To the editor,
Should we stop calling the protesters in Ottawa “truckers” and instead call them “small business owners whose offices happen to be mobile and that therefore can be driven to the nation’s capital?”
I was surprised on Saturday, Jan. 29 when I took photos for the Times of a convoy of local residents done in support of the “Freedom Convoy” in Ottawa.
What surprised me the most was who was taking part. Many of the participants were people I had known for decades and who I knew to be intelligent.
To me, the federal requirement that truckers crossing the Canada/U.S. border must be vaccinated seems perfectly reasonable. However, to the hundreds of people taking part in the local protest, it was the last straw. Obviously, I was missing something.
Thinking about the familiar faces I saw at the local convoy I realized many had one thing in common – small business. Most of the truckers present were owner-operators. Other participants were retailers or had home-based businesses. Some were employees of small businesses.
The COVID-19 pandemic has been catastrophic for small businesses in Canada. The workers got their CERB benefits and many of the big corporations have made record profits over the past two years. However, when small businesses were told to shut down, they had no money coming in but their rents, taxes, interest payments and other expenses kept going out.
Yes, there are federal and provincial programs available to small businesses to help cushion the shock. There also are multiple horror stories in the news media about small businesses falling through the cracks and not getting any aid, or not getting enough and too late.
If government policies are driving you into bankruptcy and someone comes along who says the policies are wrong, you’re inclined to believe that person, even if what is being said doesn’t seem logical or based on science to someone with a different perspective.
The blockades and other tactics being used are creating a backlash that could result in outcomes that are the opposite of what most participants desire. What are the alternatives?
The best advocate for small business that I know of is Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB). Founded in 1971, CFIB now represents over 110,000 small- and medium-sized enterprises. Working with CFIB is not so noisy as a convoy but it’s more likely to get the outcomes wanted by small business owners negatively affected by COVID policies.
Keith McNeill,
Clearwater, B.C.
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