Canadian Trucker Convoy

We talk with journalist Dan Collen (@SpinelessL) about the anti-health mandate Truck Convoy at Canada’s Capital of Ottawa.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
What a all right? The show started, Garrison, Hey, we're
gonna be talking about Canada again, so yeah, um, and
to discuss Canada and politics and the happenings here. We
have another journalist who writes for I Believe, Anti Hate

(00:28):
Canada and like the Canadian Anti Hate Network and also Vice.
I believe right, I've written for Vice. I'm currently researching
full time and extremism researcher for It's a new initiative
called the Online Hate Research and Education Project. It's actually
partnered with the Canadian Anti Hate Network and it's it's
under the new Burger Holocaust Education Center, which might be

(00:49):
renaming very soon. I'm I'm very excited for you guys
to get into a Twitter fight with James Lindsay. Um
can't wait. So yes, Dan here has joined us to
talk about Canada because I've gotten a few messages about
this thing that's happening. My mother, who's in Alberta, called

(01:11):
me a few days ago to talk about this thing
that's happening. So it's been it's it's I'm getting a
lot of things and it's definitely worth discussing, specifically on
some of the rhetoric that people are using around this.
So I'm actually I'm gonna I'm gonna hand it to
Dan to talk about what, like how did this thing,
like what is it and how did it kind of

(01:32):
get started? Yeah, Well, so Derrison is not alone, by
the way, for anyone not in Canada. Every single person's
mother in the entire country is called using about it.
I just got another message literally right now, like literally
this second. It's gonna nothing. Moms of Canada have been activated.

(01:53):
Moms of Canada have been activated, but not in exactly
the same way that they're being perceived to be. Yeah,
all the ways. So the quote unquote trucker convoy, which
I might get into a little bit later, but I'm
kind of like against even calling it a trucker convoy. Yeah.
It was started on January and by a former Wigsit

(02:18):
Party now called the Maverick Party member Tomorrow Lich and
a group of like very active far right grassroots protesters.
You do a lot of organizing like this, uh, and
most of them, most of their activities kind of go
back to tea. Yeah, they go back a decent a
decent amount. Yeah, like this, I mean there's links to

(02:39):
people that have been doing it in the nineties and
Canada's movement right now, but a non binding motion against
U I think it's a M three a few years
ago really mobilized people and it's kind of been more
consistent since then of the same groups of people. Yeah,
that's that's what we talked about in our first Canada
episodes about kind of how we got to that point

(03:01):
and now like those same people are still kind of
behind what's going on right now. So, yeah, there's this
alleged caravan of truckers of all the truckers in Canada
going going to Ottawa, um and Canada, all the tuckers
and so this thing was kind of originally organized by
some like known far right figures and the people associated
with like the Canadian Yellow Vests, which kind of died down,

(03:22):
but it didn't die down. It just morphed, right, morphed
into a very strong anti vax of presence in Canada
right now, the anti vaxx movements getting a lot of
popularity in Canada, and it's run by these guys who
were doing we Exit, which is like West Exit, but
for like it's it's it's like for Alberta NBC to
go away from Canada because the rest of Canada's too liberal, um,
so we exit and the l vests have really changed

(03:45):
all of their focuses into this anti VAXX thing as
a way to do recruiting, and they've prompted this kind
of movement of truckers going to Ottawa. UM for a
few specific reasons which I think Dan probably knows a
little bit more about than I do. Like I I
know the gist of it, but you you would focus
on the on this slightly more than I have. Yeah,
I guess the main reason is it works, um like,

(04:07):
just from the perspective of getting attention and being able
to get a message out. UM. There's been a lot
of traction on this that these groups don't normally get.
I think the last trucker convoy UM that was done
under this sort of umbrella, it had like nine I
think was the total amount of like trucks that made
it to Ottawa the last time this was trying to

(04:29):
be done, and it was basically the same demands and
the same reasons. So this one was started on January
and it didn't get that much fuzz the first couple
of days. The original goal was set at a hundred
thousand dollars. I don't remember the exact time, but once
it hit that pretty fast, and it hit the first
million pretty fast in ways that like these fundraisers really

