Some good from crisis

Good will come of the COVID-19 lockdown, of that much we can be certain.

Even if it’s just getting us a step closer to understanding how influenza and coronaviruses cause so much damage to the human body, we will be stronger a year from now (let’s hope sooner).

There are other, more tangible side effects closer to home, too. In fact, many of them were in our newspaper this week.

Reporter Barb Aguiar included some important “silver linings” in her stories about how West Kelowna, WFN and Peachland were progressing on their reopening plans.

Barb interviewed business owners Angela O’Brien and Florenda Pickett of Esteem Lingerie in West Kelowna.

The mother-and-daughter team said their business is 10% of normal, but they used their time away from work to spend time together.

That’s not easy for small business owners, to be sure. They also said something interesting in that they believe people are backing “shop local” more than ever.

That’s certainly a sentiment we hope you share, too.

Ron Seymour also found local business owners professing their optimism this week. He spoke with

Doc Willoughby’s owner Dave Willoughby, who used the lockdown to renovate his pub.

He seemed excited by the prospect of a new look, and we’ll be sure to host the next Interior Press Club meeting there when rules permit. You may even find one or two reporters there testing it out in the meantime.

Barb also listened to MLA Ben Stewart’s speech to the Greater Westside Board of Trade. As you can imagine, Stewart’s phone has been ringing off the hook since businesses and schools shut down two months ago.

He suggested there’s more that could be done to help the average Canadian, including a “tax holiday” whereby governments drop the PST and GST for a short period.

While we’d welcome that as a stimulus, it’s what Stewart said next that made us hopeful. He said the province’s finance department is considering some of the ideas the B.C. Liberal party has suggested.

Wouldn’t it be nice if partisan politics didn’t last beyond this pandemic? We’ve seen tremendous examples of politicians crossing the aisle to help keep Canadians healthy, no more so than Ontario Premier Rob Ford thanking the Ontario opposition parties for their support.

Yikes, if a Ford (who has won praise for his leadership this year) can do it, maybe there’s hope for everyone else.

It seems to us, Canadians have never really felt comfortable wading into the muck, and I’m curious to see if that continues.

There’s always hope — a sentiment that has never been more important than it is today.