Drive to Freedom: Albertans Convoy to End the Lockdowns

Albertans love a good convoy, and on Saturday it was time to send Premier Jason Kenney a message: end the lockdowns and restore freedom. Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines!

It all started on a dirt road outside of Didsbury, Alberta to avoid the prying eyes of Jason Kenney’s lockdown enforcers — the RCMP.  At first a few arrived, then more. Signs, flags, and car stickers decorated the vehicles, and then it was time to roll.

The plan was to move through Didsbury, then drive south to Carstairs and finally loop around northwards to Olds. Along the way, many other Albertans jumped in their vehicles and joined in. Soon the convoy stretched across a huge length of the rural roads and highways.  Each time the convoy passed through a town there were waves and honks of approval coming from locals, who clearly endorsed the freedom convoy.

The convoy passed one police car, and the officer quite noticeably averted their gaze and kept on driving.  Unlike in Mirror, Alberta the previous week, when there was a massive police presence to intimidate people at the Whistlestop Cafe protest, the lone officer pressed down on their gas pedal and sped away in the opposite direction.

As the convoy pulled into its final destination in Olds, the National Telegraph spoke to Mountainview Freedom organizers who told us:

We need less government and more personal freedoms…. I don’t think that when people voted in our last election that they could have even fathomed what is happening today. We don’t recognize our country today. It’s not what Alberta is all about, and Kenney, if you hear me, you need to stop what you are doing right now. You need to resign.

Talking to participants, it was clear there was no love lost for Jason Kenney’s UCP government and the path of heavy Covid-19 restrictions they had chosen. Speaking about local Olds – Didsbury – Three Hills UCP MLA Nathan Cooper, one former-supporter stated:

We need to have a voice. That’s what we elected him for. We supported him. We gave him money to be our voice.  Silence is not a voice. We need somebody who is willing to speak up for the people, for freedom.

Whole families joined in for the convoy, and it was obvious that many feel Canada is turning into a police state where their future is now under threat:

As the Alberta Premier continues to tighten the vice on Albertans, what will happen? Now that the UCP government is kicking MLAs out of its own caucus for being critical of Kenney’s lockdown mandates, it’s hard to imagine they will soon change their direction.  So, more protests and convoys could be right around the corner, all across Alberta.