(04:49):
really don't. Like the last big one we saw in
Canada that was quite alarming in that fast capped out
at under four hundred thousand dollars and that was um
for a barbecue for a barbecue that got defied protests
last year and uh ended up getting like all it's
it's a bad door shut down. So there's a lot

(05:10):
more money now in this one. Yeah, because this this
fundraiser which was supposed to go like hand in hand
with these truckers protesting the vaccine mandates because they're upset
that they're not allowed to truck into these states because
they're not vaccinated. So they have decided to all truck
into Ottawa as like a pseudo strike slash like blockade
type thing because they're saying that they were not going
to do our jobs and we're gonna kind of block

(05:31):
off access to these roads um until this mandate is
is removed. Now. Of course, the funny thing here is
that the mandate that to enter to not being allowed
to enter the states to do your trucking rooms. That's
not a mandate by Canada. That's done, but that like
that's the rule in the United States because you're entering
the United States, they're the States is actually the ones

(05:53):
doing the block edge of the Canadian government has no
control over this. It's not like it's not actually the
thick the way to get the message out and support
is incredibly effective because something I think like percent there
was a survey recently of Canadians are against the mandate,
which is like really huge um for like Canada's anti
vax movement to kind of get that like support and

(06:16):
like a lot of people are mobilized too. By there's
a trend of posting. It starts from four Chain and team,
but it's getting revived a lot again now of people
posting like empty grocery stores. Even a Conservative member of
parliament recently posted an empty grocery store. And as for
people's emails to try to like change the laws, it
turned out to be from the UK. It was a

(06:37):
stock photo. Uh. And there's been like even like the
stores themselves have had to come out and make statements
being like yeah, we're not we're not empty. We have
we have something we are in the process if we restocking.
That's happened the US to where it's like we're literally
emptying that shelf to move stuff with other shelfs. We've

(06:58):
had a really bad snowstorm for a lot of the
real photos of like empty shelves, and it's just like, oh,
no salad tap out and the story just make a statement.
It's like, yeah, we had two snowstorms a day in
a row ock. But like the narrative that they're trying
to push is like these these mandates are causing these
shortages um and the propaganda is working even though it's

(07:20):
all on a false premise, because first of all, it's
not like that that those aren't that, that's not casting that,
and second of all, complaining to Canada's that's not the
Canada's not the one who's making the restrictions in the
States are the one that's that's blocking from doing this.
But but it's it's not actually about these issues. It's
that's not the reason why you're getting all these people
driving to Ottawa, because there is a lot of people.

(07:40):
There's not many trucks, but but there is there is
a decent amount of people. You know, it's that that
are that are going this because it's not it's not
actually about these specific issues. It's this general um like
seething hatred of Trudeau and like a generalized grievance that
it's gotten this broad support, it's gotten enough financial backing
the fundraisers what like like over six million dollars now um,

(08:03):
And it's it's not like it's just what it actually
is is an incoherent kind of intention just to go
to the capital and cause problems, right that that that's
what they're actually that. That's what like the underlying thing
is for a lot of a lot of the like
explaining why it's gotten so picked up. Some some official
demands like have been put out and they would be

(08:25):
even more confusing like to read than like some of
them are there. A couple of the most recent ones
are just very general like stop this divisive nature that
our government is imposing kind of thing like I'm paraphrasing,
but it's it's really quite bland. Um. Some demands from
san little groups involved. One they say they won't leave
until Trudeau steps down. Others say, at one point said

(08:46):
until every politician stopped down, stepped down. I think that
was when before someone kind of pushed in more realisticals
into the movement, but like in terms of like what
they're talking about, for like the rhetoric surrounding it. We're
seeing a lot of rhetoric around the sentence being like
we this can be our version of January six, but

(09:06):
like they're saying that like in a good way, like
that's that's the thing that at least some of the organizers,
and then it's being carried out into like the generalized
rhetoric is that this this should be our own version
of this, which is which is interesting on a few ways,
but like also like this would not have been said
like seven months ago, but it's being said now, which

