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Grassroots movements start from the ground up, with normal, non-political people who at one point never dreamed they would become activists. This was certainly the case for Tamara Lich, who, in a speech at the University of Calgary, detailed her journey from a quiet childhood in the prairies to garnering international attention as a leading figure in the 2022 Trucker Convoy. 

Tamara described how she was born in Cold Lake, Saskatchewan, to a young, single Métis woman, before being adopted by her now mother and father and going on to be the oldest of six. 

After moving to Alberta in the late 90s, she spent most of her career in the oil and gas industry — where her journey toward political activism began. 

In 2019, when bills C-69 and C-48 came in, she witnessed Canadians in her industry losing their jobs at an alarming rate. 

“Men were coming into my office, handing me their resume with tears in their eyes, because they were going to lose their house or they didn’t know what they were going to do,” she recalled. 

Having years of experience in the field, she described the Alberta oilpatch as “one of the safest, most environmentally friendly and efficient” in the world. Hence, her confusion at the time over why the government was constraining it. As a result, she joined a local group known as the Yellow Vesters, where she first began exercising her right to protest. 

Then came the pandemic, at the beginning of which both Tamara and her husband were laid off and travelled to Manitoba to spend extra time with her daughter, who was pregnant at the time. 

Eventually, in late 2021, they got their jobs back and moved back to Alberta — just in time for the Freedom Convoy to start two weeks later. But in those few weeks, the political climate in her new office was tense. 

“The CAO… [comes] in one day and… says, ‘So, Tamara, about that vaccine?’ and I said, ‘I’m not getting it,’” she recalled. “And he said, ‘Well, that’s okay… You can probably just do a test.’ And I said, ‘I ain’t doing that either, cause I’m not sick.’ And the assistant CAO laughed, and she’s like, ‘Are you gonna quit? Does that mean you’ll quit?’ And I said, ‘No, you’re going to have to fire me.’ I was not playing that game.” 

In the meantime, she had already been looking for ways to get involved. The catalyst for her — and for many across Canada — that made all the frustration boil over was when the vaccine mandates were extended to the trucking industry. 

“After two years of Justin Trudeau claiming that our truckers were heroes… likening them to war veterans… they decided to come for the truckers,” said Tamara. 

After seeing a video made by Chris Barber calling for all truckers to participate in a Canada-wide shutdown to protest the mandates, Tamara immediately started getting in contact with individuals who would eventually form the organizing team for the Freedom Convoy — including Chris. 

“I said, ‘Look, you’re gonna need logistical support, you’re gonna need money, and you’re gonna need… a social media presence,’” Tamara recalled. “And I said, ‘My skills are organization, administration, and logistics. How can I help you?’ And I simply offered my support.” 

The rest is history.