Consider the message of right-wing commentator Candace Owens, who recently tweeted: “STOP talking about Russia. Send American troops to Canada to deal with the tyrannical reign of Justin Trudeau Castro. He has fundamentally declared himself dictator and is waging war on innocent Canadian protesters and those who have supported them financially.” Dictator? (Hardly.) Innocent protesters? (This only makes sense if you also believe the Jan. 6 rioters were harmless tourists.)

Or consider Fox News host Tucker Carlson, my friend (though we disagree profoundly on politics) and former boss. Carlson isn’t outraged over what is happening to Ukraine, but found time last week to bash “strongman” Trudeau as “the dictator of Canada,” while saying that “Canada canceled democracy…”

There’s also Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who says Trudeau has gone “full dictator.” And J.D. Vance (celebrated author and Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Ohio) who recently declared that he “doesn’t really care what happens to Ukraine.”…

Regardless, in the pantheon of civil liberties violations, Trudeau is a piker when compared with Putin. My friend Jeff Mayhugh sums it up perfectly: “In Canada, Trudeau is enforcing the rule of law and if the people of his country do not like the laws they can organize and lawfully remove him from power. In Russia, Putin is breaking the rule of law and the people have no recourse to stop his actions.”