Truckers Have a Broader Perspective

Crossing the Canada/US border was like 'crossing between East and West Berlin during the Cold War.'

1963 photo of Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin. Photo by Roger Wollstadt, via Wikipedia.

Honking for Freedom, the soon-to-be-released book by convoy spokesperson Benjamin Dichter, helps explain why truckers were the ones to stand up and be counted. The January 15th cross-border vaccine mandate was the focus of their concern, but truckers are also a special demographic.

They move around a lot. During the darkest days of the pandemic, when the lockdowns were most severe, those hauling freight back and forth to the United States had regular opportunities to compare and contrast. Restaurants were shuttered here in Canada, yet were open for business south of the border and society wasn’t collapsing.

Benjamin works part-time as a cross-border trucker. Here’s what he says in Chapter 6:

Everybody lives by a core value. For some people it’s adaptability. For others it’s balance, or acceptance, or spirituality. For me it’s freedom.

…Crossing the border during the pandemic always felt liberating. Even in states with the harshest U.S. lockdowns, such as New York, the restrictions were nothing compared to Ontario and Quebec, because nobody took them as earnestly as Canadians did. Only once did an American border agent ask me to put on a mask, and in Canada everybody was always masked up. Crossing between Canada and the United States during the pandemic was like crossing between East and West Berlin during the Cold War. [bold added]

Truckers I’ve personally interviewed have likewise made this point. Canada was not “the true North strong and free” referenced in our national anthem after the pandemic hit. It was a dark and dreary place. A land of obedience to public health officials who’d thrown the previous rulebook out the window and were now casually shuttering churches and gutting businesses.

see also: Compelling New Book about the Freedom Convoy