Maybe it’s the sudden snap of cold weather, but the town of Coutts seems too quiet.
Last week, a convoy of trucks and cars commemorated the one-year anniversary of the protests that shut down Ottawa and two Canada-U. S. border crossings, including the one here, for weeks. But it passed without incident, and now everything is frigid, windy and nearly silent. The Smuggler’s Saloon – the village pub that became an impromptu headquarters during last year’s convoy standoff – is closed and dark. No one is walking on the streets. The fading 50s-era playgrounds are empty. The only reliable sound is the rumble of trucks and the squeak of brakes as commercial traffic passes through the border with metronomic regularity.
