If you've watched footage of the "United We Roll" pro-pipeline truck convoy which travelled across Canada, from Red Deer to Ottawa, you've likely seen a large, red truck at the very front of the long line of trucks. 

That truck is being driven by Mike Jepson of Airdrie who works for OP Fire and Safety, an industrial fire service in the oil industry.  The convoy is trying to focus the attention of Canadians on the need for pipelines and getting more help for the Alberta economy.  The group also wants Bill C-69 and Bill C-48 to be stopped and don't agree with the carbon tax.  

Jepson says from the minute they left Red Deer the convoy has been overwhelmed by the support it's received from Canadians.

"The trip's been amazing.  When we got to Airdrie at the overpass it was awesome.  We did three abreast for Airdrie.  As soon as we hit Strathmore it just kept building on.  Once we hit Saskatchewan and kept going across, the support was just pouring onto the street.  Little towns and stuff were coming out an supporting us."

Yesterday the convoy, which had swelled to 200 trucks, rallied on Parliament Hill for about five and a half hours.  Jepson says they heard from several politicians at the rally, including Conservative Party Leader Andrew Scheer.  Who they didn't hear from was any member of the governing Liberals, which, according to Jepson, was very disappointing.

"As we can all see in the news, they're having their own problems and they're trying to deal with all that.  We were just kind of ignored on that side of stuff but our voices were heard here on Parliament with all the support we got from Canadians.  We're doing this for Canada.  We're out here to support Canadians and to get our country back."

Along with the truckers, yesterday's protest on the hill involved many people wearing yellow vests.  The yellow vest group started in France and has been linked to anti-semitism there and anti-immigration sentiment in Canada.  Jepson says the people in the convoy want to respect everyone.

"It doesn't matter if you're yellow vest, red jacket, blue hard hat, white hard hat, if you're a respectful, hard-working Canadian who wants things back to normal, that's what we're asking for.  We're asking for people to be respectful and, yes, you're going to have a couple of bad apples here and there but there's not much we can do.  Everybody has freedom of speech and what they want to do.  On our side of things, we're asking for all respectful Canadians."

On social media posts, many people were asking the question, 'what good will this convoy do?'  Jepson's thoughts on that:  "Rolling through all these small towns and cities of Canada and seeing the people come out on the streets and supporting us.  We're trying to make a difference.  We're trying to unite Canada once again and bring everything back and get the government to hear Canadians.  Everything's falling on deaf ears with the government.  We're trying to unite everyone, and we've got a ton of support."

The trucks will begin returning to Alberta tomorrow, dropping off others in the provinces they come from.  Jepson is unsure of when the core of around 60 trucks will actually be back in the province.  "We've got so much support, we want to reach out to all of our supporters.  We're going to be going through these towns again and we'll be stopping and shaking hands and getting more support."

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