(09:29):
means like there's been a shift in how January six
is being viewed. There was this initial like really distancing
and now it's like it's becoming almost like more acceptable
to acknowledge that it was maybe a good thing in
your eyes, And it's like that's an interesting rhetorical shift
that that's been going on. But then it's also concerning
on just like a regular level to be like, yeah,
these people wanted these people are saying they want to
do their own January six. That has obviously physical implications

(09:52):
for all these people trying to drive to Ottawa. Um
do either blocking off roads or just like making the
government inoperable. Yeah, a coat streamer or a well a
streamer in what's called the Plaid Army, And now that's
sometimes kind of just being rebranded as like Diagalon network
quote unquote, which we can get into more, but it's

(10:12):
it's gonna be sillier. Yeah, they're they're kind of their
own they're their own issue for later. Yeah, they're their
own issue. But it was one of their streamers who
is very tangently connected to like a lot of the
the far right people that are involved in this protest
movement leading up to an in fact, Pat King, who
was officially one of the organizers of the convoy until

(10:35):
he wasn't and then he was again. That was a
whole dramatic thing for a day, like he streamed alongside
Plaid Army guys before um So, someone on Plaid Army said,
and I would quote, I would like to see our
own January six event, see some of those truckers plow
right through that sixteen football And on January twenty four,
that was put up on CTV News made alive and

(10:56):
it's kind of scare a lot of people. I think
at that point former Conservative leader Andrew Sheer had already
voiced support for the convoy. There's been a lot of
other like members of Parliament stuff voicing support for the convoy. Uh,
some of whom really didn't seem to know like what
was involved and really just kind of heard ten like
in passing, Oh it's against these mandates and I opposed

(11:17):
these mandates too, And it's like, if I think it's
the true DEALU based well side out, it's gonna help you.
You're gonna help your political career. Yeah, yeah, it's completely true.

(11:38):
So have they actually started like blocking roads or is
it just a bunch of red and people driving like driving.
So there's there's a few differently converging points of the convoy.
I think I would say probably the biggest one. Um,
but it's it's hard to kind of keep track. Started
in British Columbia and it's going so for this, I'm
sure not everyone knows like math for Canada. So like

(11:58):
bur just Columbia is like our west coast, that's our
our California, UM, and Ottawa is it's close to the
west and it's in Ontario, but it's on the border
of Quebec and Ontario, and that's where our parliament is,
that's our capital city. So it's coming from every which way,
but I think the largest contingent comes from British Columbia
and it just basically goes eastward to Ottawa, picking up

(12:22):
people along the way. Yeah, yeah, it's it's it's it's
it's heading in that direction. Um, how do we know
about I know some people have kind of already some
people have kind of already sort of arrived in Ottawa,
but most mostly people are expected to more arrive in
the next Like, well, we're recording this Thursday night, so
this episode will probably come out on Monday. Um, people

(12:43):
are expected to arrive on Saturday. Is the day that
expected people expecting like everybody to be there. At least
that's the understanding of it. The convoy itself arrives Saturday. Um,
there are people like coming from further east who are
like staying overnight in town and kind of just showing
up the parliament event. So like, by by all accounts,
the Parliament show will probably be a lot bigger than

(13:06):
the so far. Yeah, I guess we haven't mentioned numbers yet,
SORR numbers, nor like what what they actually really plan
on doing once they get there, because it's it's been
so much talking about like why this got started, and
what's the like driving motivational factors. Yeah, like their their
goal is to get to a place and do a
thing and and that's the yeah, and the thing's the

(13:27):
thing that's mostly unclear. And I have seen discussions about
like blocking on like doing like trying to assemble like
a trucking strike, um, and then like blocking off accesses
so that the government is forced to obey their demands
or else like the country will shut down. UM. Then
some people maybe are just kind of doing it as
a one day protest. It's it's it again. It is

(13:48):
it is. It is pretty unclear, but people are headed
to their UM what what is the what is the numbers?
At least from where we can see like online and stuff,
their numbers have been the number fifty trucks. People became
fifty trucks very quickly. Um, and that same number I

(14:10):
think Rogan repeated it, I know, said yeah, yeah, Joe
Rogan said it THEO Fleury one on Laura Ingram and
repeated the fifty thousand number, he said, fifty thousand truckers,
not trucks specifically. Um, as far as I know, THEO
Fleury has no official involvement Convoy, and it's just a
fan and it's just repeating some numbers that like organizes

