“I’m on a road to nowhere”
The so-called Freedom Convoy is making its way across the country this week.
If you haven’t heard it’s a group of truckers, joined by anti-vaxxers, who are upset about the federal government’s mandate that all truckers crossing into Canada be fully vaccinated. Those who like to wrap themselves in ‘freedom’ flags are “mad as hell and aren’t going to take it anymore,” so they are organizing a cross-country convoy to drive to Ottawa and … honk some horns, get on the nightly news, and then come back home.
It’s also a rallying cry for all the anti-vaxxers out there. Plus there is a yellow-vester/Wexit component to it as well. The Truck News says Tamara Rich, formerly of Wexit now of the Maverick Party and who isn’t affiliated with the trucking industry, is behind a GoFundMe campaign to help truckers with fuel to get to Ottawa. The publication, however, points out that with any GoFundMe campaign no one really knows where the money goes.
For the record, the vaccine mandate affects about 10 per cent all truckers (pretty much the same as the rest of the province’s population). So, is the mandate that devastating to our trucking industry and/or supply chains? Probably not.
Also for the record, the Canadian Truckers Alliance has condemned the protests.
“The Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) does not support and strongly disapproves of any protests on public roadways, highways, and bridges,” reads a statement issued Friday. “CTA believes such actions – especially those that interfere with public safety – are not how disagreements with government policies should be expressed. Members of the trucking industry who want to publicly express displeasure over government policies can choose to hold an organized, lawful event on Parliament Hill or contact their local MP. What is not acceptable is disrupting the motoring public on highways and commerce at the border.”
And here’s the kicker for the convoy – the United States has imposed a similar mandate. So, all the huffing and puffing on this side of the border is irrelevant. Say for a minute that the convoy gets to Ottawa and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, (like a certain previous U.S. president) loses all rationality at the thought of blasting an airhorn, and reverses the federal decision.
Would that put the 10 per cent of Canadian truckers who refuse to get vaccinated back to work if they haul across the line?
Nope.
Truckers heading south now have to show proof of vaccination just as those coming north do.
So what can the convoy achieve? Nothing, in terms of the stated cause of supporting truckers affected by the vaccine mandate.
It will get the anti-vaxxers/Wexit folks on the nightly news, which is what most of them want anyway.
Will it help us in our fight to get a handle on the pandemic? Absolutely not, so why bother?