CITIZEN X REPORTING FROM BUFFALO, NY AND FORT ERIE, ON. For me the most striking new thing revealed in the latest evidence from the second Trump impeachment trial in the US Senate was that at least one Canadian flag was on display during the wild invasion of the federal Capitol in Washington, DC on January 6, 2021.

I see from further hasty research that possibly more than one such flag was identified by others when it happened on January 6. (See HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.)

On balance, all this finally strikes me as just another reminder that, while Canada today is happily more left-wing, liberal and progressive than the United States, we are also the place where the Proud Boys were born, and we do have our own anti-democratic right-wing extremists who bear watching.

My biggest surprise at the conclusion of yesterday’s 57-43 vote to convict Trump in the US Senate (still 10 short of the two-thirds needed, but …) was Mitch McConnell’s final speech, resolutely attacking Trump’s actions on January 6, while also claiming in the end that it was not constitutionally possible to vote him guilty. (And that he and the other 42 Republicans who voted not guilty were somehow on the side of the angels.)

I felt that Bill Kristol ultimately got this right when he tweeted : “McConnell’s speech after the vote didn’t have the effect of mitigating his dereliction of duty. It brought it into bolder relief.” At the same time, I also agreed with Michael Steele on MSNBC that Moscow Mitch may have made a “deft political” move. I have no idea whether he will finally work to take the Trump toxins out of the Republican Party.

Meanwhile, President Biden may have noted a February 12 article from the Gallup polling organization : “Americans Support Massive Stimulus Spending.” (Maybe they aren’t all that different from Canadians, or vice versa?)

Back in Canada itself, there are those who say the future of Justin Trudeau and his federal Liberals is now intimately tied to the future of COVID-19 vaccines in the country.

On CBC TV’s Power and Politics last week Liberal strategist David Herle was urging that if the ultimate good news Prime Minister Trudeau is promising on vaccines proves true, the Liberals will win a majority government in an election before the end of this year. If it proves false they will lose even their present minority government.

For some deep background on all this – from an arguably somewhat objective source – see the recent BBC News piece “Why Canada is falling behind in Covid vaccinations.”

For a report that seems to imply Trudeau’s promises just may prove true see The Canadian Press on “Deliveries of COVID-19 vaccine doses to Canada set to more than quadruple next week.” (If this is on the money, we should get a little closer to the truth by the end of the work week that starts tomorrow.)

And for an argument that declining Liberal poll numbers induced by vaccine shortages mean the next Canadian federal election won’t be all that soon, see Politico on “Has the moment passed for a spring election?”

I will say I have been impressed myself by Justin Trudeau’s steely but still friendly responses to criticism over vaccines and everything else at his recent regular TV press conferences. And, at this point in any case, when push comes to shove in an election campaign it is still hard to see any other party leader who looks like a better possible prime minister.

But of course the mantra for 2021 already seems to be : who knows, who knows? For the moment, Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone wise and wonderful enough to be reading what is written here.