Wednesday, May 27, 2026

Trucking

Guest ContributionsOpinion/ColumnTrucking

“You can interview that front tire”

During the three weeks Mark and his truck spent in Ottawa, the parking tickets and small acts of vandalism were minor matters. Wife Joanne describes him as a laidback guy who doesn’t talk much about feelings. But as they texted back and forth during those weeks, she says, he told her about the tears and the gratitude. People kept thanking him for taking a stand. “He said the love that was there, it was just unbelievable.”

Regular people would come by his truck offering submarine sandwiches and fried chicken. An Asian woman, Mark says, “was bringing us down Chinese food all the time. And Tim Horton’s. I don’t drink coffee myself, but they’d be bringing wagons full.” At random times of day, strangers would ask if he needed fuel. “Yeah, I’ll take it.”
After the police started cracking down on fuel deliveries, folks got more creative:

Read More
On the Road with Mike MurchisonTrucking

Teaching an old dog new tricks

You hear the expression “transferable skills” here and there. In the work world it basically means something to the effect of taking whatever you learned in your previous job(s) and seeing what fits with the new endeavor.  An old dog

Read More
Guest ContributionsNewsOpinion/ColumnTrucking

The Highway to Hydrogen: Recent Hydrogen Developments in Alberta’s Transportation Industry

Virtually every industry is looking to reduce carbon emissions in its development and operational life cycles. This has proven to be a particular challenge in the transportation industry, specifically heavy-duty transport where the industry has traditionally relied heavily on energy-dense diesel fuel to provide the torque necessary for heavy load transportation. However, Hydrogen may become an attractive zero-emission alternative for heavy-duty commercial vehicles. Unlike diesel which produces carbon dioxide and other harmful bi-products, hydrogen produces only water at the tailpipe.

Read More
Guest ContributionsOpinion/ColumnTrucking

Every Beautiful Thing You’d Ever Seen

‘A thousand people standing on an overpass and you driving under it’ by Donna Laframboise Read Part One, here By the time Mark, a Nova Scotia commercial fisherman, joined the Freedom Convoy the pandemic had dragged on for nearly two years.

Read More
Media releaseNewsTrucking

Alberta court strikes down public health orders that violated Charter freedoms, triggered Truckers’ Convoy

 The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms announced on August 1st that it is pleased with the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta’s decision to invalidate the public health orders of Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Chief Medical Officer of Health (CMOH), in Ingram v. Alberta. The court struck

Read More
Feature/ProfileGuest ContributionsTrucking

A Fisherman, a Truck & a Train Horn

Mark rescues old trucks. These days he owns 30 of them, the oldest being a green 1936 Maple Leaf, one of the earliest heavy duty pickups sold in Canada. “I get most of them outta California,” he says. “You start with no rust, so they’re a lot easier to restore.”

A commercial fisherman in Nova Scotia for 40 years, in the summer of 2023 he tells me scallops are doing well. Lobsters are another story. Market prices are “always up and down, they’re yo-yos. You never know.”

Back in January 2022, an Ontario friend told Mark he was heading to Ottawa to take part in the trucker protest scheduled for that weekend. Did Mark want to come?

Read More
On the Road with Mike MurchisonOpinion/ColumnTrucking

Stolen goods from stolen trailers

Ah yes! The underground “black market” of hot goods. Stolen stuff. It’s thriving and as hot as ever – at least, it was in Peel Region until July 19th. 

Operation “Big Rig” put a stop to what we now know was a ring involving 15 individuals. Possibly more. But 15 were charged. Its probably not the end; just an interruption in a trade that will kick back up down the road when things cool down.

Myself, I’ve spent many days and nights visiting, working, and slumbering within the borders of Peel County. Never had any problems unless you count the slow lines at the Tim Hortons.

Read More