Venezuela’s collapse and the ‘useful idiots’ of the Canadian left

Some blame Venezuela’s crisis on the late-2014 collapse in the price of oil, a significant export. Wrong. Alberta and Newfoundland also suffered from that decline but three years on, store shelves in Calgary and St. John’s are not devoid of food. Chavez and Maduro turned Venezuela into the 21st-century version of East Germany; it was they who created Venezuela’s dire shortages. That this was Venezuela’s end was obvious years ago, but Canadian social democrats praised Chavez and the newest experiment in anti-reality economics, and his assault on freedom. In 2010, three years before McQuaig and Klein offered their gushing tribute and supportive tweet, Amnesty International wrote of the Venezuelan regime’s “attacks, harassment and intimidation of those critical of government policies, including journalists and human rights defenders, were widespread.” More…