The actual rant comes from the movie Network (1976) in which Howard Beale, played by Peter Finch, yells out, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take this any more.” These days many of us immediately equate Beale’s comment with the truckers’ convoy in Canada. After two years of working on the front lines, delivering everything we needed while so many of us worked from home, it’s time for them to be taken seriously and given the respect they deserve. However, theirs is not the first convoy that has demands that they be heard.

Raise you hand if you remember Tractorgate from 1979. The 1970s were a period of serious inflation and stagflation which hit the farmers extremely hard. In fact, farmers in the early 1900s made much more per acre when adjusted for inflation than they did in the 1970s. The farmers were also extremely concerned about the foreclosures coming from the Farmers Home Administration. In 1977 a group of farmers in Campo, Colorado, formed the American Agriculture Movement (AAM). President Jimmy Carter, a farmer himself, supported them, saying “I don’t know of any other group that has suffered more from inflation than farmers.” In December, 1977 roughly 5,000 farmers rallied in Lincoln, Nebraska–many of them driving their tractors to the rally. Though they had widespread support from a number of other states, they didn’t get the attention from the Department of Agriculture they had hoped for. They needed something more dramatic.

In January 1979, farmers from as far away as Colorado got on their tractors and headed east. The Movement’s slogan was “Parity not Charity.” On February 5, 1977, roughly 900 tractors, along with a number of people who came by bus or plane, arrived in Washington, D.C. They blocked roads and drove right past the Capital building, and onto the National Mall near the Washington Monument, where police convinced them to stay. There were only a few rogue tractor drivers. Some of the farmers became lobbyists, speaking with Congressmen, Senators and member of the Department of Agriculture. Others became protestors, demanding parity, and that their voices be heard.

And then came President’s Day weekend, with a massive blizzard. With 23″ of snow it was the third largest storm in DC to this day, smaller only than the 1922 and 1898 blizzards. In Washington, the city comes to a complete standstill with just a few inches of snow, but this was a “mother of all blizzards.” The farmers with their tractors were some of the very few people in the city who could move. They put aside their protesting and lobbying, and started to dig out the Capital and much of the rest of Washington.

After seven weeks, most of the farmers turned their tractors around and headed home. Change didn’t happen in days, or even weeks. It took months, often years. I do hope that Ottawa treats the Canadian truckers better than Washington treated the farmers. As I said in an earlier post on truckers, they deserve our respect and thanks rather than being treated with distain.