Trust in the experts

I read the letter to the editor (The politics of easing back, May 27) about the risk of COVID-19 transmission with the current plan to allow approved seasonal residents to come to P.E.I.

I appreciate the concern of Islanders, but I've found that the "closed borders" voices have been very loud and don't represent how I feel about responsibly opening our borders.

I wanted to share something I wrote that reflects how I, and hopefully many other Islanders, feel about rebuilding our connection to the rest of Canada.

I've hesitated about posting too many opinions about how COVID-19 is being handled on P.E.I. It's a hugely complicated issue, and I'm not an expert in disease management, economics, international politics or mental health. I like to think I've mostly followed all of the instructions given to help keep people safe, and P.E.I. as a whole has done an amazing job.

We've had 27 people land on P.E.I. with COVID-19 infections, and 27 times the rules have kept the disease contained.

It's easy to forget that there is still a decent number of people entering and leaving the Island on a daily basis, bringing us food, medical supplies and Amazon orders. As much as it's nice to think we're a stand-alone island, we've had so much help from people in other provinces that I don't think it's fair to consider ourselves to be fully isolated.

If seasonal residents follow the rules, we won't be at more risk than we currently are. I know it's easy to say that these people don't care about following rules, but with all the hoops they have to jump through to get here, there's a pretty big incentive to actually comply. Plus, who would want to be the person who is caught cheating the system? You'd never be welcome here again, and you'd pretty much have to forfeit your property.

I'm sure many seasonal residents consider P.E.I. to be home, and for them, it's by choice rather than by having been born here. We often treasure the things we choose over the things that are handed to us.

Dr. Morrison, Premier King and their staff have spent thousands of hours working to keep Islanders safe. They have made dozens, if not hundreds, of hard decisions, costing us income, social connection and freedom. They ARE experts in keeping P.E.I. safe. If they stood strong against opening for Easter weekend against all the backlash, why would they cave for seasonal residents if they really truly didn't think it could be done safely? It's OK to be worried and scared; it's scary for everyone right now. It's not OK to be issuing threats against people you disagree with. We need to be adults and use our words and our presence to work towards the Island we want to live on.