INSIDE THE "UNITED WE ROLL" CONVOY

     It looked, and sounded, exactly what you’d expect of a truck convoy. Dozens of engines belching exhaust, amplified by the frigid prairie air and blowing through the parking lot at Gort’s Truck Wash in north Red Deer. The low rumble as they pulled out onto Alberta’s Highway 2, heading south. Then, an hour and a half later, an eastward turn onto the Trans Canada highway.
  The destination, Ottawa. The message, pipelines. The man to receive the message, Justin Trudeau.
   Even if nobody’s paying attention in Ottawa, the organizers hope people are paying attention in ridings across the country, and will see — and consider — what Albertans see as economic turmoil and pain that will affect Canadians far beyond the province’s borders. Still, what the convoy is striving to be about, oil and gas and the carbon tax — this is western alienation personified, gathered in a convoy of big trucks motoring across the nation, running straight through the heart of Canada, from oil country to the seat of political power. Before leaving, the group sang O Canada as the wind chill approached -40. Two pastors prayed, asking through a megaphone for God to open the ears of Parliamentarians and bless the convoy.