Veteran Progressive Conservative operative David McLaughlin is attempting to discredit Alberta's independence movement by reminding people that Freedom Convoy organizer Tamara Lich once sat on the board of the Maverick Party. Instead, he discredits himself. 

His implication is clear: because some people involved in Alberta's independence movement were also involved in the Freedom Convoy, Albertans should be suspicious of the independence movement itself.

Never forget the convoy crowd was led by Alberta separatists. https://t.co/wOAjm8bqio

— David McLaughlin (@DavidMcLA) June 20, 2026

The problem is that this argument ignores what the Freedom Convoy actually was.

Tamara Lich did serve on the board of the Maverick Party. She has never hidden that fact. But when the Freedom Convoy rolled across Canada in 2022, it was not an Alberta independence campaign. It was a nationwide protest against vaccine mandates, travel restrictions, and unprecedented government intrusion into the lives of ordinary Canadians.

Participants came from every province. They carried Canadian flags. They weren't demanding separation. They were demanding that governments respect the constitutional rights and freedoms of Canadians.

And history has not been kind to those who dismissed those concerns.

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Federal Court Justice Richard Mosley ruled that the Trudeau government's invocation of the Emergencies Act was unreasonable and unconstitutional. The government appealed, but the ruling remains a devastating rebuke of how Ottawa handled the protest.

That's why McLaughlin's attack misses the point entirely.

Many of the people who now support Alberta independence weren't separatists in 2022. In fact, one of the most common observations from former convoy supporters is that they considered themselves passionate Canadian patriots at the time.

They flew Canadian flags. They believed Canada's institutions would protect their rights. They believed their fellow Canadians would at least listen to their concerns. They were wrong. 

🚨 BREAKING: Rebel News CONFRONTS Chrystia Freeland for freezing the bank account of thousands of Canadians during the freedom convoy.

Q — “Will you apologize to those truckers whose bank accounts you froze?”

No answer. pic.twitter.com/mQslwzWhAU

— mistersunshinebaby (@mrsunshinebaby) January 21, 2026

Instead, they were called extremists, racists, occupiers, and enemies of the country. Their bank accounts were frozen. Emergency powers were invoked. Politicians refused to meet with them. Media outlets caricatured them.

For many Albertans, that experience was transformative.

As several commenters noted in response to McLaughlin's post, many people were not separatists when the convoy began. They became open to independence afterward, after watching how the political, media, and bureaucratic establishment centred in Ottawa, Toronto, and Montreal responded to a peaceful protest movement.

The convoy didn't emerge from Alberta separatism. For many Albertans, Alberta separatism emerged from the aftermath of the convoy in response to the government's response to it. 

If federalists want to understand why support for Alberta independence has grown so dramatically in recent years, they should spend less time attacking Tamara Lich and more time asking why so many formerly patriotic Canadians no longer believe the country treats them fairly.