked finance minister had just resigned, with parliamentary committees hot on the trail of one of the biggest scandals in Canadian history. Despite the scrutiny, Trudeau made no declaration of transparency or of reinstating the confidence of the people.

Shockingly, with five weeks to prepare, both the speech from the throne and his entirely unnecessary national address showed no interest in changing course.

Instead of taking bold steps to address the pandemic and rebuild our economy by providing solutions to the economic and social problems our country faces, we were given a laundry list of resurrected virtue-signalling platitudes. Instead of a path back to economic stability, we were given a plan that promised free money to everyone who would lay down their liberties in exchange for the paternalistic protection of Trudeau.

The speech was devoid of specifics and barely went beyond recapping the 2016 budget; it certainly did not substantiate the shutting down of Parliament. The Governor General's office was used to circumvent governmental accountability, cancelling the committees working to provide taxpayers with answers about the allocation of millions of tax dollars and conflicts involving Trudeau's friends and family members.

Parliament was prorogued to deny Canadians the right to know what happened in the WE scandal. During the period that the House of Commons was shut down, WE executives said they would be closing their Canadian operations and selling their Canadian assets. Canadians are still waiting for full answers as to what happened.

COVID-19 had already been used as an excuse to shut down Parliament, at a time when we needed good, responsible governance more than ever. The throne speech was a bait-andswitch attempt to take our minds off of the ineptness of the current government and to focus attention on the goodies that Trudeau will provide, conveniently right before the next election is called.

The speech was about Trudeau's priorities, not presenting solutions to such issues as strengthening our food supply chains, agriculture, national unity, helping Canadians make ends meet after mortgage relief expires in January, creating jobs in the energy sector, real childcare assistance for parents wanting to go back to work, helping more small businesses survive, or addressing the inability of businesses to find workers due to the disincentive that CERB is providing. Instead, he resurrected his 2016 budgetary wish list.

The speech from the throne was a vision of what Trudeau wants for Canada. He touts the principles of a country where merit and free enterprise will no longer be the engines of the economy, but where politicians and bureaucrats will pick corporate winners and losers. Where balanced budgets will be a thing of the past and Canadians will accept printing endless money to finance trillions of dollars of programs that must first meet government values tests and clandestinely indoctrinate the next generation. Specifically, one couldn't help but feel that a sense of paternalism overshadowed the speech — one where a child sat quietly before a parent who doled out goodies as a reward for appropriate behaviour. Of course, the child remained oblivious to how these promises would be actualized — and where the money would come from to deliver such gifts.

Also apparent were the decrees that rolled back our individual freedoms and liberties. Without putting forth any evidence, Trudeau decreed that we will not be gathering for Thanksgiving, and potentially not for Christmas either. He utilized the politics of fear to try to prevent any questions about the data and information upon which he bases his requests for our paternalistic allegiance. Likewise, he made grand promises to solve problems that have plagued humanity from its inception, including poverty, homelessness and racism, and once again promised Indigenous reconciliation without defining what that entails. Are we finally going to commit to

THE SPEECH WAS DEVOID OF SPECIFICS AND BARELY WENT BEYOND RECAPPING THE 2016 BUDGET.

ending on-reserve poverty?

Canadians cannot succeed economically if our freedoms are under attack. The WE scandal was the most blatant example of the government enriching its inner circle while average Canadians struggled to get by. Similarly, the current business subsidies seem to dictate which businesses will get to continue and which will disappear in the aftermath of COVID-19. Valuable work will be deemed “non-essential” and workers asked to stay home. The value of work will be reduced to simply what the government deems worthy. Many small businesses will have difficulty finding people to work, as CERB will continue to act as a disincentive.

We must hold the government accountable and this means that we cannot accept this obvious deflection from accountability. The people have a right to know how the government has misused their resources, and we demand answers when committees resume on Oct. 3. We also intend to exercise our democratic rights at the next opportunity, because we the people have the power to effect change and put an end to Trudeau's reign.