Who could not want a spring election?
There are some reasonably eminent people, among whom we may count certain journalists, who have been speculating that Canada may have a spring election.
The line of thinking among these eminences is that Justin Trudeau and his cabinet confrères have performed so well during this year of COVID, lockdowns and economic devastation, that they should be treated to a fuller endorsement than the mere minority gifted them during the past visit to the polls.
I entirely concur. Theirs has been a miracle of governance. And a fresh round of applause from the nation’s polling stations is merely their just deserts.
Would anyone argue the contrary?
The federal government’s management of COVID-19 has been a masterpiece of foresight and swift and determinative response. True, there may have been a few, let us call them stumbles, at the beginning. The matter of not banning certain flights because that would be seen as “racism” more than pandemic control, may have been a minor error. But as with any or all the errors our government makes, more than forgivable because it sprang from unimpeachably woke motives.
The same goes for the early advisories on how great the impact from COVID would be (much underestimated), and that “masking” — now seen as an absolute imperative — would not help, or could actually make matters worse.
To be fair there was a final slip. There was perhaps a less than a perfect understanding of the need to protect the very elderly, especially those in long-term care homes, from a pandemic that has proved most ruthless on just that cohort of Canadians. Who could have surmised that the oldest Canadians, already visited by the infirmities that attend old age, would be both more exposed and vulnerable to a “new” influenza? In this oversight the federal government may join some of the provinces in sharing the blame.
It is in fact the most disturbing fact of this awful moment that the oldest and most exposed of our citizens have carried far more of its terrible consequence than any other grouping. So also, their nearest and dearest relations.
We should not, and cannot disremember, when lockdowns were imposed, when “social distancing” was made the rule for all, those early scenes, of sons, daughters, husbands and wives, sitting outside the windows, tapping on the glass, mouthing comforts and “Hello” to their isolated loved ones on the other side of those windows, in certain LTC facilities.
But let us move past that. Was there not much example set in shutting down Parliament, or making sure that esteemed gathering was not a centre of contagion? Could there have been a more grave signal of how serious our leadership was, that during this singular crisis, our own government was willing to amputate its function, and suspend the normal rites of parliamentary democracy itself ?
Aside from showing up once in public during a BLM protest to “take a knee” — a truly exceptional and one-time-only reprieve from the need to social distance and avoid all crowds — the prime minister offered a perfect example.
Otherwise we saw him daily, courageously singular and alone, descending the steps from his residence at rideau Cottage to announce the “updates” and new expenditures. This was obviously a necessity since to mingle with parliamentarians and — heaven forfend — submit to questioning on whether one day’s outflow of billions might not be more wisely sent in another direction — might place a shadow on or curtail the wisdom of the particular announcement being made.
Stay home. Stay alone. We have your back. And we are pouring billions in a wild river into the economy to keep you safe. These were the words and actions that gave comfort to all Canadians.
And, as for Parliament. Well, who does not appreciate that Parliament is only for times when we are not in crisis, when we are spending within normal limits. Because, above all things, there is never a need to convene our only guarantee of democracy, when truly nation-changing events are actually in progress.
Parliament, as I have written in these pages earlier, exists only for the incidental passages in the life of the nation.
And so we come back to the speculations of a federal spring election. I totally agree that it is a great and worthy idea. Conducted without public gatherings, without those annoying town halls and constituency meetings, with candidates sealed safely in Zoom rooms away from all contact with voters — a totally virtual election in fact — who would resist the idea?
COVID-ERA ERRORS SPRANG FROM WOKE MOTIVES.