Albertans have done a good job, so take a bow

Let’s hope we’ve at least made it to halftime and not just the end of the first quarter in this COVID-19 campaign across Alberta.

Still, with the province allowing the public health emergency status imposed mid-march to expire, it’s timely to review what we’ve lived through, those months since.

And if it’s any consolation (and it probably isn’t), you can always tell your grandkids you were part of mankind’s biggest ever social engineering project.

So, with seven billion of us engaging in various social-distancing, self-isolating, mask-wearing, quarantine-obeying experiments across the planet, how did Alberta, with its measly 4.4 million souls, stack up?

Somewhat reluctantly, because I balk at praising governments, the verdict must be: very well indeed.

Of course, there have been screw-ups. A slow understanding of the horrors unfolding in long-term care homes and an initially flawed response to the situation in meat-packing plants were mistakes with deadly consequences. The on-again, off-again initial reopening plan for Calgary restaurants was also slipshod.

But, considering the challenges in responding correctly to this pandemic are without precedent, such decisions were, by necessity, taken on the fly. (The initial modelling about this virus was also ludicrously faulty — but no worse than everyone else’s wild guesses.)

Still, why should we pat ourselves on the back?

First, the government stepped back and allowed health professionals, embodied in the figure of Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, to take centre stage.

Sure, Jason Kenney appeared at appropriate times, but unlike provinces such as Ontario, where Doug Ford couldn’t help himself in endlessly hogging the microphone, Alberta’s premier admirably set politics aside. (To see what happens when you politicize life and death, simply look south of our border and shudder.)

The messaging was clear if occasionally grating on a citizenry frazzled at its edges. But overall, the calm and measured way Hinshaw held steady during those months is deserving of Albertans’ respect.

It’s also key there wasn’t a single instance where some politician or health authority big shot was spotted flagrantly disobeying the rules and strictures collectively asked of us all.

(Imagine if Hinshaw was seen throwing a backyard barbecue for a dozen neighbours in late April? Hey, the Scots could provide clarity; their public health boss sneaked off to her holiday home in defiance of rules she herself instigated.)

Also, we are testing, testing and testing again. Per capita, Alberta leads the country, almost 7,000 a day being the current rate. Unless you know what you’re dealing with, how can you proceed?

But mostly it’s the exemplary openness about this virus’s toll that puts Alberta atop the heap. People want facts not bluster and they’re getting exactly that from the province’s health department.

Alberta Health’s COVID website is among the best in Canada, easy to navigate and full of detailed information.

You can track every individual who died, each age group tested, the number of pre-existing conditions involved, the ages affected and so on, without breaching anyone’s privacy.

Did you know, for example, only four people have died of the virus this month and the last Albertan under age 70 to succumb was way back on April 23? Such information is vital in weighing risk and dispelling fear; something we must do if we’re to return to some form of normalcy.

Still, in the end, it is the simple, good-natured way people buckled down, got on with things and still managed a smile. Maybe that attitude is why those marches about racial issues a few weeks ago didn’t erupt into civil disobedience.

We might not care to admit it, but we sort of like each other in this part of the world, regardless of what we disagree upon. (I credit that to collectively experiencing January.)

Seriously, it’s a quite wonderful thing.

We’ll likely need to drink deeply from that same well in the months to come. Halftime or end of the first quarter, there’s a lot of game yet to play.

But what the heck, we’ve got the ball, Alberta.