(14:30):
themselves have kind of echoed. Um. This is also complicated
for me because this is very troubling in a lot
of ways. But also I'm a huge fan of the
song Convoy, so this is really devastating. Please continue, It's
all right, Yeah, So Canadas fur It protest movement has
kind of happened doing this in February of Kelly and Farcas,

(14:53):
who's like a mainstay of the anti mask antivacs movement. Uh.
And in between when I'm talking about in right now
actually dated Pat King for a while, who's kind of
the most outspoken person organizing the current convoy claimed that
a hundred thousand people were coming to Parliament for what
was then like an anti mask demonstration. Before the event,

(15:14):
data will look changed to fifty uh. And I was
actually there, it looked closer to like two people. I
had friends that had counted like hundreds and seventy people,
So not quite fifty uh. For all intents and purposes,
the current one will be longer. Reporters doing great journalism
along the way have estimated up to like four hundred

(15:34):
people so far um, including I think fifteen trucks outside
the bass Pro shop in Toronto this afternoon. I was counted.
Side note, if nothing else, gotta give them points for
stopping at bass Pro in Toronto is a pretty sweet
bass pro. Do you love a good bass Pro shop?
My favorite is the one they built into the Giant Pyramid. Yeah, obvious,

(15:54):
Nashville baby. So the Bass Pro in Toronto, if you're
ever in town, Robert, it's the only place around that
I've been told it sells sub songic twenty two rounds.
So if you're like in the woods, so I feel
like in the woods, but like you don't want to
like scare your neighbors because the woods aren't bad. Big Yeah.
I used to have some friends and I used to
go shooting in a suburban neighborhood with two because it's

(16:19):
don't don't do that, Definitely it was there was it
was legal a right Canada, doesn't I do not. I
don't endorse them. You might have might have to cut
this part out for regional sharing. Go leave this all late,
just a bunch of words, make it nonsense with bleeping

(16:41):
please continue. Yeah, so only fifteen trucks were counted by
CBC at that point. Um and like videos and stuff
have been right, Yeah, yeah, there might be a couple
dozen slightly short. But I think by the time brobby Saturday,
I think there's a decent chance that there might be
maybe around fifty trucks to a hundred trucks. If there's

(17:04):
anything more than like five hundred, all of the media
footage will look like there's fifty that's enough trucks, Like
nobody's cameras going to be able to show the extent
of them realistically. And then yeah, once they're there, it's
unclear what they want to do. Some people just want
to do the function up thing. Some people want to
carry on the tradition of like what the most of
the anti like VACS anti mask protests in Canada been,

(17:27):
which have been pretty big, But it's been, it's been,
it's been mostly standing with signs. Um, so it is
it is? It? It is really unclear because again, most
of the truckers in Canada probably are not going to
be there nor to necessarily endorse this idea. Um Nor
is like right, because they're pressing the their their whole

(17:48):
initial issue is not even based on an actual like thing,
So it is I'm not sure how they people are
really gonna show up because I don't know even how
specific it is to an issue. UM one. One just
really interesting, funny, interesting thing that I thought about is
like with with some of these people UM, you know
talking about you know, going to Ottawa and not leaving
until the mandates are dropped with the entire government resigns.

(18:10):
Like these people who are talking about this like block
engine shortage and stuff are also like the same people
who get very angry and Indigenous people for blocking off
roads and trails um for like oil and like pipeline protests.
A lot of them, yeah, some of them. Some of
them are indulged in pretending and stuff like Pat King.
Back in September, Um kind of went on like a

(18:32):
kick where he just let a lot of people believe
he was indigenous and claimed someone not correct them that
is that is weird, And a family member of him
went on Facebook and like bombarded people with information that
he was not in fact indigenous, and it was all
very weird and a lot of people held them to
comments in the past where he talked about Anglo Saxon's

