The world’s richest man has tweeted in favor of the Canadian trucker freedom convoy. Tesla founder Elon Musk took to Twitter last week to throw his support behind a Canadian truck convoy that began in Western Canada and concluded in the Canadian capital of Ottawa over the weekend.
The massive caravan of truckers descended on Ottawa’s Parliament Hill to protest Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s vaccine mandate for truckers transporting goods between Canada and the United States.
Musk tweeted his support for the freedom convoy when he wrote, “Canadian truckers rule.”
The BBC reported, “The convoy began as a call to end a vaccine mandate imposed by the federal government on 15 January that would require unvaccinated Canadian truckers returning from across the US border to quarantine once they return home. But it has since grown into a push to end all vaccine mandates nationwide and what supporters see as government overreach of Covid-19 restrictions.”
Musk’s Twitter account has strayed into more political content over the years, including famously when he referred to taking the red pill (a reference to the iconic Matrix film franchise) which was interpreted as a critique of the political left.
As for the Canadian truckers, the trucking industry is fighting back against Trudeau’s government trucker vaccine mandate which threatens the flow of goods ranging from food to auto parts between the world’s two largest trading partners, which would exacerbate an already strained supply chain crisis.
According to Stephen Laskowski, president of the Canadian Trucking Alliance, the country is already 23,000 drivers short of what is needed to meet economic demand.
Also, 70 percent of cross-border trade is carried on trucks, and if the vaccine mandates persist, this could lead to higher prices paid by consumers.
In addition to Elon Musk, the freedom convoy has the support of the leader of Canada’s Alberta province.
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said, “This policy I don’t think makes any compelling public health sense, but it will worsen what we know is a growing supply chain issue.”
He added, “The decision to require unvaccinated truckers to quarantine after they cross the border has basically taken thousands of long-haul truckers out of the cross-border transportation logistics system.”
Although the crowd of freedom convoy demonstrators thinned out by the end of the weekend, a sizeable portion has vowed to remain in Ottawa until their demands are met. Now, a similar freedom convoy of truckers is in the works for the United States.