Where ya bin? you ask.
In the modern vernacuar, we reply:
Later, dude.
The Black Rod was jolted back into action by the televised news conference last week with the Prime Minister of Canada,
Justin "Buckwheat" Trudeau.
Trudeau had been jaunting around the world, basking in accolades, while mobs barricaded railroads across Canada, slowly strangling
the economy and forcing layoffs and shortgages of essential goods.
Finally, shamed by the Opposition Conservatives in Parliament for ignoring the crisis, he reluctantly cancelled the next destination
of his winter world tour---sunny Barbados---and returned to Ottawa.
Less than a week of non-action later, he stood in front of television cameras to make an announcement: he had no idea what to do.
Yep, that was it.
The leader of a country of 35 million people formally announced to the world that the protestors had won. He had nothing.
He had tried his best, i.e. begging the "hereditary chiefs" of native bands in British Columbia to end their opposition to a legally authorized pipeline to he coast, and they had informed him to go pound sand. So he was throwing in the towel.
The sight of the elected prime minister of the country, holding all the power of the country in his hands, cravenly surrendering to
a tiny pack of non-elected chiefs allegedly of territory (22,000 square kilometres) that adds up to a pimple on the ass of the nation
(9,98 million square kilometres), and their tiny mobs of supporters across the country, was shattering.
Even worse, was how this surrender went underreported by the news media. You know, those self-described defenders of democracy.
Here, the Winnipeg Free Press found room for Trudeau's whimpering stand-down in the second section of their most-read Saturday paper.
A curling team winning a game go better coverage than the humiliation of the prime minister.
What exactly did Trudeau do during his six days of crisis management?
Well, he convened his "Incident Response Group".
Woooooh That sounds important---until you realize its just his toadies in cabinetg who---you guessed it---had no idea what do do, either.
He met wit the other parties holding seats in the House of Commons, except the Conservatives. You know, the political party that won 6.1 million votes in the 2019 federal election, 34.4 percent of the popular vote. Trudeau's Liberals attracted 5.9 million voters and only 33 percent of the popular vote.
Trudeau, who has trumpeted his belief in "dialogue" silenced the voices of six million Canadians, more than a third of Canadian voters, by refusing to invite the official government-in-waiting to his meeting. The press went along meekly.
Tory leader Andrew Scheer apparently grew a pair since his loss of the federal election. He called on Trudeau to show some leadership by ordering the RCMP to step in and remove the illegal blockades of railroads across Canada. Trudeau, pandering to his flock, feigned
outrage at the calling of the blockades "illegal".
Trudeau also rejected the idea of calling in the RCMP to enforce the law. He huffed that the police were independent and the government couldn't tell them what to do. This from the man who secretly intervened in a legal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin, then lied about it to the public for weeks, then, when caught out, declared to always had the authority to intervene.
Only days after Trudeau's 'no mas' news conference, Liberal MPss across Canada were appearing on television calling for an end to
the "illegal" blockades.
And by sheer coincidence (no pun intended) the night before Trudeau spoke, the RCMP withdrew from an observation post they had set up on the disputed territory in B.C. to apparently concede to a demand by the hereditary chiefs to leave 'their' land.
In the week since his declaration of national impotence, Trudeau has waited for someone else to act. He was plausible deniability.
Someone---the provinces, the police---can do the dirty work while Trudeau sits on the sidelines, taking no responsibility but ready
to condemn whenever its politically expedient
THIS is the definition of Liberal leadership.
Of course, Trudeau, the duly elected PM, can always go on bended knee to the non-elected hereditary "chiefs", just as they insist he do, to formally beg them to get him off the hook.
He could even throw on an Afro wig, paint his face black, and do an amusing Negro monkey dance to break the ice.
He likes doing that.