Who is Tamara Lich — the ‘spark that lit the fire’

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The woman organizers describe as “the spark that lit the fire” of the truck convoy protest that has occupied downtown Ottawa is a former energy industry worker and a leader within the “Wexit” movement pushing for the independence of western provinces.

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Tamara Lich, the main speaker at a protest media briefing in Ottawa Thursday afternoon, is one of the organizers of the controversial and currently frozen GoFundMe campaign that has raised more than $10-million for the demonstration. Lich was also involved with the Canadian “Yellow Vest” protests and the smaller “United We Roll” truckers’ protest convoy of 2019.

Petite, blond and standing barely five feet tall, Lich is a former fitness instructor and sings and plays guitar in a Medicine Hat bar band called Blind Monday . She is a mother, grandmother and claims Métis heritage.

The Saskatchewan native was living in Medicine Hat when she became politically active three years ago with Wexit, which later merged into the Wildrose Independence Party of Alberta. When Lich and her husband moved to Manitoba, she left Wildrose and joined the fringe and fledgling Maverick Party as an original member of its governing council.

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Maverick, under its interim leader Jay Hill, a former cabinet minister in the Stephen Harper government, advocates for Western interests, vowing in its guiding principles “that every vote in the House of Commons by our MPs must be put to one simple test: Is our support, or opposition, good for the West and our citizens.”

Lich resigned from Maverick this week to devote herself full time to the “Freedom Convoy” protest.

In a 2020 profile in the Medicine Hat News, Lich described the reasons for her political disenchantment.

“ By the time Alberta hits the polls in every federal election the outcome has already been decided by eastern voters, ” Lich told the paper. “While we are all Canadians we have different needs and lifestyles out here. For example, gun legislation for the city of Toronto must differ from that of rural Alberta. The west needs a party that is willing to fight for what is best for their interests and their people without having to pander for the eastern vote.

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“ The Maverick Party is not running against a particular party or politician; instead we are running against a broken system. Our goal is to unite westerners in this common goal; Constitutional Reform or, failing that, independence. ”

Lich cited the Liberal government’s Bill C-48, which banned oil tankers in northern B.C. waters, and Bill-69, the “no more pipelines” law as particularly unfair.

“ Western Canada has been at the mercy of the east since the inception of confederation. All current federal parties must cater to eastern interests in order to obtain and stay in power, ” Lich told the paper

But Lich is also on the radar of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, which has flagged her association with the “Yellow Vest” movement and her support of the anti-Muslim Clarion Project.

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“I wouldn’t say she was a major player,” CAHN executive director Evan Balgord said Thursday. “But she’s in the far-right ecosystem.”

Speaking to reporters Thursday, Lich said negative portrayals of the protesters are wrong.

“The reality is that members of this freedom movement are average, peace-loving and law-abiding citizens from all walks of life who are fed up with being bullied by our government,” she said.