What were the general public's opinion of the protests?

Also how 'dangerous' was the convoy perceived to be?

Were the actions of the Government deemed to be overreach?

The protests lasted quite a long time and I think the public's opinion on it changed over time.

At the beginning, most left-wing/centrist sorts of people saw it as an annoyance, but Ottawa is used to protests. Within the first week or so, people were bringing their kids to the event

After the first week or so (again, going by memory here), I think the general perception of danger started increasing dramatically. Most of the kids were gone, replaced my angry men with nothing better to do. In hindsight, nothing happened during the occupation, but given the overlap with the sorts of people who own guns (remember, the border blockade in Alberta at the same time did see people with guns), I think people were legitimately scared. The police certainly were too scared to do anything!

There was also a scare at the time at an apartment building in Centretown where someone tried to barricade the doors and light it on fire. This happened during the convoy, and while nothing happened and it seems it may have been unrelated mischief, we can only say that in hindsight. At the time it was very scary. There was another incident where truckers were showing up at a local school and yelling at people.

I think most people supported the Trudeau government in putting an end to it with the Emergencies Act, which later was found to be unconstitutional. It was pretty popular at the time. The general perception was that the federal government was doing what the provincial government (despite what Doug Ford thinks, Ottawa is actually in Ontario!) should have done weeks ago.

Thanks for replying. As a non-Canadian, your response has been more informative than the weeks I spent reading Twitter trying to figure out what was happening.

As a Canadian I can say that most people I know have opinions about the protests and the government's response, but that whole affair is about 1,000th on the list of grievances we have with our current federal government.

It's a strangely American abstraction to focus on this as the animating issue around Trudeau's government and does not reflect Canadian reality on the ground.

How bad were the covid restrictions in Canada that the truckers were complaining about in 2022? By 2022 most of the world had gone back to normal business-as-usual. Why were they even protesting? As an outsider looking in, it seemed like a mix of ignorance, propaganda, and stupidity made them do it.

This isn't true. At the time the US required proof of vaccination at the border too: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/us-vaccine-mandate-frei...

This was implemented in October 2021 and wasn't removed AFAIK until May of 2023: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases...

How are Canadians occupying Canadian cities supposed to lift US restrictions? They can't, that's how. Again, it's stupidity, ignorance, and probably some propaganda/misinformation that spurred them on.

"How are Canadians occupying Canadian cities supposed to lift US restrictions?:"

They can protest (which they did) and Justin Trudeau could have picked up the phone and call Biden and ask to remove the restriction, which at that time of the pandemic was completely useless. Instead, Justin Trudeau played politics, he figured it was much better for him to divide the population on the issue than actually work with its biggest trade partner to remove the restriction.

Thing is that Canada already had the mandate delayed once by request to the US prior to it coming into effect, I believe it was 6 months delayed already.

The level of vitriol reserved for Trudeau on this topic is strange, considering it was US-driven policy.

Also strange considering the vast majority of "vaccine mandate" policy in Canada was provincial in jurisdiction, and the federal gov't only had control over ports and borders, so really didn't do much on the "mandate" file outside of that.

The reality is that this convoy was targeted for Ottawa and the Canadian govt because that govt was seen as weak and more easily undermined. The chief organizers are far right radicals whose previous involvements had been around protesting climate change initiatives and in favour of the oil and gas sector ("yellow vest" convoy in favour of pipelines and stuff)

The same kinds of protests done on the US side would have been met with far more severe consequences.

Without looking up the specifics, by the time of the convoy, the vast majority of covid restrictions were gone. They liked to complain about vaccine passports, which Canada had, but by 2022 the vaccine passports were gone everywhere except the US border, by the request of the US government. So, from the outside, these guys were protesting and occupying Ottawa over actions of the US government. On the other hand, these guys don't really like being talked down to no matter what the elites say the real problem is. It started as a protest against vaccine passports but really turned into a ragefest against the establishment.

It's important to note that some of the key people who were behind these protests were not truckers, but were involved in earlier attempts at mass protest in Ottawa as part of the 'yellow vests' group from 2019

What is your opinion of Kraft Dinner?

Is KD unhealthy slop or delicious, and how do you feel about adding hot dogs or other toppings?

Now we're getting into the real meat of the questions. I love Kraft Dinner, in a somewhat ironic way. The best way to eat it is to add hot dog slices while cooking the pasta, then top it with ketchup. You can also have it with hot dogs and beans on the side (as my dad would call it, "beans and wieners and Kraft Dinner") It sounds disgusting, but its comfort food. Not sure if I would like it if I hadn't grown up eating it.

It might be an English Canadian thing. My partner is French Canadian and thinks its disgusting.

Interesting, had no idea they didn't do the KD in QC. Now this is a divide I did not think we had between the two solitudes.

It actually is disgusting, but you and I know it's that good kind of disgusting.

Now ... ketchup on KD... this i cannot let stand