Editor's Note: Column updated at 08:30 Friday, October 14.As the Emergencies Act Inquiry begins today, you will hear a lot of people — including so-called Conservatives — declaring how the Freedom Convoy was an embarrassment to the conservative movement because it somehow represented a dangerous and populist threat to the rule of law and that it was attempting to overthrow the government.They might even say the Emergencies Act enforced law and order. These establishment Conservatives will tell you they stand for law and order and the Freedom Convoy did not stand for “the rule of law.”The truth is the Freedom Convoy helped restore some respect for the rule of law and not the rule of big pharm..Big pharm wants you to keep taking their vaccines for the rest of your lives. The Trudeau government does too. Forcing you to take their vaccine should not be the law. That's what the Freedom Convoy reminded us of..It's amazing after all these months, that establishment Tories continue to undermine the Freedom Convoy and populism, even though it was the basis of Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre's Conservative Party leadership win. Well, maybe not so amazing because these people have a vested interest in the status quo.See the nonsense this week from National Post columnist and former Jean Charest acolyte Tasha Kheiriddin, who thinks the Emergencies Act Inquiry might sink Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre’s hopes of becoming prime minister because he stood by the Freedom Convoy — even served them coffee! — and that will bolster the chances of the current office holder, Justin Trudeau. .“The one card he has is the Conservatives failed to stand for law and order — one of the pillars of their party, no less — at a time of national crisis. And he knows that the convoy does not sit well with ‘the public’ its proponents claimed to represent.” .Even better: .“Will 'Memories of the Freedom Convoy' be the secret sauce Trudeau uses to win a fourth term in office? Will the Tories founder over ill-advised Tim Hortons runs? Time — and testimony — will tell.” .Well, despite falling all over herself in the last few weeks, gushing over how strong a leader Poilievre is, and trying to make herself relevant in a party that she failed to liberalize, Kheiriddin cannot resist going back to her original support of the Emergencies Act. She has this desire to crush this populist demonstration against mandatory vaccinations that we're increasingly learning did little to stem the COVID-19 pandemic. .This hatred of populism and the Freedom Convoy is also directed at Alberta Premier Danielle Smith. Ken Boessenkool, who worked for federal Conservative governments as well as provincial Liberal ones, recently compared Smith — wait for it, because you can’t make this up — as a kamikaze pilot who was on a suicide mission to take down the United Conservative Party, the conservative movement and perhaps even the province of Alberta itself. .Wow. Perhaps too many Second World War films. How did such gross hyperbole and absurd fiction ever enter into this man’s mind? Well, he's furious Smith took on vaccine mandates — something he calls “her anti-scientific support for healthcare quackery rather than vaccines.” .The lobbyist goes on and on in the column to predict if Smith doesn't listen to his good advice, she and the UCP will lose the next election to Rachel Notley. Smith will also incite a caucus revolt over the Alberta Sovereignty Act. The last claim is particularly galling because Boessenkool was a signatory of the 2001 Alberta Agenda that was sent to then-Alberta Premier Ralph Klein. That document demanded much of what a Sovereignty Act today will do, but Boessenkool is a man for all seasons and conservative of all stripes and probably hopes you forget all about the Alberta Agenda. .At least there is some mention at the bottom of the column that he was the campaign manager for another UCP leadership contender — Rajan Sawhney, who was never really in the race. .So beware of the Conservative establishment. The Emergencies Act did not enforce justice. It brutally demonstrated authoritarian government..Don’t let phoney conservatives tell you otherwise.
