Smith’s defence of Martow was ‘partisan pandering’
Re: To Dave Smith, MPP, Peterborough-Kawar
tha re: Seasonal resident travel Peterborough Public Health has an excellent website which incudes a bulletin on “Using Your Seasonal Residence During COVID-19.” Perhaps your staff can download a copy for you, but here are some of the salient points:
The provincial recommendation is to stay home; avoid nonessential travel, especially to other zones. Frequent trips to your cottage carry risk.
For longer stays:
á Self-isolate for 14 days — avoid any trips into town for supplies;
á Use curbside pickup if you run out of supplies;
á Don’t invite guests, stay only within your household group. Cancel your annual events.
All residents, including MPPs, have been asked repeatedly to follow these recommendations.
It appears MPP Gila Martow has ignored all of them and intends to continue to do so. Being “deeply rooted” and all.
As the MPP for Peterborough-Kawartha you would have to be exceedingly tone deaf not to be aware of the ongoing sensitivity of your constituents to hotzone visitors.
Can you think of a worse example than turning your cottage over to a bunch of 20-year-olds from Toronto for a New Year’s Eve party? Those guys would never think twice about running into town for more beer or chips. Martow’s response was that they’re used to 800 not eight on New Year’s Eve!
Your comments in The Examiner indicate there are no (legal) restrictions for someone to travel to their own property anywhere in Ontario.
Given the published recommendations, might not leadership, ethical and moral considerations enter into this?
Peterborough Public Health is working tirelessly and your constituents are making significant sacrifices to keep our rates low throughout this ongoing pandemic.
They deserve more than the partisan pandering you exhibited on this issue. Tom Sayer, Bridgenorth