Plain Talk: Sen. Kevin Cramer talks Canadian trucker protests, trucking regulations, and the Chinese Olympics

MINOT, N.D. — What started as a small protest of truckers upset about the Canadian government’s vaccine mandates has turned into a full-on international movement. Now demonstrators have blocked multiple crossings between the United States and Canada, and it’s having a deleterious impact on commerce between our nations at a time when we hardly need it.

Not one of us needs prices to go any higher, do we?

On this episode of Plain Talk, Sen. Kevin Cramer talks about the protests, why they’re happening, and how they could be stopped.

“What they’re asking for is so simple,” Cramer said, noting that all the Canadian government would have to do to end the demonstrations is lift the mandate.

He’s got a point. Over 251 million Americans, or about 87.4% of adults, have at least one shot of the COVID-19 vaccine. In Canada, 88.3% of citizens over the age of 5 have been vaccinated. Among the truckers, about 90% of those who regularly cross the border are vaccinated according to the Canadian Trucking Alliance.

Is this really still about public health? Or is it about different factions with entrenched positions being unwilling to give an inch?

Cramer also talks about trucking regulations taking effect in the United States which have the potential to cause more problems for our national supply lines, and the ongoing Olympic Games in China.