Last month Canadian police dismantled trucker protests that had gridlocked the country’s capital and blockaded key border crossings. Existing provincial laws may have provided authority to arrest the protesters, who were angry about vaccine mandates, and to tow their trucks for creating public nuisances. Yet Canadian Prime Minster Justin Trudeau proclaimed a national “public order” emergency for eight days, giving him broad power to end the protests. Trudeau used this emergency power to prohibit public assemblies, suspend insurance coverage for illegally parked trucks, freeze bank accounts, and require registration of crowdfunding platforms used to finance the protests. If similar protests came to California, declaring a Canada-style emergency and exercising similar powers is not an option for Gov. Gavin Newsom.

We may soon confront that issue: copycat protests about pandemic safety measures have been organized in the United States. During the COVID-19 pandemic California’s governor has exercised broad emergency powers, so reaching for those powers to subdue a freight convoy seems obvious. But unlike Canada’s Emergencies Act, California’s Emergency Services Act does not authorize the governor to declare an emergency based on economic or political threats. Nor should it. Although some aspects of Canada’s Emergencies Act are worth considering, the “public order” emergency is not a good fit for California.