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  • Your Voice: Is Pierre Poilievre to blame for Canada’s problems?

    All letters to the editor published by KelownaNow reflect only the opinions of the readers who submit them, and not necessarily those of KelownaNow or its staff. Letters can be submitted to news@kelownanow.com


    Many people today in Canada like to rag on Pierre Poilievre as if he is the cause of massive strife and chaos within Canada today.   These people blame the Leader of His Majesty's Loyal Opposition for actually doing his job instead of holding the 10 year (and counting) Liberal government accountable for their incompetence and corruption.  "He's too nasty!  He's too blunt!  He doesn't understand regular Canadians!"

    Let's see if PP is to blame for the following.  What do you think?

    1.  Ever since the atrocities in Israel on October 7, 2023, anti-Jewish racists in Canada have become more and more bold with their actions.  Jewish schools have been shot at, Jewish-owned businesses have been vandalized, Jews have been threatened and harassed on the street, holy Jewish articles have been torn from walls, Jewish students have been harassed and threatened at our universities..  The latest occurred a few days ago when a large swastika was traced in the snow in the front yard of a Jewish physician's home in Montreal.  Meanwhile, our police, governments, and universities have done precious little to stop these cowards (many of whom cover their faces in public).  Do you believe that the federal government is doing enough to keep Jewish people safe in Canada?

    2.  The House of Commons sat for just 72 days in 2025, the lowest number since 1937 – even lower than during COVID.  In the meantime, Mark Carney has logged hundreds of thousands of air miles visiting countries all over the world, "making deals" and posing for photographs rather than working in Parliament to deal with the many, many issues currently facing our country.  Given that he only received a minority government in the spring election, an election that he himself said was "the most important election of our lifetime", and given that foreign trade is only one issue on his plate, should Canadians be concerned that our new PM has almost completely sidestepped Parliament?

    3.  In 2025, the federal government passed only seven bills.  One was the budget.  One was a bill to extend Canadian citizenship to foreign nationals with Canadian-born parents.  A third was the One Canadian Economy Act which extended extraordinary powers to the PM to exempt his personal favorite resource projects from environmental reviews.  Should Canadians be concerned that our new PM has given himself extensive new powers never before seen in the history of this country?

    4.  A judge in Nova Scotia has given a two year sentence to a man guilty of sexually assaulting two women because "he is black and was feeling intense pressure around the time of the attacks".  Do judgements like this make Canadian women more or less safe?

    5. Mr. Osman Azizov is out on bail in Toronto despite facing 14 charges including sexual assault with a weapon, attempted kidnapping, impersonating a police officer, and unauthorized possession of a firearm.  And, shocker, he is also charged with breach of bail conditions from a previous arrest.  And yet he is free to roam the streets of Toronto.  Do judgements like this make Canadians more or less safe?

    6.  On November 18, the head of the MI5 security agency in the UK warned members of the House of Commons and the House of Lords that spies from the Chinese Ministry of State Security have been targeting British parliamentarians in a coordinated influence-peddling operation.  Danish and Norwegian transportation authorities have discovered that their fleets of electric buses, manufactured in China, are equipped with "kill switches" that allow them to be shut down remotely.  Over the past several weeks, several Chinese diplomats and senior Chinese Communist officials have declared that Sanae Takaichi, Japan's prime minister, is a "witch" and should be beheaded.  Given these and other developments, do you believe that Mark Carney's stated intention to pull away from our long-standing relationship with the United States and to "move closer" to China is a good idea for the future of Canada?

    So, yeah, let's all jump on the anti-PP bandwagon because he is surely responsible for the current state of affairs in Canada, right?  Justin Trudeau and Mark Carney have had nothing to do with it, huh?

    Thank you.

    Lloyd Vinish
    Kelowna

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