Discussions

So in the interest of science(?), saw a video someone had posted that was just under an hour long of this passing by the area.  
 
A few observations…  
 
-would be hard pressed for there to be 500 vehicles passing over that time frame. Maybe it lasted even longer and some will point out there will be other groups, but remember… 227,000 truck drivers in Canada. Huge majority of which have no part in it.  
 
-In that I wasn’t sure if one was supposed to be including all of the regular everyday pickups out for a drive with the convoy with flags or trucks with campers but for benefit of the doubt I did. Wouldn’t be surprised if this made up close to half of the vehicles. Relatively speaking, a lot of pickups. Makes it hard to get a read for how many were the kind of truckers that the convoy implies. Suppose some might’ve been truck drivers taking their regular home vehicle out instead and some regular Trans Canada drivers, but it really contradicted the visual I had ahead of time of a protesting convoy of semis from industry rolling down the highway  
 
-have to assume some regular Trans Canada traffic flow mixed throughout. Feel for a regular everyday (probably vaccinated) trucker from the majority, already having to deal with the divisiveness of this, hauling their load as normal having to drive through that stretch and be confused for being part of group  
 
-statements of how long a convoy is appear to be open to misinterpretation. No shortage of fair-sized gaps where you’re asking yourself if that’s it and then you see another cluster come over the horizon  
 
-not that both lanes were jammed, but enough instances of vehicles in both lanes side by side. Not sure how passing would’ve worked for regular everyday driver wanting to get to Winnipeg but doubtful it was cut and dry. At least they were spread out enough that as long as everyone’s paying attention and respecting each other you can find a way?  
 
-couldn’t help but notice off and on a good share of semis on the other side of the highway going the Westbound direction… real fabric-of-Canadian-society drivers, at least 80% of which I’ll statistically assume were vaccinated, hauling the goods that we’re so thankful they do for us throughout the year. Easily dozens over the same timespan that this other group was on the opposite side doing its thing  
 
In all of this, I respect that in this country we have the freedom to peacefully protest. But when a comparatively small group tries to use a protest to imply they represent a wider population than they do and it’s on a literal life and death topic it’s important that that is also represented in wider discourse. Whether those participating are all cognizant of it or not, this type of thing has the function of trying to divide Canadians by pulling at the same threads that are really dividing the country to the South of us. Important to keep in perspective through this and anything similar in the future what Canadian is to you and that a vocal minority on factually shaky ground doesn’t change that.

I was referencing the comparable small amount of truckers relative to the 227,000 truck drivers in Canada since this is supposed to be a trucker protest and some are misleadingly describing this group interchangeably with truckers as a whole.  
 
If you want to have a wider conversation, by all means. 38,000,000 in Canada. 64,000 people. No doubt seeing some creep from USA hard right to boot. Small.  
 
More than 10x that amount (800,000) voted for the PPC last election. Not that this is PPC directly as much as there’s definitely crossover… but as an example of a comparably small group with outlier viewpoints where 800,000 supporters earned zero seats in parliament that represents a country of a much much larger 38M (or the interests of 37M+ others).  
 
I go on assumption this kind of overall mindset has dug in on 5-10% of folks across pretty much all walks. Hard to accept but sadly seems true and it’s a group that’s pretty dug in enough to really prod along a group think mindset on COVID topics that generally isn’t consistent with facts from experts. It's progressed over these past few months to the point where they seem to be disproportionately represented in social media comment areas because most reasonable, fact-oriented voices have given up. That social media dynamic I think serves to embolden.  
 
I think anyone who’s spent any time browsing comments below social media COVID news has a pretty good idea of the common talking points, but without spreading dangerous misleading misinformation please share with us how the various conversations go with your unvaccinated friends when you passionately tell them that:  
 
-Manitoba has a record 729 in the hospital, overwhelmingly the highest in Canada relative to population  
-that ICU yesterday was about 10 beds in use short of capacity  
-that stats show consistently from region to region that vaccines clearly and meaningfully reduce the hospitalization rate and especially ICU rate in a population  
-that public health and medical experts continually range from advising to pleading getting the vaccine as our best way forward not just individually but as a collective that looks out for each other.  
 
Reminder, facts and answers to common questions on vaccines can be found at:  
 
https://www.gov.mb.ca/covid19/vaccine/index.htm  
And  
https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/diseases/coronavirus-disease-covid-19/vaccines.html

I calls it like I sees it on the personal side.  
On the admin side, when it comes to misinformation I’ve been pretty consistent from day one in zero tolerance for damaging false or misleading information on the pandemic and vaccines. Theres no shortage of areas of the internet where that stuff shamefully hasn’t been properly dealt with. This isn’t one of them. Lots of room for good-faith debate. Bring facts. Debate the point, not the person.  Consider that misleading talking points oft circulated in confirmation bias circles on social media are better off left at home in a constructive, general conversation. Bring a willingness to answer real questions in stead of glazing over and onto the next talking point when real questions are asked. 

Sticking to the topic, what do you suppose it says about some of the more passionate protest sympathizers when so many are spending so much of their time running around social media trying to convince us that this is some big earth shifting protest? If it was that big and transformative and representative of that many people, wouldn’t that be self-evident?  
 
I'm no psychologist and I'm sure there will be a lot of well-informed textbook deeper dives to come on these years, but I’ll take a try.  

