Trucker "Freedom Convoy" Continues

Conservative U.S. Media cheers the Ottawa protests.

It is a populist revolt. It may spread.

This blog typically looks at the politics of perceptions. The trucker disruption in Ottawa is a populist uprising pitching blue-collar people against the managerial-type good-government bureaucrats who are the new center of America's Democratic Party. 

The trucker protests are not a version of the George Floyd protests.They are their opposite. The George Floyd protests included masses of educated leftists seeking greater social consciousness regarding race. They let anarchists and vandals hijack their protests and message, but the protests originally represented the interests of people who wanted more and better government, specifically policing. The truckers protest greater social consciousness. They want less, not better. They consider the goody-goody bureaucrats with their COVID rules to be elitist tyrants.

This blog looks at the symbolism of political actions. I see this as a powerful signal that time has run out for COVID mandates. Push has come to shove. Ready or not, Americans are done with them.

Sandford Borins looks at events from another perspective. He is a college classmate and Professor of Public Management Emeritus at the University of Toronto. For public officials in Canada and at the U.S. border, this is a complex public management crisis as well as a political one. There are citations to issue, trucks to tow, traffic lanes to open, and supply chains to keep in operation. 

Guest Post by Sandford Borins

The current insurrections have an air of farce as individuals with a host of grievances against Justin Trudeau and his Government (divisive rhetoric, carbon pricing, vaccine mandates, restrictions on personal freedom, etc.) are driving to choke points and putting their vehicles on the line.

The Trudeau Government has now made it clear that it does not want to use the Armed Forces, as in the October Crisis, nor negotiate, as in the pilots’ strike. Both were touted as bringing a quick end to the insurrection. It is relying on intergovernmental coordination with local and provincial law enforcement on the front line. This represents, in Max Weber’s words, “the slow boring of hard boards.” Governments have far more resources than the insurrectionists. But it is important to understand what resources the insurrectionists have.

Oxygen for the Insurrection

First, the insurrectionists have ample financial resources, much of it funneled through foreign, especially US-based, right-wing crowd-funding organizations and wire and bitcoin transfers. It is unclear whether government can successfully interdict all these sources of funding.

Second, they have accomplices in the towing industry. Most towing companies in Ottawa are refusing to tow parked rigs, making it arduous if not impossible to clear streets and bridges. In some cases, the companies are reacting to threats to the personal safety of their workers.

Third, the insurrectionists for now have ample reinforcements. There appear to be many people with grievances willing to join a blockade at a current or new chokepoint.

Fourth, the insurrectionists have some public support. While the situation is volatile, recent public opinion polls show that the government has the strong or mild support of two-thirds of the public, and the insurrectionists the strong or mild support of one-third. While the insurrectionists are not protesting solely about vaccine mandates, the case for the federal government maintaining vaccine mandates within its areas of jurisdiction appears to be weakening as provinces are relaxing theirs.

Reasserting Authority

In response to the insurrectionists, politicians – Trudeau, now joined by the federal Conservatives, Ontario Premier Doug Ford, and a host of municipal leaders – can use their rhetoric, with the common theme “this has to stop,” to urge them to leave. Provincial governments can try to suspend licenses, though this process is not immediate and current regulations give licensees the right of appeal. Municipal government can impose fines and arrest people. Citizens can use the courts, as residents of Ottawa did in their successful application for an injunction against horn-blowing. All these measures take time.

Where Will it End?

The situation is paradoxical. The resources the insurrectionists have will enable them to fight on. But the longer they inconvenience people and the more disruption they create, the more they will lose public support.

Impeding the flow of commerce at border crossings, especially the Ambassador Bridge between Windsor and Detroit, represents overreach because it has caused widespread economic harm in both Canada and the US. This blockade will likely be removed by the weekend.

The insurrection in Ottawa will be the most difficult to dislodge because it is well-entrenched and not as economically disruptive as border blockades. Foreign funding is giving it oxygen but may disappear when the funders have decided they have achieved their objectives, likely when the media loses interest in the story.

The use of trucks in these insurrections is analogous to the 9-11 attacks, which weaponized commercial aircraft. Governments will have to develop a set of measures to stop current and future insurrectionists from weaponizing their eighteen wheelers.

[Note: This is an excerpt from his longer article on this subject in Borins' own blog: www.sandfordborins.com. I urge U.S. readers to bookmark that blog site and follow what he writes. Americans pay little attention to Canada. It is not an arctic wasteland. Thirty-eight million people live there. Canada, not China, is our largest trading partner.]