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Truckers in the Central Okanagan offer thoughts on Ottawa protest

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Truckers in the Central Okanagan offer thoughts on Ottawa protest
Truckers in the Central Okanagan offer thoughts on Ottawa protest – Feb 1, 2022

Truck drivers refuelling their rigs offered their thoughts on the ongoing anti-mandate protest taking place in Ottawa over the last few days.

On Saturday, thousands of protesters were in Ottawa, as well as hundreds of transport trucks that have seemingly shut down much of Ottawa’s downtown core to this day.

“I agree with them protesting. I don’t understand the Nazi flags and the extreme stuff but I think they should be able to protest,” said Boyd Vandersluis, an Alberta trucker taking a break in Kelowna.

“I’m 110 per cent behind it; it’s time to get back to normal, get things back going, get the economy back going,” said Dave Haworth, an Okanagan trucker.

“Everyone should take the precautions they need to with their health situations but we need to get back to normal here.”

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One local trucker said he thinks the protest is misguided and that there are bigger problems in the Canadian trucker industry than protesting vaccination mandates.

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“I don’t agree with it. I don’t support it, unfortunately. There’s a lot more bigger issues in the industry then what they are trying to fight for and claiming, ‘We are losing freedoms,'” said Petko Ganachev, an Okanagan trucker.

“There is lots of work to be done without being vaccinated. There’s no company that has 100 per cent of their work cross border. If you don’t want to get vaccinated, there’s plenty of work to be done in Canada,”

Local support was shown for the truckers in downtown Kelowna on Saturday during a similar rally. Hundreds gathered at Stuart Park across from city hall.

A ‘mini convoy’ of big rigs and personal vehicles also made its way from Vernon to the U.S. border near Osoyoos.

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