(18:54):
having the strongest bloodlines. Uh yeah, that is I think
Pat pat King he deserves his own little deep dive
on one of the pods. But but yeah, like it's
it is like with all the people talking about blockheads
and stuff all you most of them coming from like
the western side of Canada. Um it is it is
uh yeah, like you're you're talking about all these things,

(19:15):
and like there's really big pro oil sentiments and all
of the in all of this crowd because a lot
of it is connected to financial and political stuff, not
necessarily even this vaccine issue. It's been more like a
symbol to represent their general kind of upsettedness at the
way at the way things are going for them. It's

(19:36):
interesting to me. So when I first heard about this,
my I was I was like, oh, okay, so this
is gonna be like the Chilean truckers and I was like, Okay,
well this is really bad. But it's like it's interesting
to me, like how few people they've been able to mobilize,
Like that's like not a large number of truckers like that.
It's yeah, it looks like a lot of like vehicle

(20:00):
is when you when you see like footage photos and
videos like like in I'm gonna like a lot of
like Telegram and Facebook groups of just people just like
sharing pictures and photos of the rally of the convoy
passing through their town and like it's like what Robert said,
like it's here when it fills up both sides of
the camera and you have a wide depth of field,
it looks huge and it's it's really hard to count. Uh.

(20:23):
The money is preposterous. Also, saide note on on the
money um. The funds were frozen a few days ago
on the twenty five, but today one million dollars was
released back to them because they gave go fund me
a pretty clear plan allegedly according to go fund me
for for how they're gonna distribute it. The rest of
the it's it's I think it's like six point seven

(20:43):
million now, so the rest of the five point seven million,
I think it is still frozen. Okay, well it is.
It is, so it is so much money. Uh, yeah,
we should do something like that. They could They could
actually buy truck nuts for a hundred and fifty thousand truckers,
which is the most I've seen them. Guests, truckers are coming.
They could buy truck nets off Amazon for all of

(21:05):
them and still have the vast majority of their funds
left over. Yeah, but see that would be an act
of actual heroism and and they're not going to do that.
The reason why I wanted to talk about this is
one to like acknowledge that it's happening, right, acknowledge the
tactics that they're using in terms of trying to go
into an urban area and block off like trade routes essentially, um.

(21:26):
And then I wanted to talk about like, first of all,
it doesn't matter that like the fact that this is
happening is divorced from any kind of direct cause, right
because they're they're actual grievance is false and their grievance
doesn't really actually matter. It just needs there needed to
be some kind of cultural or propaganda push in order
for this physical action to happen. And that's been done.

(21:47):
It doesn't even need to be like coherent um. And
then escalation people driving here doing this thing. And then
I know there was this one interview UM I forgot
on what news channel. But they interviewed this one trucker
guy part of a part of this part of this
convey in my hometown of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Um and he's

(22:08):
he said, um, I advocate civil war. If people don't
want to step up, we have guns, will have some
we'll stand up and we'll bring them out. But like
so that's the quotes, like in the fact that you're
just openly saying I advocate civil war in relation to
this movement is like my goals. My goal here is
being like people fantasize about Canada as being a place

(22:30):
to escape, you know, like Canada is like the other
from the States, and like, no, it's the same, like
we are like where you cannot escape away from fascism.
There is no really there's no real away right now
in terms of there's no safe ground. It can spread
to where you are and for people living in Canada.
When you have people on the news on like Global

(22:50):
News saying I advocate civil war within the context of
this of this like, um, you know, convoy movement, it
is it is an actual thing of pay attention to.
It is an actual problem. It's it's huge and earlier
today and I might pronounce his name on but Dale
MANUK doc from CBC Toronto tweeted a story because he

(23:12):
on behalf of CBC contacted an actual organizer of the convoy.
They have different regional organizers and and their website list
them all um and it had pack King funny side done.
It had pack King listed as an organizer while they're
go fund me had a statement saying they had no
connection to him, which was very funny. But yeah, so
CBC Toronto pack contacted them and the guy responded enough

(23:36):
lies you quote slate blooded trader, evil will get its
due in the end and after a little yeah after
yeah after it back, yeah, after it, back and forth,
very brief back and forth. Uh and just like a
couple of questions. Uh. The organizer ended with, you know,
you toe the line for the global corporate coup taking

