"And though there were pockets of sympathy for the protesters’ frustration with pandemic rules, the bulk of Canadians resented their tactics and wanted them to go home..."

"... surveys show. In Ottawa, residents were angry that the authorities took so long to act. 'This thing was a truly fringe movement that got lucky, in my view, in terms of failures of policing,' [said Wesley Wark, a senior fellow at the Center for International Governance Innovation, a Canadian public policy group]. 'I think this has been an extraordinary moment and flash in the pan.' There were elements of right wing extremism tied to the protests around the country, where Confederate, QAnon and Trump flags had cropped up. Conspiracy theorists could be found milling about Parliament, too: people who believed big Pharma created the coronavirus in order to make money on vaccines or that QR codes allow the government to police our thoughts. But the protests drew in thousands of people on some weekends, many of them just frustrated Canadians who didn’t want to be forced to get a vaccine or were just fed up with the pandemic and its restrictions.... In interviews, trucker after trucker said this was his or her first protest...."

From "After Trucker Protest, Canada Grapples With a Question: Was It a Blip, or Something Bigger?/The demonstrators were passionate, organized and supported financially, but such spontaneous movements often have a tough time converting their energy into real change" (NYT).