The Truckers Head to D.C.

Canadian officials might have successfully disbanded the “Freedom Convoy” protest in Ottawa, but that doesn’t mean the protest is over. In fact, it could be making its way to a city near you, right here in the United States.

Thousands of U.S. truckers inspired by the Canadian Freedom Convoy are planning to travel across the country toward Washington, D.C., in protest of continued COVID-19 restrictions and mandates. The protest, called “The People’s Convoy,” is scheduled to depart from Adelanto Stadium in California on Feb. 23. It will then make its way across Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, head up toward Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, and then come down toward Maryland and D.C.

“To our brave and courageous neighbors to the North — our Canadian brothers and sisters who led the charge — we join your call to Freedom,” the group said in a statement on its website.

It’s unclear just how many truckers are planning to join the protest. But as of mid-February, the convoy’s Facebook page had more than 130,000 members.

“The people are prepared to see this challenge through — as we have seen through all challenges to our freedom in the past. And we will prevail and prosper,” the group wrote.

Unsurprisingly, Democratic officials in D.C. have responded to the planned protest with cryptic warnings and another fence around the U.S. Capitol grounds — just in case truckers decide to storm President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address or something.

But the truckers said they have no intention of even entering the district. They’d rather shut down the freeways surrounding it like a “giant boa constrictor,” according to Bob Bolus, one of the protest’s organizers, and hope that the pressure is enough to convince the Biden administration to end all remaining federal COVID-19 regulations, one of which requires truck drivers crossing international borders with Canada and Mexico to provide proof of vaccination against the virus.

There’s reason to believe this strategy will work. After all, most Democrats are just looking for an excuse to be done with the pandemic and all of its rules, especially with the midterm elections coming up, and this might very well be it..

Businessman Bob Bolus talks on his phone outside his business in Throop, Pennsylvania, before driving his truck on a “Freedom Convoy” from Scranton to Washington, D.C., on Feb. 23.