(23:58):
place under the guys of public health. You can't be
that dumb traders will swing in time, Oh boy. Yeah.
I do think Americans don't fully understand how much the

(24:19):
anti vax movement is tied too far right politics with
it in Canada and it's like been like the driving
force of far right politics for the past two years
and it's gotten so much larger. Um, it is like
it is, it is. It is a thing like when
when you have when you have people on camera saying
we want to January six, I advocate a civil war,

(24:39):
talking about not leaving until the government either resigns or
mandates are dropped, and then threatening physical violence on top
of that. Um yeah, like it's it is. It is
a thing that could happen there, And that's kind of
why I wanted to talk about it is like yeah,
when I have my mother calling me dozens of messages
from random people like we're about this, then yeah, it

(25:01):
is an issue like, um, it's it's it's not it's
not not a thing, No, it it is. And the
rhetoric is so universal against anyone they perceived to be
leftist too, that it is really dangerous. Like there's been
a little bit of talk of like counters in Ottawa. Um,

(25:23):
when the numbers are this big, like there's no safe
weight for people to to stop that sort of thing,
especially when all all the vehicles are in that side.
Like it's a it's dangerous. There's a lot of violent stuff.
Um even uh, like I was looking today the People's
Party of Canada's they got like five percent of votes
in our last selection. They had a little bit of

(25:44):
a scandal during our election, which is at the end
of last year. UM, where a writing director for I
think it's uh, it's the great area of London. It
is elegant Middle six London. Uh. So they're they're writing
directors and not their member of parliament writing. Um was

(26:05):
revealed to uh post like sculpt mask not tea memes
and memes comparing Bernier, the leader of his own party,
to Hitlert so like probably not a negative comparison, Um.
And he was not fired for it, but he was
fired after it came out that he was being charged
for throwing rocks at our prime minister. Yeah, he actually rely,

(26:27):
he recently said on a live stream. He was asked
he was currently on trial, and he said, yeah, I
mean as far as I know, Like he's been posting
images of like trucks running people over and that's just
like one connection to h to the legitimacy of it all. Um,
Like you, I mean the plat army guys, the ones
who talked about driving the truck sixteen feet, they're also

(26:51):
connected with Bernier. They've had Randy Hillier on their podcast before,
who's a sitting politician and a member of provincial parliament,
which is kind of like our States Center equivalent over here.
UM They've they've had him on and like there's some
like legitimacy to it getting on and when you just
talk about the broad movement in general. Former UM Conservative

(27:14):
Party of Canada leader Andrew Shear, who had kind of
a rocky departure from the party because he alleged leaves
campaign funds to pay for his kids to private school
side not like he had already signed on and endorsed
and been interviewed. Erin O'Toole, the current leader of the
of the Conservative Party AH just today actually uh said

(27:39):
he was going to engage with them. Earlier this evening,
Sergeant in Arms Packers McDonald sent an email to our
parliamentarians ahead of Saturday's trucker convoy protests and quoting Justin
links Twitter here, there have been attempts to collect MPs
home addresses as such, the Sergeant at arms as advising
to avoid the rally and go somewhere safe. That apparently
wasn't listened to Erin O'Toole, who said, I do it anyways,

(28:04):
and Justin Link tweeted later tomorrow, I will be meeting
with truckers to announces right after Parliamentary Security warned MP
used to avoid the protests entirely. So it's not great. Yeah,
I mean again, this will probably come out after Saturday,
So if we don't talk about this again, then that
means probably it's good. I mean, they showed up, they protest,

(28:25):
and they kind of justicipated if we're following this up
in a few days with another episode, that would be
something bad happen. But again, even even at this point,
it is still worth talking about in terms of like
the generally like this is like the kind of like
the net of why this is so important for everybody
is what you were saying about, Like, when you've got

(28:46):
this many people, this many trucks coming from an outside
and moving into a city, there's very little that can
be done against them. Um, Like, there's not there's not
really much of an effective counter other than trying to
get another massive people in cars to confront them, and that's, um,
you know, a potentially dicey situation. So this remains a
very powerful tactic. We've seen it used all over the

