For fifteen years I lived in a large log home on ten acres near the Oxbow bend in the Bow River. It’s a world renowned fishing site. We met many guides taking out clients from the USA and they always asked us how often we went fishing.

Truth is about once per summer.

Our ten acres was the tiny piece of land that butted up against the East shore of the Bow River. It was just outside the Calgary City Limits. If you looked across the river, the Cottonwood Golf Course covered the West side of the river.

No parking

Our access road had thirty nine signs reminding people there was no parking along the paved single lane highway. After our turnoff it curved east and became an access road for a gravel pit. Within ten minutes you could see a hundred gravel trucks coming and going from 6 am to 10 pm daily.

One empty gravel truck,meeting a full gravel truck,going the other way, left no room for cars to park anywhere on the side of the road. In fact, any car left behind was likely to have its mirrors knocked off. But, because of the river people liked to ditch their cars at the side of the road.

They would carry a canoe on their shoulders down to fish in the river. Some people just walked down with a pole to fish on the shore. I learned that fishermen are some of the most single minded people I have ever met.

Many of the men were individualistic, loved being outdoors and hated being constrained by rules and regulations. They knew the river and the fish.

“I just want to go fish, and you can’t stop me.”

I was told this as they parked their vehicle on my lawn and headed to the river.

I was an obstacle in their way. My carefully tended lawn was a place to stash their vehicle so a gravel truck wouldn’t hit it as it roared by.

The single-minded determination was admirable in other aspects of their lives, but when they decided that my property and home existed for their pleasure I was filled with disgust with their lack of respect for land that was sacred to me.

We had a natural grass lawn. Sage, clover, and buffalo grass spread across the ridge seventy feet above the Bow River. One of the fishing guides told me, “Your house is built on the highest point in the South-east quadrant of the City of Calgary. We could see the mountains to the South in a long curve extending far to the North across the western horizon. Every night I watched the sun go down behind the Rocky Mountains.

There was abundant natural beauty that a jackass with off-road tires would drive over and pack down our lawn to park next to his friend’s truck. He had invited them to go fishing with him.

In the summer I could wake up to ten vehicles parked on my lawn. It was not possible to keep ruts out of the lawn if it rained. Nobody gave two figs about what they trampled and destroyed.

In the fifteen years I lived there I got a stomach full of frustration from men who live in an entitled manosphere. I don’t mean every man walking down the street. Three quarters of men wouldn’t think of driving right up on my lawn and parking their car.

I’m talking about the 25% that tried to make me afraid to live in my own home. I would go down and tell them to get their vehicle off my property. The men were best represented by one of the worst of them.

He had a cooler with him containing beverages and a steak. It was early Spring with standing dead grass but no green. He lit a large log of dried dead wood on fire. The wind picked up, and a grass fire began to race towards Calgary burning everything in its way.

I called the fire department and they managed to contain the fire but all the guy had to say for himself was;

“ I wanted a fire to cook my steak.”

That’s the kind of entitled manosphere it wears on me to fight.

No matter how big their truck they think they can park it with a pair of fake bull testicles hanging from the hitch. If a woman tells them to take your truck and leave they turn belligerent. I made sure I had my phone recording all of our conversations.

Quite often they would tell me they worked with Joe Studly and he gave them permission to park there to go fishing. It was no surprise to them when I told them Joe Studly didn’t own or pay the property taxes on my lawn. They knew but had the toxic entitlement down so securely that they claimed right to park on my lawn because a friend said so.

I asked for their name and address so I could come and picnic on their lawn. Some of them were creepy enough to invite me to their apartment.

Leaders in positions of influence

Occasionally I see people in leadership positions catering to the people who have the viewpoint that their vehicle is not an intrusion if left on private property. The worst example of this taken to the extreme right was the truckers driving into Ottawa in convoy.They parked on streets near the Parliament buildings claiming them as there own. Constant horn blowing and complete blocking of the use of public roads turned into interference in every conceivable way for Canadians who lived and worked there.

Then a list of their demands was given to the people of Ottawa. They demanded that the Prime Minister Justin Trudeau come down and meet with their leaders while they were still trespassing and breaking parking laws. They were still actively impeding the rights of the homeowners to go about their daily life.

Of course Prime Minister JustinTrudeau didn’t go and meet with them while they were flaunting their intentional trespassing and refusal to leave.

• Their attitude was that he was too arrogant to come meet with them.

• They were taking MAGA money and other funds raised by foreign enemies of Canada.

• These funds helped support them while they were parked in downtown Ottawa.

Only a truly irresponsible leader would meet with them while the convoy was trespassing on other people’s property.

Pierre Pollievre, leader of the Conservatives was head of the Opposition in Parliament. He brought coffee and doughnuts down to hand them out to the truckers.

Let’s pretend that this is any coffee shop hangout in a small town was the attitude.

Not a single thought spared for the people in Ottawa living confined day after day, unable to drive down a street near their home, or get a night’s sleep without the cacophony of truck horns.

Many of the truckers were upset about the lockdown and universal requirements to be vaccinated against COVID.

The whole country was struggling to come out of the other side of the Pandemic.

Everyone wanted to resume an ordinary life but this group of truckers made the restrictions of the Pandemic even worse for the people living in homes on those streets in Ottawa.

Once the convoy parked and began the occupation the renters and homeowners became trapped in large crowds of people who refused to be vaccinated. Not only were they refusing to build immunity through vaccination but they formed a group of people who freely interacted passing the virus to each other and people passing by.

Pierre Pollievre could have encouraged the leaders to disperse and stop trespassing.

He could have reminded them they were forming large crowds of unvaccinated who had low acquired immunity, and they were exposing the people who lived there to greater risk.

He could have but he didn’t.

Instead Pollievre joined them without wearing a mask and made a clear statement of acceptance of the trespassers lack of respect for the law.

Why should anyone vote for someone who doesn’t caution others to respect private property?

Was it his intention to encourage trespassing by meeting protesters on a public street for coffee and donuts during a Pandemic lockdown?

Why would anyone want Canadians to be under that kind of thoughtlessness?

Was it more about a photo opportunity than good leadership - he was a leader of a political party- and trespassing is against the law?

• I can’t imagine why anyone would be able to trust such a leader to think about the needs of all Canadians.

• It was disrespectful to the citizens on that street inconvenienced in their homes with noise pollution.

• Trespassing was happening every day on other people’s property.

Freedom is valued in Canada.

The rights of one group of Canadians should not be trampled in order that another may achieve their goals. Any leader who adheres to ideology while excusing the transmission of a virus in crowds of people is registering their opposition to public health measures.

The damage done is the result of excusing toxic entitlement and subversion of responsible peace, order, and good governance for all.