‘Freedom Convoy’ had to be removed to avoid major economic damage: officials
The ‘Freedom Convoy’ https://href.li/?http://globalnews.ca/tag/freedom-convoy blockades at major border crossings across the country had to be removed quickly in order to avoid serious, long-term damage to Canada’s economy, finance department officials said Thursday.
The demonstration against COVID-19 https://href.li/?http://globalnews.ca/tag/covid public health measures in February saw major ports of entry in Ontario and Alberta blockaded, resulting in a daily trade loss of “around $56 million per day,” finance officials told the Public Order Emergency Commission https://href.li/?http://globalnews.ca/tag/emergencies-act-inquiry in an interview, according to a summary.
Every day the protests continued, the financial hit Canada’s economy took compounded, warned Michael Sabia, deputy minister of the department of finance.
“Whatever we could do, we wanted to do quickly because doing it quickly meant shortening duration — and shortening duration meant avoiding the worst economic consequences that we were concerned about,” Sabia said as he testified before the Emergencies Act inquiry. |[Freedum Convoy 2022
|Read more https://globalnews.ca/news/9285400/emergencies-act-inquiry-pm-national-security-adviser/|
Alberta’s Childlike Fantasies
It’s nice to feel special. Everyone enjoys that sense of certainty when you feel seen and loved and important. And while that feeling of primacy is crucial to early childhood development, it can become a dangerous indulgence later in life if large groups of people feel they are exempt from the consequences of their actions, the laws of nature, or even our shared reality.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and her core followers in the United Conservative Party are exactly such snowflakes. Smith declared to her enthusiastic supporters that the first action of her government would be to pass the “Alberta Sovereignty Act https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-alberta-sovereignty-act-danielle-smith/,” effectively treating the Canadian Constitution like a buffet. This magical thinking holds that Alberta could somehow select those federal powers deemed palatable and cast aside others such as federal environmental oversight like so much jello salad.
This audacious claim to Alberta exceptionalism was central to her pitch for party leadership. Rivals who dared acknowledge reality were scorned as sellouts by her true believers. Former premier Jason Kenney declared Smith’s proposed Alberta Sovereignty Act a “full-frontal attack on the rule of law https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/danielle-smith-wins-alberta-premiership-race-vowing-table-sovereignty-bill-2022-10-07/” and “catastrophically stupid https://calgary.citynews.ca/2022/09/06/smith-sovereignty-act-kenney-catastrophically-stupid/,” as did almost all of Smith’s leadership competitors. Rational thought however is a hard sell in Alberta these days and Smith swept to power with a majority UCP support. |[Read more](Alberta’s Childlike Fantasies | The Tyee https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2022/11/16/Alberta-Childlike-Fantasies/)|