The protest is super unpopular in canada. It could just as easily be a random canadian citizen who is pissed about the protest and wants to prove that the protest is not grass roots but foreign meddling.
The polls I've seen had ~half of Canadians sympathetic to the protests [1], and about 20% strongly supporting. It's completely true that it could be one highly motivated individual, but that has nothing to do with your first assertion (which is a mixed truth at best). I think that the government's claim (echoed by many media outlets) that this is purely a fringe movement has added fuel to the fire.
The polls roughly match. About 1 in 4 support the goals and methods, 1 in 4 support the goals but not the methods, and 2 in 4 don't support the goals or methods
24% of 18-34 and 34-55 support the truckers and what they are doing
27%/26% support them but not the way they are doing it
49%/50% think they are completely wrong and need to be stopped regardless
There's no real difference between young and middle age, although over 55s skew significantly to "stop them". Not much difference on income, but educational attainment shows significant skew, with university educated far less likely to support the truckers
> An Ipsos poll published Thursday and conducted exclusively for Global News showed that nearly 46 per cent of Canadians say they “may not agree with everything” the trucker convoy says or does, but the frustration of protesters is “legitimate and worthy” of sympathy.
I don't think your statement is at odds with gp's. A legitimate concern doesn't make it popular.
However, the greater issue is a lack of organization and so nothing (very little) is going to get done (much like with BLM).
The best thing ruin collective disputes is to add more noise and discourse so that the original cause is lost in the shuffle and the majority just sit back and shrug. "I can get behind solving one problem at a time, but when they're shouting for 20, I can't be bothered to care."
Had the parent post said merely “unpopular”, I’d probably agree. However “super unpopular” to me feels aligned with the government message that this is a tiny fringe minority, which quite frankly, is dishonest.
Re: getting things done, so far it seems counter-productive in the sense that now the government doesn’t want to seem “weak” and relax restrictions, even though it’s what reasonable governments are doing at this point. I’m not going to put this at the feet of the organizers (whoever they are); it simply deepens my already deep disappointment with the Canadian government since thats a political move.
They have an NGO, some directors and a lawsuit they are working on for constitutional challenge against the mandate by one of the Constitution drafters.
There's sympathy shown in the polls (Canadians are a sympathetic people!) but the polling shows a pretty clear super majority of people that want the protesters to go home (Canadians don't like disorder).
The protest is super unpopular among certain politicians, certain state sponsored media, and certain supporters of those politicians and media. However, there are a very large number who support ending all lockdowns and mandates immediately - as evidenced by their ability to raise money, repeatedly, as well as by the physical presence of so many supporters across the globe.
That said, I agree this is most likely the work of an individual. For all its usefulness in raising money, GSG has probably never been subjected to a real-world pentest by a highly motivated attacker. Not to mention the legions of attackers one would expect from such a polarising subject. This was unfortunate but entirely predictable.
Unpopular with wealthier people who are inconvenienced, very popular amongst what the media like to call 'populists' - ie the people who deliver the rich people's chattels
Maru polls show very little difference between income levels. Of all the different demographics, the one with the most support for the goals and means of the truckers is Alberta residents, where about 1 in 3 support them and their means, and 1 in 2 don't support them at all
It's all down to how a poll accurately frames a question:
Do people like restrictions? No, nobody likes restrictions.
Do people like restrictions that save lives? Still don't 'like' them but believe sacrifice is necessary for the greater good.
Do I support people's right to protest? Yes, but...
You can't honk all night
Block major infrastructure for days
Desecrate war monuments
Flood 911 with fake calls
To play devil's advocate, and provide another (intentionally) biased framing:
Do people want to continue with restrictions that have pushed the opioid epidemic to a new high [1]. Pushed mental health in youth to 'completely unsustainable' levels [2]. Stolen normal development/socialization from children & young adults using restrictions that were not always clearly evidence based [3]. And, all this considering the current outlook of the virus is far more positive than it once was.
The Angus Reid poll phrased their question like this, for anyone interested:
>It's time to end restrictions and let people self-isolate if they're at risk.
Or even more specifically: Do I like restrictions? No. Do I want restrictions to end? Yes. Do I want all restrictions to end now? No. Do I want any restrictions to end now? Maybe.
>Do I support people's right to protest? Yes, but... You can't honk all night Block major infrastructure for days Desecrate war monuments Flood 911 with fake calls
I suspect how much people support "people's right to protest" is directly proportional to how much they support The Cause. If they don't support The Cause, they want protesters to be as out of the way as possible (ie. "free speech zones"). If they do support The Cause, anything up to and including violence/vandalism is justified, because a few causalities would be canceled out by all the positive effects that The Cause would bring.
That's about what I expected — nothing warranting “very popular”, and most of the gap shown is going to come down to what percentage of even people who do want some or all public health measures suspended approve of doing so outside of the democratic process.
The claim can be proven or disproven with elections.
But I think that Trudeau would win rather easily pitted against this extremist, apparently foreign funded fringe.
Even Canada's conservatives don't want to be associated with them anymore.
Conservatives are tabling a motion for a vote on removal of restrictions today.
They’ve just performatively asked truckers to leave, so that they can always point to that later in their election campaign. Why would they want them to leave?they don’t.
I'm not a conservative mind you, but if your goal is to eventually get elected, you probably want to win on topics that will actually gain you votes vs. those that take them away.
This is a wedge issue, and as such they're casting their votes to alienate a huge (likely majority) of voters away from your platform before the leader has even been selected.
Secondly, this protest has been a huge news vacuum attracting non-stop coverage. This is bad for a party that needs to drum up any support for a leadership race to carry them more seats in the next election. By the time this plays out, the conservatives could be half way through their election and most Canadians may not even know the candidates.
We all know that elected officials rarely get elected based on what they've actually done. They get elected by parroting the empty promises their party bosses tell them too.
Plus, politicians who do vote against their constituents' wishes can run in a district that's more friendly to that vote.
Given the unfair media coverage, is it any wonder?
There seems to be, including in your own post, a lot of ad hominem attacks ("one person had a confederate flag! some people in the US support the cause too! this means it's totally evil") rather than addressing the human rights the protestors are fighting for, and it's a shame. But it's no surprise given the opposite media coverage for the opposite type of protest (violent riots) two summers ago.