This to me for the most part appeals to a few kinds of folks...
 
1) those who have clung to outlier and generally factually shaky narratives on the virus and vaccines for the past two years, generally pushing back against public health advice. Their understanding of the pandemic has been largely fed by outlier YouTube videos, social media posts or smooth talking podcast hosts and others within their circle who have been outsized influenced by those sources. They feel quite marginalized for having real facts on this reiterated to them for two years and are looking for someone to tell them they’re right. The unvaxxed among them feel that much more marginalized by the consequences of their decisions re not being able to go to certain places that can’t take the extra risk right now in the name of public health.  
 
2) those who have watched the alt-rightish stuff that’s dug in in the country to the South, identified with it and hope to see something similar set in on this side of the border. Suspect outsized consumption of USA cable news over this past half dozen or so years.  
 
3) some who have done their part for much of the past two years, aren’t specifically connected to sources or people in their social circles that are in tune with all of the latest COVID factual developments and are just looking for someone (anyone) to tell them this whole mess is over.  
 
4) those who legit just want to see a vax policy in Canada and USA that allows unvaccinated truckers to cross the border  

No doubt plenty of shades of grey in between. 
Seems to be crossover in some cases between #1s and #2s  
 
Unfortunately there are many #3s that are susceptible to narratives that tell them what they want to hear without necessarily fully or factually vetting what’s in front of them. I'm sure that in so many cases it's not a calculated thing, but suspect that more than a few #1s intuitively know this and so the push is on to portray the protest as something bigger and more widely representative of a population than it actually is.  
 
#2s see this in part as an opportunity to get more mainstream exposure for the ideology that’s ripping the country to the South apart at the seams. Politically in that country it seems to have arguably led to some “success” depending on how you define success. Socially, ethically and position on world stage, tbd.  
 
I won’t go as far as saying pure #4s don’t exist, I’m sure they do…. but it’s hard to take so many seriously as soon as they start acting like that’s the only thing this convoy is about, avoid separating themselves from the extreme elements and the conspiracy theory type that this is clearly attracting plenty of and avoid any sensitivitities to the serious public health emergency we’ve been and continue to be in in this province (highest hospitalization rate in Canada and it isn’t even close).  
 
I can’t speak for wider society, but most of the folks we’re seeing jumping into this thread on one “side” of this have a decent history of currents of #1 or #2 in posting.  
 
It’s important that #3s who are perhaps a little more vulnerable right now have opportunity to see this for what it is. To know that COVID is not over, but that by continuing to follow public health advice and recommendations on the virus and vaccines it looks like there’s a very real chance for a new kind of normal on the other side of Omicron. As much as we do have to be prepared to adapt to any changes, if and when we get there there’ll be more excited folks than you can shake a stick at looking back on all of the things we did and persevered through to get through this slice of history that nobody will ever forget. But we need to get there with as many from this community and Province as possible!  
 
In a perfect world we hit this off at the pass and have all of 1, 2, 3 and 4 on team Canada… coming at it from the angle that we’re all just a bunch of happiness seekers and that most of these divisions do nothing to serve any of us.  
 
I’m of the opinion that a lot of #1s simply need someone else to talk to or a little help after what really has been a two years that none of us could’ve planned for. If someone in your circle meets this description please make sure they know about this link, which has some excellent direction toward resources in our very own province that can help one through a trying time:  
https://www.gov.mb.ca/covid19/bewell/index.html 

Can't lose sight of the human element in all of this and truly wishing every single person reading this happiness and health. I'd say that I'm personally as optimistic as I've been at what this looks like in the not too distant future after we do everything we can during this wave to limit the impact on community and province, but we aren't there yet. We all cheer for the same Team Canada on the ice and there's no reason we can't do it off the ice too (if enough time has passed since hockey analogies were perhaps overplayed to the point where they're kosher again) :)

Tweet below puts a little more context to convoy size and composition by the time it reached Thunder Bay at least. Looks like I wasn't that far off, but overshot the commercial-to-personal vehicle ratio: 

OPP report convoy that arrived THU in Thunder Bay from Winnipeg consisted of 113 commercial vehicles (trucks) and 276 personal vehicles (pickups, SUVs, cars). It was leaving ThBay at approx 0815 ET this morning and was planning to stick to Hwy 17 route all the way to the Soo.

— David Akin uD83CuDDE8uD83CuDDE6 (@davidakin) January 27, 2022

 
Again, 227,000 truck drivers in Canada. Being generous that there will be a few other collections of vehicles coming from other directions, this does not seem to contradict statements from trucking associations that this is not representative of the wider trucker population. 

Understand the core point you're making because it absolutely is frustrating to see extra impact on the health care system that shouldn't have to be there based on stats that show how much more disproportionately hospitalized (and in ICU) the unvaxxed are (including during the Omicron wave)...... but from other threads having gone there it in practicality won't work. There are a lot of passionate opinions on this, but personally I'd say that the health care system is there for people that need it and that especially in this case where there will sometimes be mental health concerns intertwined I wouldn't personally support a denial of care.  

Do still think that what Quebec was floating re an objectively calculated extra tax to cover extra costs associated with scaling up the system to pay for that extra demand did make some sense. Not knowledgable enough on the admin or legal side to know how practical it would actually be to implement and I dont think(?) Quebec has gotten anywhere further with it but the core thought definitely caught my attention.