WHAT WILL THIS PANDEMIC CHANGE?

Can’t help but wonder about the lingering effects of border closures, social distancing

Closing the Canada-u.s. border to non-essential travel once seemed unfathomable.

Now it’s happening.

It could last months, “as long as it is necessary,” said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

It will hit everything in Windsor, from our economy to our families, because life here straddles the border.

We know we must do this to contain, as much as possible, the spread of the coronavirus. Trudeau and U.S. President Donald Trump deserve credit for their co-operation.

Yet, as Globe and Mail columnist John Ibbitson wrote Thursday, “Walls, once up, don’t easily come down.”

Especially with a president who was already banning people from certain countries, throwing up tariffs and literally building a wall along the border with Mexico.

Will the border here be the same when this is over? Or will it be left unalterably thicker?

Canada understands how critical our massive two-way trade is. The U.S.? It did, in the end, negotiate the new Canada-u.s.-mexico Agreement. But nothing was ever certain with Trump, who was elected vowing to toss NAFTA.

What about all the other myriad connections between the two countries here, the dinners out, shopping, entertainment, sports, strolling the streets, right down to Canadian and American families joined by marriage.

What else could this pandemic change?

I remember watching Trudeau weigh into the crushing crowd outside Highbury Canco in Leamington on a stifling Canada Day in 2018, taking selfies with people, of course. I knew he did that. Still, I marvelled at it. How many heads of government do that?

“I can’t believe we got that close,” my teenage son exclaimed.

Now, most of the 12 candidates in the Ward 7 byelection won’t even knock on voters’ doors or leave pamphlets in their mailboxes. Instead, they’re using phone calls, emails, social media and websites to reach constituents. (The byelection has been postponed but campaigning continues.) It’s social distancing, again, to help contain the virus.

Maybe this will be the “new normal” for campaigns, deputy city clerk Steve Vlachodimos speculated.

What else will become the “new normal?”

Everything is about reducing social contact. Offices, factories, classrooms and daycare centres have emptied. Communal spaces like restaurants, bars, theatres, libraries, community centres, pools and arenas are closed. The Diocese of London has banned funeral masses and baptisms and recommends postponing weddings. Public gatherings are effectively banned.

City hall is closed. Council meetings have been cancelled. County councillors sat far apart from each other when they met Wednesday.

Stay away from people. Don’t leave home unless you absolutely have to.

Some people are even asking if living in apartments or condominiums, with shared elevators, halls, laundry rooms and party rooms, is a health risk.

My mother lived alone in an apartment after my father died. The building manager organized Christmas parties, summer barbecues, an annual party for tenants to meet each other. My mother went to all of them. She was in her 80s, no longer able to drive. These were among the few opportunities for her to socialize.

The Globe reported how international law firm Gowling WLG is counselling condominiums to “consider advising residents of known cases (of coronavirus infection or the disease it causes, COVID-19) in the complex without disclosing the identity of those involved.”

Is that being prudent? I guess? But it’s beginning to make me uncomfortable.

We know social distancing is one of the few things — one of the biggest things — we can do. But when this is over, what will the side effects be?

We’ll be grateful we got through it. And we’ll probably all be batty. Humans are social animals. Maybe we’ll all go out and party like there’s no tomorrow.

But will some things change irrevocably? Will some distance remain? Will we be wary of shaking hands when we meet new people, of hugging friends? Will we be reduced to the elbow bump? When we see crowds, will we feel guarded? Will we wonder who might be the “invisible infector,” the “silent spreader” of the next potential pandemic? God I hope not.

Because the funny thing about social distancing is that what we’re really doing is coming together. We (except those profiting off the demand for hand sanitizer) are heeding the call in a common cause. It’s like a world war, except we’re all on the same side.

Think of the Italians, locked down in a nightmare, singing to each other from their balconies, proving there can be union, comfort and even joy, in short, humanity — from a distance.

But our city, our country, our world is better interconnected.