First of all, it is no accident that this very well-planned in advance, organized, and financed action began in the west, which is the entry point for all trade coming into Canada from Asia. The Canadian western provinces: British Columbia, north and east of Vancouver; Alberta, the oil province; Saskatchewan, the wheat producer; and Manitoba, run by big mining interests, have a political economy and culture very similar to the deep-red pro-Trump mountain and plains states of the U.S. There is a strong presence of neo-Nazis, white supremacists, climate change deniers, evangelicals, anti-science fanatics and others. There are also elements of a far-right western separatist party, like those in the southern and western U.S. who want to separate from the national state.

An important aspect of the action was, and to some extent still is, the reaction of the media, both the private CTV television and the public CBC television and radio. They continually interview these “truckers,” who give the same coached and canned answers, not realizing that these are being coached and told by their handlers and organizers on what to say. A counter-protest, organized by masked people in support of public health workers, got only 15 seconds on the CTV.

Another aspect is the pitiful and weak response by the prime minister, Justin Trudeau. He initially said he disagreed with the protestors but insisted on upholding “the right of all Canadians to protest.” The leading opposition party, the “Conservatives,” who are slightly more to the center than the fascist U.S. Republicans, have been supporting this action, naively and stupidly thinking this is really about the economy and hoping to appeal to their Trump-like rural western base. The New Democratic Party, NDP, a mild social democrat party slightly to the left of the U.S. Democrats, has said nothing, much less organize their base to counter-protest. The same for the Canadian labor movement, of which all health care workers in Canada are members. There has also been almost no response from the medical profession or the scientific community in the face of this anti-public health and anti-science nonsense.

Some people in academia and in media circles, interviewed on CBC radio, are waking up to the fact that this is a Canadian version of the pro-Trump January 6 insurrection, or at least a dry run at attempting to change a future election and/or destabilize the current Trudeau Liberal government. Some have pointed the parallels to the truckers’ strike in Chile that led up to the Pinochet coup. The ties to the U.S. and international far-right fascists, as evidenced by the appearance of Nazi, Confederate and U.S. flags in the protest, are finally being noticed, and some are investigating their financial ties to fascists and reactionaries around the world who are watching this carefully.

In summary, Canada is an ideal soft target. Canada has a well-developed transportation system (90% of real Canadian truckers are vaccinated, as is almost 90% of the population generally), a weak national leader, a gullible and naive national media, a major party in complicity with the phony “truckers,” a “left” opposition party too afraid to mobilize its base in defense of public health and an equally weak and cowed labor movement. The situation is now becoming more critical for the U.S. and Canadian ruling classes—they are very much intertwined—as the protest now threatens key aspects of Canada-U.S. trade across the border, especially in the auto sector, vital to the economy of southern Ontario, Canada’s strongest economic region.

The police and military are now moving in to clear the bridge between Windsor and Detroit and some of the border crossings in the west. The ruling class moved in decisively when its economic interests became threatened. Nevertheless, fascist and reactionary forces around the world will draw lessons from this. Maybe even around today's Super Bowl.