The truckers’ protest in the winter of 2022 against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate not only continues to make headlines as the trials of prominent protesters drag on and verdicts are sporadically delivered, but the Freedom Convoy itself remains a touchstone in the ongoing debate about the country’s direction after a decade of increasingly left-wing Liberal government. The movement’s implications continue to resonate.
The Freedom Convoy wasn’t just a protest against forced vaccination, it was a nationwide outcry against what many perceived as an unprecedented experiment in authoritarianism. Thousands of truckers and thousands more supporters roared across the country from Prince Rupert, British Columbia, to the nation’s capital in Ottawa, demanding the attention of a leader they saw as having overstepped his bounds.
After two years of dutifully serving their country, as columnist Gwyn Morgan observed, “the truckers were to be thrown out of work – cast aside like unneeded accoutrements.” Once hailed as the heroes who essentially saved Canada from starvation during the pandemic’s frightening first wave, truckers were now facing unemployment and social ostracism – fuelling the sense of betrayal that drove them to Ottawa.
Their calls for the abolition of vaccine mandates and the restoration of constitutional rights fell on deaf ears, however. Trudeau refused to meet with the protesters, instead labelling them as extremists and racists. This contrasted glaringly with his fawning treatment of protests by First Nations or Black Lives Matter, with whom he met willingly, showed solidarity, “took a knee” or bowed his head like a penitent. But here, Trudeau responded with contempt and a heavy hand, invoking the never-before-used Emergencies Act to crush the protest and seeing numerous protesters slapped with multiple criminal charges.
Why the hypocrisy? Simple favoritism towards left-wing causes over “right wing” ones explains some of it. But I believe there was something deeper, something Trudeau and his acolytes may have sensed. In my opinion, the Freedom Convoy was about far more than just a giant convoy that crossed the country. It was the latest in a convoy of confrontations – a line stretching back to the nation’s very founding – between long-established centres of power in “Laurentian” Canada and people in the regions trying to assert their basic equality as citizens and protect their livelihoods, freedom and dignity.
Trudeau’s approach to the protest, and his broader governance style, are characteristic of the attitude and tactics of the Laurentian Elite. This group, which includes political, academic, cultural, media and business leaders from Ontario and Quebec – the region drained by the St. Lawrence River – has long dominated the country. Their influence is particularly strong in shaping policies that disregard the needs and perspectives of Western Canadians.
The Laurentian Elite, as described by John Ibbitson and Darrell Bricker in The Big Shift: The Seismic Change in Canadian Politics, and more recently by essayist John Weissenberger, have historically treated Western provinces as secondary.
It began with the formation of Canada in 1867 with two dominant central provinces. The purchase of Rupert’s Land in 1870 added what amounted to a vast hinterland colony to the young Dominion – without consulting the local inhabitants. This would trigger not one but two open rebellions by the Métis under Louis Riel – the second one bloodily suppressed by federally organized troops in 1885.
Three distinctly second-class provinces were carved out of the former Rupert’s Land, with Ottawa withholding crucial rights and jurisdictions that Ontario and Quebec took for granted. A succession of transportation and trade policies were crafted by the Laurentians and for the Laurentians – with one Liberal minister, Sir Clifford Sifton, openly boasting “that the great trade of the prairies shall go to enrich our people to the East.”
And so it continued for decades, from the anti-free-enterprise Canadian Wheat Board to tens of billions of dollars shovelled at Quebec through the federal equalization program, to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau’s utterly ruinous National Energy Program in 1980 – perhaps the first time Ottawa combined both taxation and the attempted destruction of a western industry in one policy. The first time, but not the last.
In short, the West has often been treated as a “semi-colonial possession,” its resources exploited but its contributions undervalued and its opinions dismissed. The truckers’ protest can be viewed as a modern-day manifestation of the longstanding tensions between Central and Western Canada. The convoy thus was not just about vaccine mandates but about challenging the Laurentian power structure that has long marginalized the West.
The protest’s dynamic revealed deep-seated frustrations with a federal government that many Western Canadians feel has consistently failed to represent their interests. The Laurentian Elite, despite their dominance, now face growing resistance not just from protesters but multiple provincial governments.
Alberta in particular has taken significant steps to assert its autonomy, introducing the Alberta Sovereignty Within a United Canada Act in response to federal policies that it views as unconstitutional. Saskatchewan has similarly defied federal authority, refusing to pay the carbon levy and challenging Ottawa’s attempts to garnishee its funds. These actions signal a growing determination in the West to reclaim control over provincial affairs.
The truckers’ protest should therefore be seen as a catalyst for a broader movement seeking to redefine Canada’s federal structure. As the legacy of the Freedom Convoy continues to unfold, it may well be remembered as the spark that ignited a renewed push for a more balanced and equitable Confederation.
The original, full-length version of this article was recently published by C2C Journal.
David Solway’s latest prose book is Crossing the Jordan: On Judaism, Islam and the West (New English Review Press, 2023). A new poetry chapbook, From the Sommelier’s Notebook, is scheduled to be released in August 2024 (Little Nightingale Press). Solway has produced two CDs of original songs: Blood Guitar and Other Tales (2014) and Partial to Cain (2019) on which he is accompanied by his pianist wife Janice Fiamengo. A third CD, The Dark, is in planning.