(29:08):
United States too, like and it's this idea of like
blockading a city. Even though this is kind of the
earliest step in taking that is this is gonna be
the last time people try to extend to this logic. Yeah,
So that's that's kind of the surrounding cultural reasons and
shifts and rhetoric and like applicable nous as like an

(29:30):
act of like an act of like protest or like
like revolt or insurgency, whatever whatever you want to use.
Is there's interesting because like a lot of these other
interesting thing about the States compared to Canada is like
the States we have like we have like an actual
like far right movement, like we have like we have
like conservatives, when then we have like the far right
movement in Canada. That that distinction is not much of

(29:52):
a thing. A lot of a lot of there is.
There is some far right figures trying to push stuff forward, absolutely,
but a lot of like the space in between conservative
far right is kind of a little bit more fluid.
A lot of these people who are showing up are
not like far right protesters, they are kind of regular conservatives,

(30:13):
but they're still getting sucked into saying I advocate a
civil war, like that is just a regular conservative dude.
He's not a member of any kind of political thing.
He's It's like, it's that is just that is just
kind of what this culture on the western side of
Canada really really like a kind of defaults to almost
when when you start going into this kind of like
anti Trudeau territory, because that's the their their their main

(30:36):
their main politics is anti Trudeau. Like that is that
is what they are. So anything that gets to that
point is allowed, whether that is conservative or that is
like more far right, as long as it's anti Trudeau,
then it's it is a valid politic And that's not
distinction in the state. That that's a thing into Canada
that I don't really see as much in the States.
It's very familiar to me when you talk about how

(30:57):
anti Clinton is um fed into Trump is um like
that that is I think a worthwhile comparison to me,
because there were a lot of American conservatives who could
get in bed with anybody if they were staying against
Hillary or Bill um cool stuff. Well, this is all fun.
I hope to not talk with you about this again, Um,

(31:19):
but there is a chance, there is a chance people
have conversations Um, if you wouldn't want to after after
episode airs, if people want to see what happened, right
because this this air is probably Monday, um, and the
convoys set to arrive on Saturday. Where can they find
work talking about that? Soether that be like your Twitter
feed or um if you know if any articles are planned? Yeah,

(31:41):
so I'm planning on live tweeting. Um. I can't make
any promises because safety is always a thing and I
won't to know what it looks like until Saturday happens.
But I'm planning on live tweeting. My Twitter is at
spineless L. That's the word spineless and then just the
letter L. So yeah, you can check in on his

(32:03):
account to see if he has a thread by the
time this episodes out. Um, And yeah that's how That's
how you can kind of figure out what happened if
you're just listening to this now and then in the
meantime there'll be a lot of Ottawa media covering it
if you just want to see the fallout. I imagine
the Canadian Anti New Work might talk about it more.
They put an article today on it that that covers

(32:24):
more of the kind of problems that the far right
that we talked about today than the most other media
will go into they did. Uh, that was a very
good article. And then also today um I Elon Musk
tweeted in support of the Canadian truckers. So just in
terms of let's just as as a good example, I
think this situation is a really great way to start

(32:44):
thinking about politics and culture UM and how they relate
to each other, and how this type of thing succeeds
and how it succeeds UM and why this rhetoric is
so successful in bringing in so many people in Canada
and raising six million dollars almost seven million dollars. But anyway,
that is that is the show. One more plug dance,

(33:05):
so people know where to find you. Uh, I only
really am active on Twitter, so again it's at spineless LU.
The word spineless is then I don't have a spine.
And then the letter L on Twitter, thank you plug
your Getter account. You're getting wow yeah, real real get

(33:28):
her user vibes coming off of Dan the only social
media platform that Joe Rogan looked at and said, Robert's
just trying to get me to plug my sock puppet accounts. Yeah, everyone,
this is fucking off. You could follow all my sock

(33:49):
puppets at Fascist Wizard dot c a of anyway that
is uh that that doesn't for our show. Thank you
for listening, and yeah convoys Canada can't can't escape bad excellent.
Thank you for having me. It Could Happen Here is

(34:12):
a production of cool Zone Media. Or more podcasts from
cool Zone Media, visit our website cool zone media dot com,
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