WARMINGTON: Move over truckers, it's now Tucker's turn to save Canada from Trudeau's tyranny (2024)

First it was the truckers hoping to “liberate” Canada and now it’s The Tucker.

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But be careful, Tucker Carlson, because they just might freeze your bank account.

Or throw you in jail for a long stretch without bail, bring out the horses or maybe even have the RCMP give you the David Menzies arrest treatment.

Seems American media star Tucker Carlson doesn’t care and has dared Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to respond – just one day out from the famous media commentator’s scheduled appearances in Calgary and in Edmonton on Wednesday.

It all started with the former Fox News host, who is now running his Tucker Carlson Network, going to Instagram to punk Trudeau by calling his office to leave a message that the mission to free Canada is on its way north this week.

“Yes, hi, I couldn’t understand the French part, but it’s Tucker Carlson calling from the United States, and I’d be grateful if you pass a message on to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. We are coming to Liberate Canada. We are coming to liberate Canada, and we’ll be there soon. Merci.”

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The perfect prank call? Funny stuff?

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Well, Canada is not always known for its sense of humour on stuff like this. That’s the kind of talk that brought in the Emergencies Act against the truckers in 2022. Some of those who protested Trudeau’s lockdown measures are either still in jail or before the courts.

But Carlson does not seem worried. In fact, he seems to be spoiling for a fight with Trudeau.

It’s not the first time.

In a documentary called O Canada, that was set to air before Fox fired Carlson in 2023, he teased, “For more than 100 years the United States has as a matter of official policy opposed dictatorships around the world. But what if tyranny arrived right next door? Would we liberate the people living under authoritarian rule as we have around the world?”

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In this unaired documentary, Carlson interviewed arrested pastors, People’s Party of Canada Leader Maxime Bernier and Rebel News journalists Alexa Lavoie and David Menzies about the brutal treatment they received from Canadian authority during the pandemic lockdowns.

A year ago, almost to the day, Carlson on Fox mused, “Why are we not sending an armed force north to liberate Canada from Trudeau? And I mean it.”

Of course, he’s only joking. Carlson loves using words to get a rise out of people not as enthusiastic about free speech as he is. He once debated then Liberal MP Carolyn Parrish on CNN after she was quoted of American’s saying, “I hate those bastards,” On X she later called Carlson a “completely sensational idiot.”

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But Carlson has made the point that it’s not him that is the idiot but those letting Canada go down the road of communism.

“I’ve always loved Canada because of its natural beauty,” Carlson said last year on Fox News. “Why should we let it become Cuba. Why don’t we liberate it?”

Carlson loves all of this because it gets him what he is so good at achieving: Attention and ratings. On X alone he has more than 11 million followers. Always fun herself, Parrish, who may be running for mayor of Mississauga, has a little more than 5,000 followers while Trudeau has 6.5 million.

“See you there,” said Dr. Jordan Peterson on X, another person who has endured the wrath of the cancel crowd.

Tucker, who some believe could become Donald Trump’s running mate for vice president in November, knows how to drum up interest. His first comments about liberating Canada was him promoting his show. This time his appearances, in which he is scheduled to be joined on stage by Premier Danielle Smith, legendary commentator Rex Murphy and renowned and notorious author and businessman Conrad Black, are about selling tickets for his talks.

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Sounds like fun. But not everybody laughs at Carlson’s humour and attempt to stir things up to drive the left nuts.

“You know, some people in Canada thought this was humorous and a joke,” former U.S. ambassador in the Obama era Bruce Heyman told the Associated Press last year. “But it was not a joke, because of the people that he attracts and inspires … I feel he was a dangerous actor.”

Yikes. That sounds ominous. America has said that about Saddam Hussein in Iraq and Moammar Gadhafi in Libya too.

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And Canadians understand what words like that from government can mean. Canadians have seen zero-tolerance measures out of Ottawa before. Trudeauites, who are prepared to turn a blind eye to anything on the edge their hero may do, are less tolerant of others. In fact, for Carlson’s Alberta dates, there is actually a Change.org petition with almost 4,000 signatures trying to keep him from being let into the country.

“There’s still time for Prime Minister Trudeau to do the right thing and deny Tucker Carlson, a citizen of the United States, conspiracy theorist, active supporter of Vladmir Putin, promoter of racism and hate monger, supporter of the Jan. 6 insurrection, supporter of the rigged 2020 U.S. elections conspiracy, a visa to enter Canada,” it said.

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Music to Tucker Carlson’s ears. His job is to bring in eyeballs and fill seats.

But Canada is also capable of keeping track of names and even seeing people fired for supporting causes like the Freedom Convoy. So, this week could be interesting in Calgary and Edmonton when The Tucker rolls into town to teach us about free speech and, perhaps, lightening up a bit too.

jwarmington@postmedia.com

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