Does Trudeau seem to be losing the battle against truckers?

The Canadian prime minister is under increasing pressure to intervene as anti-vaccine mandate protests continue in Ottawa and spread to border crossings around the country, threatening trade.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described to the caravan of truckers and their supporters as a "small fringe group" before they arrived in the nation's capital.

He's in the midst of a crisis two weeks later.

Protesters are stopping or halting traffic at key border crossings, including the Ambassador Bridge, which connects Michigan and Ontario and handles at least a quarter of yearly trade worth hundreds of millions of dollars between the two countries.

Within days, two of the world's largest automakers, Ford and Toyota, said that their plants had been forced to close due to delays in automobile parts at two border crossings.

Governors and the White House have expressed concern about the economic damage, and a judge granted a court order to clear the bridge on Friday evening.

The "Freedom Convoy" in Ottawa, which has clogged streets near parliament with 500 trucks, is now in its third week. Overwhelmed police have dubbed the demonstrators a "siege," but they show no indications of packing up and leaving, with support and funding pouring in from the United States and elsewhere.

A state of emergency has been declared in the city. On Friday, the government of Ontario declared one, making it illegal to block critical infrastructure, and accusing demonstrators of "trying to promote a political agenda through disruption, intimidation, and mayhem," according to the provincial premier.

And Mr. Trudeau is being questioned about whether he is doing enough to de-escalate and end the crisis.

"During this crisis, Canadians have been missing national leadership," NDP leader Jagmeet Singh said on Thursday, accusing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of looking for "excuses not to act."

Since the beginning of the protests, the prime minister has kept the federal government at a distance, assuring cities and provinces struggling to deal with disturbances that he would veto any federal assistance they requested.

According to Stewart Prest, a political scientist at Simon Fraser University, his statement reflects both a "genuine wish not to validate the approach" used by the demonstrators and a respect for the jurisdictional authorities of provincial governments and police forces.

Mr Prest, on the other hand, said that leadership has been "slow, late, and inadequate given the seriousness of the crisis."

"There's certainly a need for some type of government participation to, at the very least, better coordinate the existing response," he added.

The protests began in response to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberals' introduction last month of a vaccine requirement forcing all Canadian truckers to be vaccinated or quarantined upon their return from the United States.

The vast majority of Canadian truckers have been targeted, and trucking associations have distanced themselves from the protests, pointing out that the bulk of drivers are still working.

However, the protests have grown into a larger movement demanding an end to all Covid restrictions as well as a general rejection of Mr Trudeau's government.

After two years of epidemic restrictions, Mr Prest described the rallies as "almost this primordial scream of wrath, dissatisfaction" from a part of the populace.

According to Andrew McDougall, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Toronto, they "represent the most extreme example of the general frustration that exists" and have attracted "a wide range of other groups, mostly from the fringes of Canadian society that are anti-vaccine and anti-science."

Mr Trudeau has refused to meet with the demonstrators, calling their ideas "unacceptable."