PONDERABLES
How long will it take America to be great again?
Will “that’s the way we’ve always done it” ever again be relevant?
Why does Amazon waste so much packaging material?
THINGS I FIRMLY BELIEVE
Jeopardy! will not be the same without Alex Trebek and Johnny Gilbert.
Apologies containing the phrase “if I” are not really apologies.
AND POLITICIANS WONDER WHY THE’RE NOT TRUSTED
After the spectacular plummet from grace of Ontario Finance Minister Rod Phillips for flouting CODIV-19 non-travel rules over the holidays, a plethora of other politicians of all stripes, and in many other areas of the country, have had to admit to similar transgressions. It’s also been revealed that many of them, like Rod Phillips, who actually set the gold standard for deceit, engaged in deliberate deception by having their staffs post pictures and videos suggesting they were at home in their constituencies when they were actually out of the country, most in warm, sunny locations.
Alberta seems to have had more than its share of holiday travellers, including Premier Jason Kenney’s chief of staff, none of whom were originally censured by the premier, and his excuse for not doing so was simply pathetic. He didn’t punish any of the offenders because, according to him, “they did not violate any ‘firm’ rules,” even though Kenney’s own government whip had strongly encouraged everyone to stay at home. On second thought, Kenney’s delay in meting out consequences wasn’t simply pathetic, it was downright disgraceful.
What a sorry lot these politicians are. As a politically-savvy friend remarked to me last week, it’s former Liberal federal cabinet minister David Dingwall’s infamous statement that “I’m entitled to my entitlements” over and over again. I doubt that the millions of Canadians who didn’t share celebratory meals with their families or go to religious services over the holidays have any sympathy for these hypocritical miscreants.
There was a time when the list of admirable politicians, at all levels of government, was a long one, but it’s dwindling at such an alarming rate that many now have about the same approval rating as telemarketers. It’s time to punish them at the ballot box.
EVEN WORSE HYPOCRISY
Dr. Tom Stewart, the CEO of St. Joseph’s Health System, which operates hospitals in Kitchener, Guelph, and Brantford, apologized for spending a vacation in the Dominican Republic over the holidays and resigned from his positions on three provincial COVID-19 panels, which presumably were instrumental in urging people not to travel. This selfish hypocrite was sunning himself on the beach while thousands of his front-line health-care workers were spending long, stressful hours away from their families saving lives. His apology and resignations were nowhere near enough, and the St. Joseph’s board quite rightly fired him from his $600,000 a year position.
Dr. Stewart has a shady past. In 2011 The Toronto Star reported that Stewart allegedly received hundreds of thousand of public dollars for which he had done no work, which raises the question of how much due diligence the St. Joseph board did before hiring him.
COVID-19 FATIGUE
It’s become abundantly clear that COVID-19 fatigue is a genuine malady, the main cause of which is the lack of consistency and logic in many of the most distressing lockdown decisions, mostly because too many of them appear to be guesswork rather than being based on reliable scientific evidence. For example, what evidence is there that barber shops, hair salons, and a host of other small businesses capable of maintaining distancing and sanitizing rules contribute more to community spread than large box stores peopled by hordes of shoppers? (Especially when only a tiny fraction of their wares qualify as “essential.”) And what is the evidence that restaurants that diligently took all the prescribed precautions contributed significantly to community spread? No doubt there were some eateries that didn’t follow the rules, but the solution was to shut them down and levy heavy fines, not punish all the others. It’s high time public health officers and politicians accept the fact that zero risk is not an attainable goal and pay more attention to mental health considerations when determining COVID-19 protocols. There’s no doubt most of the restrictions have been absolutely necessary, but there’s also no doubt that not all of them have been. The result is more and more people becoming exhausted while dealing with the impact of the almost total disruption of their daily lives, disruptions that many simply aren’t capable of handling on a long-term basis.