‘Rolling Thunder’ rally encourages supporters, but doesn’t replicate ‘Freedom Convoy’ impact, Google data suggests

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The “Rolling Thunder” rally over the weekend gave its supporters, many of whom participated in the “Freedom Convoy” protests earlier this year, a morale boost, but drew only a fraction of the turnout and attention in line of the previous event.

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Posts by “Rolling Thunder” participants on Facebook groups indicate that the rally re-inspired some Canadians who, during the “Freedom Convoy” protests in January and February, had gained a sense of purpose and community.

But the event didn’t seem to have garnered the same attention or support as its predecessor.

Google trend data indicates that “Rolling Thunder” and other associated searches were up over the weekend, but only by a tenth of what “Freedom Convoy” was at its peak. Interest in “Rolling Thunder” was greatest in Thunder Bay, Google data showed.

“Rolling Thunder” garnered less attention for myriad reasons, according to Merlyna Lim, Canada Research Chair in Digital Media and Global Network Society at Carleton University School of Journalism and Communication. For one thing, she said, the Ottawa police were much better prepared; the event did not get out of control. In February, when it became clear that downtown Ottawa was being occupied by heavy trucks and protesters, it became a dramatic and much more interesting event for observers across Canada and the world.

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“People who didn’t even join (the ‘Freedom Convoy’ protest) googled it, people who were mad about it also googled the ‘Freedom Convoy’ if they were curious,” Lim said.

The “Rolling Thunder” event also lacked the same mass appeal as the February protests. Back then, Lim explained, the movement appealed to a broader spectrum of Canadians who were frustrated with vaccination mandates or who might have been dissatisfied with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Now, the vaccine mandates have been relaxed and some of the public perception towards the movements associated with the “Freedom Convoy” has also changed, Lim said.

“Since the ‘Freedom Convoy’ is already out in the public and under scrutiny, it has become clearer to people that (it was an event organized by the far right), he said. “That, I think, has an impact on the popularity of later movements. They have to claim that these are ordinary Canadians, but it’s too early to change the image.”

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Any attempt to replicate an event with the size and attraction of the “Freedom Convoy” would be difficult now, Lim added. It took the organizers of the “Freedom Convoy” months of organizing, combined with being able to tap into a key social issue and finding a city that was unprepared for their arrival to make the kind of impact they had.

“The ‘Freedom Convoy’ was a daily conversation,” Lim said, “but now people are saying, ‘It’s the same thing. I hope they don’t stay for three weeks. Which, in a way, is good. It has become boring. Ottawa is boring again. But it’s also bad in terms of us thinking it’s over.”

Lim said the people who participated in the “Freedom Convoy” are still angry, and it might take some kind of precipitating event to motivate them to take on another protest movement on the scale of what happened in February, like the vaccine. . mandates for cross-border truckers did.

“It’s not over. It’s not like they’re gone,” Lim said. “The people who were angry in January and believed in the ‘Freedom Convoy,’ it’s not like they’re gone.”