There is some further thinking about the TVOntario program I watched last week on the polarization of Canada. A Quebec participant had others laughing when he made the comment that Canadians really do not like each other. In the same vein, another countered that Canadians are nice, except for Albertans. What everyone was missing was that, while amusing, these comments were not helpful.
While it might be amusing to joke about it, the reality is that this is a time of anger in Canada and we should be careful not to encourage it. We are sweating out a pandemic and there is a level of frustration and angst that is fomenting across the country. There are easily anticipated delays on getting the vaccines that many see as the panacea. We just happen to have some politicians in charge who have been reassuring us that there is hope and they act surprised when people are annoyed about the delays.
Instead of just Babel-on-the-Bay being critical of our naïve politicians, many Canadians are deriding our politicos for their gullibility. There is little point now for being angry at previous conservative governments for letting Canadians sell off assets such as Connaught Laboratories that could have provided us with large-scale production of vaccines. Nor should we expect Justin Trudeau to understand the problems with foreign contracts. And when did we rescind permission for provincial premiers to blame Ottawa for any delays in distribution of life-saving vaccines?
The only politicians we are going to be respecting in the coming year will likely be the ones who do not try to blame others for their failures and false starts and mistakes.
And I think I will continue be critical of those who put ideology ahead of serving people. I will also have harsh things to say about politicians who try to give us the party line instead of honesty. I am a liberal and I do not like having Justin Trudeau destroy my party. Party members are not his personal ATMs. We are people who wanted to support him as leader. He should learn to lead.
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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry
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