Canadian Trucker Convoy - Why?

Observing from Australia what’s happening in the Northern Hemisphere is rather intriguing. It is also rather scary. These are unprecedented times.

I came across a video of Canadian truckers. The Convoy now blockading much of Canada. From Alberta to Saskatchewan and Ottawa.

Why would people do this? Shut down entire cities? We have all been under pressure dealing with a global pandemic, but the grievance seems to be the mandating of vaccines for these people. I am writing now as someone who is up to date with my vaccines, having taken the required vaccines.

I think it starts with the politicians. Politicians talk a lot and don’t always say what they mean. Many times, what they say and what they mean are completely different. They leave quite a lot open to interpretation and they try to hedge their bets. This way, they can change the meaning when confronted later. They try to give themselves what I call ‘wiggle room.’

While driving to work, I listen to a current affairs type radio station. This morning was a case in point where a politician was being questioned by a radio personality.

The background is that someone in the media received leaked text messages. This person from the media questioned the Prime Minister about them. Asking him if he knew that his subordinates had described him as a ‘psycho’.

This morning I listened to the DJ question the politician suspected of leaking the text messages.

The text messages were insulting the leadership of his own party, and the leader of the nation. They suspected him of sending these derogatory messages to a state leader, and the way he answered the questions speaks volumes.

Radio Personality (DJ): “Did you send text messages describing the prime minister as a ‘psycho’? ”

Politician: “I do not recall such messages and I have checked back and cannot find that I sent any such messages.”

Now this is how this politician tries to give himself that ‘wiggle room’ he needs. He doesn’t flatly deny that he sent the messages, he speaks of not being able to recall such messages, that he had to ‘check back’ through his old messages.

Surely we would know if we sent such a message about someone? This irks us all about politicians. They answer no question clearly. That he had to ‘check back’ means that perhaps he had other messages with a similar theme.

Radio Personality: “Were you the source that leaked these text messages to the media?”

Politician: “I do not believe I was.”

Rather than say “I did not leak the text messages to the media,” he has to add in ‘I do not believe.’

After the show, the radio personality (DJ) did a poll of the people and by far most of the people calling in felt that the politician was lying.

Politics is a dirty game of smear campaigns and it is in this cess pool of backstabbing that our leaders operate. Leaders who say what they mean, and mean what they say, are few and far between.

None of us can keep all the people happy all the time. Can you imagine running a country in a pandemic, how difficult it must be to manage the population? You want them to do what is best for them and their community, but you need to balance this with not forcing people into something, or else you will receive push back. Human nature tells us we can lead people for miles but we cannot push them an inch.

When you have a continually developing virus that is unprecedented, it just adds complexity to the conundrum. How do you motivate people to do what is right, but also tell the truth about what you know when you don’t know the full truth at the time? The truth has a lag effect, it appears later. The old saying always applies a lie has been around the world three times before the truth has put on it’s running shoes.

How do you keep people safe and ask them to do something to their bodies, when you have information wars taking place? This is the first generation that is questioning everything and anything because of the proliferation of views and information. Also, this is the first generation dealing with a proliferation of misinformation.

What happened here in Australia that people here are against is the fact that political leaders made statements that turned out to be false as we learned more. Now this is difficult because, as a voting public, we have the luxury of hindsight. Politicians are deciding on the spot during a pandemic. But the voting public is very unforgiving and holds the leaders to superman standards. Particularly when leaders are asking people to sacrifice their ways of life or put them on hold. We are addicted to our autonomy.

We need to remember the leaders are human, but in the same breath let me say the leaders need to remember too, that they are human.

Then imagine you have a voter base looking for action against this highly infectious disease, and the media keeping this disease top of mind. This is a recipe for a seething anger, as people make sacrifices. Two years in and the pot is boiling over.

Enter the Canadian trucker convoy. I hope this all get’s resolved soon and we get back to just living and providing for our families, but it is intriguing to see this play out.

I think the Canadian truck convoy is the venting of frustration that has built up over two years. I am sure we all feel it. Some have just suffered more than others, no doubt.

When I place myself in the shoes of a public servant, I get a sense of the pressure that they are under. But there is another side to the coin, the people who have lost jobs and now have nothing to lose, they too are under severe pressure. People employed by the government did not lose their jobs.

I think the most dangerous situation is to have many people who have nothing to lose with pent up anger coming together. I remember once hearing that line in a movie. ‘Nothing is more dangerous than a man with nothing to lose.’ In the movie's context, the person had lost everything and had lost the fear of dying, and that is really scary.

I am not saying that is the case with the Canadian Truckers, but they are not happy and there are many of them, and they are prepared to fight. I hope it resolves itself quickly and that good and deep dialogues are forthcoming. Anarchy and shutting down cities is never good, but some would argue that sometimes they are necessary.

Let me know your thoughts. Can you see both perspectives?

Should politicians just be more honest about what they know rather than lose credibility by making promises they cannot keep?