Maybe it was a reflection on a lack of support for the convoy’s premise, that being a call for a new election on the back of opposition to the proposed carbon tax.

Maybe it was a reflection on its poor organisation. Or maybe people just don’t care.

Certainly, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott might have wished he had stayed away after joining the initial convoy of about 80 trucks just outside of Canberra.

It was far from the endorsement of the Coalition’s policy that Mr Abbott would have hoped and expected.

We understand his position. Mr Abbott claims that the Australian people voted Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s government in on the basis of no carbon tax.

Now we are about to get one. Such is the uncertainty of a government which holds power by the slimmest of margins that the goalposts have changed.

Many voters would, on this basis, support the premise that it would only be fair for another election to be held.

Others would suggest that the petition for a new poll which was delivered through the convoy, is the work of people who were merely not happy that Ms Gillard could indeed form government with the help of independents.

These same people are less than happy that the Greens, who hold the balance of power in the upper house, are particularly powerful.

It’s a wild and crazy democracy that we live in at the moment but it’s also the only one we have.

The kind of people power that has the resolve and momentum to make change at the top level is not what we saw in Canberra yesterday.

What we saw yesterday is the making of modern politics built around bravado and bluster rather than genuine discussion and a grassroots movement for change.

That’s not to say that those involved don’t have a case to make. Given recent opinion polls, there is considerable displeasure with the Gillard government over a range of issues but most centrally the carbon tax.

But Ms Gillard, and her party, knows that if it can survive until after the tax is implemented, the road forward will be a little rosier.

It’s why Mr Abbott is so keen to keep the pressure on the prime minister in a hope that she will blink. He’s going to need to do better than the convoy to make that happen.