‘New normal’ complicates life for politicians
It was more than a little ironic that Premier Scott Moe and others in his government would spend the first day of Saskatchewan’s reopening dealing with the province’s largest daily COVID-19 numbers and preaching the need to maintain social distancing because such outbreaks could occur any time, anywhere.
Normally such momentous days are all about politicians cutting ribbons, patting themselves on the back for a job well done and generally sending out less-than-subtle messages that they are deserving of our vote and the privilege of staying in power to govern us.
But as Moe and others were forced to repeatedly say on Monday, COVID-19 is forcing all of us to deal with a new normal. Evidently, politicians are not immune.
That new normal began with Health Minister Jim Reiter making a rare appearance to defuse legitimate criticism from the NDP Opposition leader that public communication of the outbreaks in La Loche and Lloydminster was abysmal.
Reiter — a partisan politician who struggles to hide his disdain for New Democrats — made a half-hearted effort to claim Ryan Meili was somehow quoting his government out context and attacking doctors with the Saskatchewan Health Authority.
But given the reality that Reiter long ago relinquished government communication strategy to more credible doctors with the Health Ministry and the SHA, the politician could hardly feign insult over the doctors being unfairly treated when he put them in that position. Moreover, the SHA already admitted it messed up its communications of both the La Loche and Lloydminster outbreaks.
By the end of his press conference, Reiter had to admit the buck stops with him when it
Moe … had the dubious task of explaining the details of 34 new COVID-19 cases.
comes to failing to meet the public demands that outbreak information be properly and rapidly communicated to stop the spread.
Similarly, Moe in his daily briefing had the dubious task of explaining the details of 34 new COVID-19 cases (29 in La Loche and area) and warning that such outbreaks could occur anyway — not exactly a message in sync with his fivestage plan for reopening that began Monday.
In fairness, Moe has always warned that there could be setbacks caused by outbreaks and offered unnerving admissions that this may be the “new normal” because the novel coronavirus cannot be eradicated.
And Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Saqib Shahab offered the confidence that while what’s going on in La Loche constitutes a serious outbreak, the situations in Lloydminster and especially in Prince Albert’s Victoria Hospital (where there was one positive case linked to COVID-19) demonstrate an ability to stop the spread in institutions and communities.
Of course, not having a complete handle on the virus spread didn’t really earn much public confidence; nor did the government completely deal with the obvious contradiction of launching Reopen Saskatchewan while putting out COVID -19 brush fires in various communities.
It made for a very messy day — exactly what politicians normally attempt to avoid with their shiny announcements designed to make them look like they are in control and absolutely stellar. Such events have been replaced by the modest and often-clumsy press briefings that don’t exactly lend themselves to grandeur.
The La Loche outbreak experience humbled the Saskatchewan Party government on Monday, but that may prove to be a very good thing in the long run.
For the politicians, it’s a reminder that their purpose is not their own self-aggrandizement but to provide solutions — in this case to a rapidly flowing crisis apt to spill its banks and change direction at any moment.
For the rest of us, it’s a reminder that things get messy and politicians won’t always have the cheap and easy answers. But that might not be the worst thing.
Monday wasn’t a great day, but maybe we can learn from it as we move ahead.