Tom Mulcair: Both Ford and Trudeau have completely dropped the ball

In the blink of an eye, Canadians have been reminded that we should never take our democracy or its institutions for granted. What was supposed to be a bon-enfant demonstration against a vaccine requirement soon melted down into an ugly, unbridled celebration of lawlessness.

The City of Ottawa was caught completely off guard. The initial decision to allow the "convoy" into the Parliamentary precinct turned into a nightmare for law-abiding citizens.

Our intelligence services, who are supposed to have a handle on such things, were caught completely off-guard by the amplitude of the wave that hit our nation’s Capital.

We are now well into the second week and there’s still no clear plan to deal with it effectively and efficiently.

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Some Americans stoked the fires of discontent here, with financial contributions to what Mark Carney labelled as sedition. That issue should also be dealt with quickly and decisively to ensure that it can never happen again.

High-ranking Conservatives, sensing a potential political advantage, blew on the embers of discord and brought shame upon themselves and their Party. A recording of Pierre Poilievre going ballistic against indigenous Canadians who were protesting a pipeline by blocking rail lines in 2020, was played alongside his supporting words for the trucker convoy. Whether what’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, apparently depends on the race of the gander.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford, all too aware that this was his base at play, came up with meaningless excuses for his pathetic inaction. No, Premier Ford, nobody was asking you to « direct » the police in any nefarious or illegal way. What Ontarians wanted was the same thing all other Canadians had a right to expect: that existing laws and regulations would be enforced. Period.

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Ford’s culpable inaction will justifiably be brought up during the upcoming general election campaign and he’ll pay a price.

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A very similar "convoy" descended on Quebec City from all regions of that province at the beginning of last weekend. Premier Francois Legault was as incisive as he was determined: you have a right to protest but we will block off the streets around the National Assembly. Don’t even think of going there.

He also made it clear he wouldn’t tolerate the type of madness that had taken over Ottawa. He wasn’t "directing" the police. As Premier, he was laying down the law and informing anyone who cared to listen that the law would be enforced. That’s what a responsible head of government does. The police then carry out their duty in accordance with their training and expertise.

On Sunday, Legault told the truckers that if they weren’t gone by sundown, their rigs would be towed. The trucks left. Every last one of them.

It hasn’t helped that all this has been happening at a time when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been hit by COVID-19. An initial press conference on the Monday after the invasion of Ottawa was a public relations gaffe of the first order. When the prime minister of a G7 country starts mocking people, saying they think they’re going to have microchips implanted and musing about their aluminum foil hats, things are not going well.

It was a reflection of the week to come.

The very capable Chrystia Freeland, Trudeau’s deputy prime minister, has also been mostly absent. Her deep experience on issues involving Ukraine have no doubt been keeping her very busy as that crisis threatens to explode at any moment. Her contribution would have made a difference.

There are times when we come to realize that competence is an undervalued quality in public life. Even a bankrupted reality TV blowhard could fake it until the pandemic hit. When Trump disturbingly suggested that Americans could inject disinfectants to fight COVID-19, the writing was finally on the wall and voters handed him his walking papers.

So too here. Leaders can emote, talk to their “nation”, offer up lame excuses. There comes a point, like last week, when it becomes crystal clear that they simply don’t know what they’re doing or, worse, that they won’t do the right thing out of political self-interest.

Both Ford and Trudeau have completely dropped the ball. Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson has been the only adult in the room. Unfortunately his hapless police chief has shown that he went to the same school of public administration as Ford and Trudeau.

The total breakdown in Ottawa required a thoughtful, coordinated, rapid response from federal, provincial and municipal leaders. Instead we got a perfect storm of dithering, buck passing and incompetence.

This experience is not one voters should forget or forgive.

Tom Mulcair was the leader of the federal New Democratic Party of Canada between 2012 and 2017.