Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the part about the political turmoil. So basically, the Conservative Party is the official opposition in Canada. They just lost the Federal election to Trudeau and the Liberals in September. Their party leader, Erin O'Toole, had been heavily criticized for not being more supportive of the protesters. Recently, the Conservatives have been losing ground to the right-wing People's Party of Canada which is led by Maxime Bernier who has been very outspoken about mandates.
Here's O'Toole talking about mandates shortly before the protest began:
When the protest began, there was blood in the water and there was a call for a leadership review to possibly remove him. O'Toole released this statement:
https://twitter.com/Travisdhanraj/status/1488365549042257920
Then next day the Conservatives voted him out as leader of their party.
The interim leader is Candice Bergen.
No, not this Candice Bergen:
This Candice Bergen:
Still with me?
Anyways, they came to Ottawa to get rid of Trudeau but they got O'Toole instead.