Love & Unity on Highway Overpasses
The Queen herself wouldn't have drawn these crowds.
Csaba Vizi - who drove his truck from Windsor, Ontario to Ottawa - says in an interview that people cheered and waved from every overpass between those two cities.
By my count, there are 200 overpasses on that 800-kilometer (500-mile) stretch of highway. If each one attracted 250 people on average, then 50,000 Canadians braved brutal weather to applaud just one arm of the multiple-pronged convoy. The Queen of England herself wouldn’t have elicited that kind of devotion.
11 weeks later, Canadians are still talking about the transformative nature of those gatherings. On Twitter, Gordon Finlayson mentions “4000 miles of love and unity. God bless the Truckers and the people who cheered them on.” The photo in his tweet is of the Wellington Road overpass in London, Ontario.
Another Twitter user responds: “Happiest I’ve seen people in 2 years. Thank you truckers.” (bold here and below added)
Another person adds: “Thinking about this day and what I witnessed still brings me to tears. I thought I was alone until I saw this.”
Hope. Goodwill. A feeling of belonging. All are mentioned by someone else:
Others recall high spirits despite cold temperatures. Another person says: “I am in my seventh decade and have never felt that kind of love for Canada and seeing it shared was amazing.”
The convoy evoked powerful emotions - the sort that aren’t easily forgotten.
Thanks for documenting this Donna. Here's my experience at the Wellington Road overpass in London, posted in early February on Kate McMillan's SDA before the vilification took hold.
The photo accompanying your post could have been taken there or at any of the thousands of overpasses that cross our nation's highways as the Freedom Convoy traveled to Ottawa. Peaceful flag-waving Canadians. A festive (if freezing) atmosphere. Impromptu, spontaneous gatherings of happy, hopeful people of all ages. Kids seemingly impervious to the cold as they rolled down snowy hills. People laughing and cheering. It was beautiful. As one friend said, "People are starting to come out of the fog." Will it last?
The complicit media is doing its best to denigrate and destroy this amazing show of strength from normal, hardworking citizens. They're sowing the seeds for the government spin that these courageous protesters are vile; their legitimate concerns are "unacceptable"; their calls for freedom are "hate rhetoric." It's time to remind the Freedom Convoy how incredibly inspirational they are. As one homemade sign read: "Trudeau divided us in 6 years. Truckers united us in 2 weeks."
The Freedom Convoy was the reason that thousands across Canada stood in freezing weather for hours. It was wonderfully uplifting and so much fun to be at the Highway 401-Wellington Road overpass in London, Ontario. The hundreds gathered were unapologetically proud Canadians and enthusiastically showed their support for each truck that passed (admittedly, a bit more so for the Budweiser truck). There were signs - Mel Gibson as Braveheart inscribed with "Freedom", "Truth Not Fear", "No Vax Mandate" - and more Canadian flags than I've ever seen in one place. With my large "Lest We Forget" Remembrance Day flag, I thought about my dad. In 1945 on that day - January 27th - he was a hungry, cold prisoner of war on a forced march from Poland to Berlin. A proud Canadian always, he treasured freedom.
Here are a few vignettes from that memorable day of real, decent people - not the slandered "fringe minority" - who support the Freedom Convoy:
- the friendly, kind woman who helped hold my flag in high winds. Until recently, she said, she couldn't have imagined attending a public protest. What changed? She hadn't worked since October because she chose not to get vaccinated. What she missed most were the residents in the retirement home: "we're their family and they're ours." And she missed singing: "In the dining room I was known as the singing server." I have no doubt that this special woman had brightened the lives of many people in their final years.
- the guy who looked like he knew how to work hard and how to have fun. He was cheering, waving the Canadian flag, and celebrating each truck's honking horn. Then he turned, saw my Lest We Forget flag, and started to cry. As he wept he said, "That should be the biggest flag here. Those guys died for our freedom." A woman who said she was his sister smiled and took it in stride: "Our dad was a veteran. He's really sentimental about those guys," she said with a gentle laugh.
- on my way home seeing a lone man in a farm field by the 401 holding a homemade sign over his head that read "Heroes".
- stopping on a rural 401 overpass where an elderly couple stood with a Canadian flag and a "Thank You" sign. I mentioned that there was a much larger crowd at the overpass a few miles to the west; they said they wanted truckers to see support in as many places as possible so chose this quiet spot. Earlier in the day they'd seen the large gatherings at the overpasses at Wellington & Highbury Roads when they dropped off 50 lunches for truckers at The Flying J Travel Centre, a meeting point for the Southwestern Ontario branch of the Convoy.
These are the people I trust. These are the people who support the Freedom Convoy. Please don't let the worst among us rewrite history.