RCMP closed Highway 2 south at Fort Macleod to local traffic only Feb.1 due to a blockade near the Stand Off Hutterian Brethren Colony.
A group of riders saddled up Saturday for a freedom ride.
The group of 10 riders met at Midnight Stadium at 10 a.m. and rode to Tim Hortons and back, following Highway 3 through town.
Some riders carried Canadian flags as they rode to advocate for the full removal of public health restrictions, including the vaccine passport and masking requirements.
“I’ve been pushing for the freedom of this situation for the past two years,” organizer Brian Dingreville said, referring to the lifting of public health restrictions tied to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“My main reason why is because of mental health, the sadness that I’m seeing with the elderly for not getting their families to be able to be with them.”
Dingreville, who has family members living in care centres, is concerned that people are being kept apart by the public health restrictions.
“The whole thing has turned into a gong show,” Dingreville said.
The riders came from communities across southwestern Alberta, including the Crowsnest Pass, Pincher Creek, Coalhurst and Foremost.
The group of friends has been riding together for five or six years.
Dingreville, who hosts recreational trail rides throughout southern Alberta almost every weekend, said the time was right to protest the public health restrictions.
“I have to be honest with you, I don’t think we would have had the impact that the truckers have given us,” Dingreville said. “The truckers have set a stage that is incredible. I take my hat off to every one of them.”
“What it has done, it has inspired so many different groups of people to be wanting to be pushing on this because they didn’t have the power to do it before and now they’re seeing that they can stand up and do something.”
Dingreville, who runs a Facebook site for recreational trail rides, said the 2,000 members are of a like mind.
“They all have the same thought,” Dingreville said. “They just want to go about their life as they used to.”
The riders are in support of the group blocking traffic at the Coutts border crossing and protesting in Ottawa.
The freedom ride heads west on Highway 3 in Fort Macleod
“I think it’s going to send a message,” Dingreville said of the ride. “Hopefully it will help in some way the people who are pushing hard (truckers) and show our support for them.”
Other area residents showed their support last week for the Freedom Convoy to Ottawa and the blockade at the Coutts border crossing.
RCMP blocked traffic at the intersection of Highway 2 and 12th Street in Fort Macleod on Feb. 1, allowing only local traffic due to a blockade near the Stand Off Hutterian Brethren Colony.
On Wednesday morning, a slow rolling convoy of trucks, farm equipment and passenger vehicles moved south on Highway 2.
They stopped at the Highway 2 bridge, blocking one lane on either side of the highway.
On Thursday afternoon a convoy of trucks, farm equipment and passenger vehicles did a slow roll on Highway 3 east of Fort Macleod.
Some Fort Macleod and district residents joined the border blockade at Coutts.
