Hatters to join in truck convoy to Ottawa
Ken Goldade says it’s time to do more than sit around and complain
At least two trucks from Medicine Hat will join a convoy of work trucks headed to Ottawa to protest the federal government's handling of pipeline development, carbon pricing and a host of other issues.
Ken Goldade, the head of DD2 Oilfield, says he's putting a winch truck into the effort as well as a flat bed and camper trailer for use by one employee and two others who will join the journey when the United we Roll! Convoy for Canada! passes though town on Thursday.
“The biggest thing is to be part of something, because there's no use sitting around complaining,” said Goldade on Tuesday.
“You have to get up and do something, and voice frustration with what's happening.”
What's happening, he says, is disastrous policy in Ottawa harming the economy, blocking new markets.
That's the focus for organizers, who have attempted to focus the effort on economic issues, rather than on migration, citizenship or voting requirements — causes of self-described Canadian Yellow Vest protestors, who had planned similar rallies.
Goldade, himself, claims globalism and United Nations refugee policy is a major concern — a sign on one truck proclaims that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should be tried for treason.
“The end goal is basically that we'll prove people can pull together as a whole group — people east and west — that's upset with the current government, how the economy is being operated right now,” said
“We'd like to get rid of Trudeau and his cronies.”
Goldade said 250 heavy trucks are expected, but the number of pick-ups could be 500, he estimated, and he hopes momentum will be gained along the longer than 3,600-kilometre journey.
The event will begin in Red Deer on Thursday morning and is expected to arrive in Medicine Hat between 1:30 and 2 p.m.
The first day will end when trucks reach Regina that night, then Kenora, Ont. on Saturday, and the Ottawa outskirts on Sunday prior to a rally on Parliament Hill on Monday.
The idea of a rally running to the national capital has been in the works since MidDecember.
Just before Christmas in Medicine Hat, about 400 trucks took part in a drive from Redcliff to the weigh scales in Dunmore and back through town. That parade of equipment was accompanied by a rally in support at a shopping complex near the TransCanada Highway overpass at Dunmore Road.
There's no well-known plan for onlookers to gather as trucks arrive and depart here on Thursday, but Goldade said some people he knows are attempting to put something together.