Alberta truckers hit provincial roads to support compatriots in Ottawa

Jan 29, 2022 | 4:58 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB. — As a convoy of truckers from across Canada converged on Ottawa on Saturday (Jan 29), truckers around Alberta who couldn’t be there formed their own convoys in different areas of the province to support “Truckers for Freedom 2022”.

Many of the trucks were covered in messages and Canadian flags.

The RCMP posted travel advisories on Twitter, cautioning travellers about congested highways from Cardston south to the Carway border, from Disbury to Edmonton and Highway 60 and the Yellowhead heading into Edmonton. Where possible, the truckers kept to the outside lanes, so as not to impede regular traffic. However, there were intermittent incidents where trucks would slowly travel side-by-side on divided highways, increasing the congestion.

In Southern Alberta, a convoy left Lethbridge around 7:00-am, and was met along the way by other supporters from surrounding communities, as they headed along Highway-4 to the Coutts border crossing.

The atmosphere a short distance from the border was calm but, noisy, as trucks blared their horns. RCMP were in force at the border to insure there were no incidents and during late morning and early afternoon there were none. Border traffic was originally not impeded.

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Convoy near the Coutts border. (Video supplied by Jake Zacharias)

According to Global TV’s Liam Nixon, truckers originally planned to get as close to the border as they could and then began using side roads to drive loops around the area.

However, by 4:00-pm, RCMP released another tweet, indicating traffic should stay away from the Coutts border crossing completely. Traffic was not moving either northbound or southbound. RCMP and the Mayor of Coutts were concerned about the traffic congestion and the inability of emergency vehicles to gain access to highway-4.

Coutts border traffic — Jake Zacharias

It wasn’t possible to get an accurate count of people who showed up but, at least 1,000 vehicles were present.

by Dori Modney