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“We need a prime minister to be a champion for the industry that has done so much to fuel this country’s prosperity,” said Carritt, a councillor with the town of Innisfail, who literally shook from the cold as he stopped for numerous media interviews before jumping into his rig that looks much like a fire truck and is used in his industrial safety company.

“We need to get our pipelines in the ground and soon. We need to abolish Bill C-69 and Bill C-48 and we need the carbon tax abolished,” said Carritt, referring to the Impact Assessment Act — Bill C-69 — that critics say will make building a pipeline in the future virtually impossible. Bill C-48 bans tanker traffic on the northwest coast of Canada, meanwhile, OPEC oil travels up the St. Lawrence River all the time.

Following months of pro oil-and-gas protests and truck convoys throughout Western Canada, this convoy almost never happened after some grassroots groups such as Canada Action felt that people who associated themselves with France’s yellow vest movement were muddying the message with racist issues.

But Carritt, who does not wear a yellow vest, says those yellow vesters were kicked out and that issue is in the rear-view mirror now.

“All respectful, peaceful, non-radical Canadians are welcome to join in this rally. We will not tolerate any racism, hate or anyone with those views,” he insisted. “They are not part of this movement. I’ll be very upset if someone like that attaches themselves to us and this convoy. They have nothing to do with us. We’re proud of our oil and gas, a product every Canadian uses and benefits from in a huge way. That’s what this is about,” added Carritt, before leading the convoy out of Gort’s Truck Wash parking lot in Red Deer a bit later than the scheduled 8 a.m. launch.