In America, meanwhile, an estimated 50 to 60 percent of truckers are vaccinated. With vaccination rates so much lower than among Canadian truckers, why hasn’t the cross-border vaccine mandate been a bigger deal for American truckers? One reason: Exports to the United States represent a larger share of Canada’s near-border trucking than do U.S. exports to Canada. Another reason: American truckers who don’t like the vaccine mandate for cross-border trucking can usually take other jobs within the United States. If you work for a company that sends you across the border, your beef is with your company, not with the vaccine mandate. And if you are among the 10 percent of truckers who are independent owner-operators, you generally don’t have to go to Canada.
(That said, it’s not like the Freedom Convoy has made no splash at all in the United States. Many American conservatives and anti-vax types are cheering on the Freedom Convoy and donating money to help the protests. The donations themselves became a cause du jour of conservative victimhood last week, with Republican Attorneys General from Florida, Texas, West Virginia and Missouri “investigating” GoFundMe for refusing to serve as an intermediary for funding to the convoy because it would aid those breaking the law. With GoFundMe out, supporters went to GiveSendGo, which vowed to defy a court order prohibiting aiding the protest. About half of the money donated to the Freedom Convoy folks came from Americans.)
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