Canadian PM Trudeau’s grip on power is slipping

New polls show that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s popularity is sinking and sinking fast. According to a Maru poll conducted last week, just 16% of Canadians would vote for Trudeau based on the last two weeks. 

The last two weeks have been reputation-damaging for the embattled prime minister. His harsh COVID-19 restrictions triggered mass protests inspired by a convoy of truckers who are demanding that all COVID mandates be repealed. When the convoy arrived in Ottawa, Trudeau fled. He then proceeded to demonize the masses of people protesting instead of meeting with them. 

Canadian police have been unable to successfully disband the protests, which have shut down Ottawa and blockaded parts of the U.S.-Canada border. The protests are entering their third week. 

The Maru poll also shows that 48% of respondents think that Trudeau is not up to the job of being prime minister, and 44% of Canadians said that Trudeau’s statements about the protesters, whom he called a “fringe minority” have “inflamed” the situation. 

“The last time I’ve seen numbers even close to this were in the final days of Brian Mulroney,” said John Wright, executive vice-president of Maru Public Opinion. “I think this could cost him his job.” 

On Friday, liberal HBO talk show host Bill Maher slammed Trudeau over his statements regarding people who are unvaccinated. 

“Justin Trudeau, I mean I thought he was kind of a cool guy, then I started to read what he said,” Maher said. “This is a couple of weeks ago, he was, or maybe this is September, but he was talking about people who are not vaccinated. He said they don’t believe in science. They’re often misogynistic, often racist.” 

The Canadian prime minister also questioned if Canada should “tolerate” the unvaccinated. 

“It’s like, tolerate them?” Maher added. “Now you do sound like Hitler. And recently, he talked about them holding unacceptable views.” 

Popular podcast host Joe Rogan also weighed in on Trudeau’s treatment of Canadians who haven’t gotten the shot. 

“You are deciding — you’re taking people that have a perspective on a medical intervention, and you’re deciding that you’re gonna demonize them in the worst possible ways, with no evidence,” said Rogan. 

“And, isn’t it something that so many of these people, like, say, the nurses who are unvaccinated, the truck drivers who don’t like the mandates — that they were the heroes?” replied Rogan’s guest, Dave Smith. “These were the ‘essential workers,’ the health care workers. These were the people — in New York City, they were clapping at 6 p.m. everyday for these workers. And those same — there’ll be nurses who worked for a year-and-a-half of the pandemic, and they didn’t wanna get the shot, and now, all of a sudden, ‘You’re outta there! Sorry, hero!'” 

Fox News host Tucker Carlson said that the protests are not about COVID. 

“What we are watching is panic. Justin Trudeau knows that nobody joined the protest because they are ‘tired of COVID’,” said Carlson. “They are tired of tyranny. They are tired of being told to inject something into their bodies they don’t want, whose long-term effects cannot be known, sold by companies that are protected, that have immunity from public recourse.”