Another day, another policy swing. For reasons that aren’t really apparent Trudeau rescinded the Emergency Act Declaration before the Senate could vote on it. Hint: it’s not a show of compassion or strength.

Was the Senate likely to block it? Maybe but that seems unlikely as Trudeau himself appointed most of the 107 Senators currently in the Canadian Senate. He may have just caved to the tremendous public pressure – you’d think he’d have done that three weeks ago but maybe the blow back from his hysterical overreaction to civil disobedience was too embarrassing.

But that would be too embarrassing for a guy who has multiple pictures of himself wearing blackface on at least 9 different occasions – seriously, if that didn’t embarrass him a few hundred million people thinking he’s a tyrant shouldn’t bother him a bit.

My best guess is this provokes a mini-constitutional crisis for Canada as Parliament and the judiciary try to figure out exactly what happens next. Normally boring Canadian politics have suddenly become a Tilt-A-Whirl ride only not as safe.

My understanding from Viva Frei’s live stream is that the bank accounts were already being unfrozen. Interesting, very interesting, as Arte Johnson would say.

What probably happened is that Trudeau got an earful of reality from his party behind closed doors. Parliaments are more shielded from constituents than congresses are – in my personal opinion this is what makes them popular worldwide. Where we elect electors to vote for president but directly elect representatives, parliaments elect parties where representatives are basically electors minus the need to vote for someone else. We have something similar happen in one party states with the big difference that we have primaries to prevent the parties from simply choosing who gets to represent it when they are supposed to be representing you.

Both systems have drawbacks – but the net effect is that if a party has enough support the representative (in Canada these are Members of Parliament or MPs) doesn’t have to worry about that pesky constituency beyond lip service – re-election depends on the party, not the MP.

To a point. A really, really unpopular MP will lose not only their election but votes for their party. So parliaments DO have to be responsive to their constituents – just not nearly as much as congresses. Because they elect parties, members need their parties to be popular – and having your Prime Minister do a Hitler impression over a bunch of horn honking truckers does NOT help your party. At. All. But what makes it much, much worse is when that PM manages to get the House of Commons to support his stupidity. Now the MPs have voters all over Canada mad at THEM.

Modern political leadership is far too insular – and we’re seeing that worldwide as governments find that they don’t understand their populations at all. Part of that is stupidity – using micropolls is just asking for trouble. Part is corruption – skewing polls and unfair elections get short term gains with dire long term costs. How much each plays a part differs by government, not just nation (remember the US has 20,000 + governments – yes, school boards count) but the net effect is that Trudeau, like a lot of world leaders (*cough* Biden *cough*) has no clue just how unpopular his party had become or how weak he was politically.

That being able to call elections thing makes it worse – elections are just really big polls and they are a cross section of the public’s attitude. In a crisis – real or otherwise – the public will generally choose not to change horses mid-stream. Calling an election is politically smart in a pound foolish sort of way. Yes, you likely get the win – but you don’t get a mandate because it tells you nothing about how the public will react once the country is out of the proverbial stream.

The day after the vote to give Trudeau the EAD my guess is there wasn’t an MP in Canada whose phone wasn’t ringing off the hook – and none of those who voted in favor could safely answer those calls. That’s when the NDP (Trudeau’s party) knew it was in very, very deep trouble. A forty mile long protest convoy wasn’t enough of a clue – now that’s insulated! Regardless, they know it now – and panic ensued.

As for the run on the banks? Don’t bet that it isn’t happening – would you leave your money in a Canadian bank? From the comfort of home, it’s possible to move accounts – not nearly as photogenic as people on the doorstep but possibly much more dangerous – we’ll see.

What now? Floundering governments are like drowning people – they panic and they start grabbing for anything in reach. It’s not pretty and there is no life preserver. The sad part is the water isn’t deep – all they really have to do is stand up, take responsibility and take a beating politically for a decade or so. But having been so close to absolute power, they may just flounder instead in a vain attempt to regain that moment of glory.

The moment for which they are losing power. No one said governments are naturally rational.