Dr. John Haggie
Over the past several weeks, many Newfoundlanders and Labradorians have found themselves a new rockstar.
“He’s awesome,” said one supporter on a change.org petition that hoped to persuade the Liberal party to reoopen nominations and put Health Minister Dr. John Haggie in the race, which he had opted out of before that process closed.
Haggie is keenly aware that certain times of turmoil can inspire patriotism, such as the COVID-19 crisis that has been compared somewhat to the tone of wartime, during which politicians can see their popularity spike if people see them as an effective leader.
And for people who have tuned into the daily COVID-19 briefing with Haggie, Premier Dwight Ball and Chief Medical Officer of Public Health Dr. Janice Fitzgerald, Haggie’s frank manner and clever turns of phrase gripped the audience early on.
It’s even spawned a new word in the vernacular of the province and indeed across the country — Haggieisms.
Dominion Memorial Market on Lake Avenue in St. John’s has even decorated cakes with Haggie’s sayings, such as “Please don’t let them lick the handle of the shopping cart,” uttered during a late March briefing in which he urged families to appoint one shopper to the grocery store a week and leave the kids at home, unless they had no alternative.
The gist was that if you had to take your child to the store, don’t let them lick the cart.
As soon as he said it, Jamie Feener of the embroidery business Feenerandthread, crosstitched the saying and presented it to him — from a social distance, of course.
Other Haggieisms include the admonition to those looking to get on dating apps — “If you use Tinder or Grindr and you swipe right, you might be getting more than you bargained for.
Another popular one: “A mask in a bank is no longer what it used to be,” said in support of people wearing masks to protect others from their sneezes and coughs.
The Haggieisms are all his, though he acknowledged borrowing the swipe right one from his comments about an increase in syphilis cases in 2016-17.
Haggie said his preference for bullet-point notes — from his days of teaching medicine — as opposed to detailed briefing notes induces a roll of the eyes from his communications director.
As Health Minister, Haggie knows that the days of making tough, unpopular decisions will roll around again as the province eventually grapples with the economic fallout of
COVID-19 and the downturn in global oil prices.
And then the notion of being popular shall too pass.
“It certainly has been an interesting twist. I never expected that … I have never been called a rockstar. I have never been loved by a fan base. This is all very strange,” he said.
“I would be quite happy to settle for mildly loathed and regard that as a win.”
From a personal perspective, Haggie can relate to separation from family — one of his three daughters, Elizabeth, lives in Lewisporte, but his other daughters Hollie and Jennifer live in B.S. and Ontario respectively. All have children and another grandchild is on the way outside of the province.
All have children and another grandchild is on the way out of province.
Some of his tough love parenting style has been revealed in the briefings.
“I tried to realize two things — they had plenty of friends. They needed a father but at the end of the day ... you’d still all be friends,” he said of setting limits during their growing up years.
Haggie grew up in postsecond World War Manchester, U.K. during a time of rebuilding from the wartime destruction, followed by a decline in the manufacturing sector.
He graduated from the University of Manchester in 1977, after having been raised by his mother Barbara in an extended family household including his uncle Glyn, who helped inspire his love of words and creative word usage. His sister, Katherine, remains in the U.K.