Canadians wrestle with holiday plans
Rise in infections across the country has many rethinking arrangements
Jeannie Gorry, a government worker living in New Westminster, B.C., couldn’t say no when her son offered to fly her to Toronto this winter so she could spend Christmas with him.
But with COVID-19 cases on the rise and government leaders discouraging interprovincial travel, the single mom decided this week to cancel the flight.
“I’m 58 years old and can’t risk it. I’m laying low, working from home, hoping I don’t get COVID,” she said. “I cancelled that flight today. I just haven’t told him. I don’t want to break his heart, but he’ll understand.”
Across this sprawling country, in which families and generations often spread from coast to coast, many are weighing their options for holiday travel this winter. Do they book that flight to reunite with loved ones or stay put and isolate? Do they lead with their hearts or with their heads?
This week, B.C. Premier John Horgan publicly called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to issue a “pan-Canadian” message to limit interprovincial movement to essential travel and to encourage Canadians to “stay where you live.”
“We can see the finish line. We can see some hope at the end of what has been a very, very difficult tunnel. But we cannot lose our resolve,” Horgan said.
“I’m asking the federal government to work with us and other provinces to get the message out that if you do not have to travel between jurisdictions you shouldn’t do so. … The people of Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba need to know that they should stay in Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba.”
Trudeau told reporters Friday he had no appetite to bring down a “federal hammer” and shut down provincial borders. But he did urge restraint. “What I’m doing right now is telling people not to go out if you don’t have to, not to travel if you don’t have to, for the coming weeks. We need to flatten this curve,” he said.
“We all want to try and have as normal a Christmas as possible even though a normal Christmas is, quite frankly, out of the question. But what kinds of limits we have in place and what kinds of permissions public health is going to encourage us to have depends a lot on what we do right now.”
South of the border, where more than one million COVID-19 cases were reported in the past week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put out a statement Thursday, discouraging people from travelling for American Thanksgiving.
“As cases continue to increase rapidly across the United States, the safest way to celebrate Thanksgiving is to celebrate at home with the people you live with,” the statement said.
“Travel may increase your chance of getting and spreading COVID-19. Postponing travel and staying home is the best
way to protect yourself and others this year.”
In Atlantic Canada, where the four easternmost provinces created their own “bubble” — allowing residents to travel freely within it but requiring outsiders to self-isolate for 14 days upon arrival — the question of holiday travel is particularly acute.
At the French-language Université Sainte-Anne in Nova Scotia, a notice on the university’s website states that the school “strongly discourages non-essential travel outside the Atlantic bubble,” including during Thanksgiving and winter breaks.
It says students will be allowed to stay on campus during winter break at no additional cost and that arrangements will be made to ensure they have access to food services.
At St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, university administrators anticipate that about 1,000 students will be leaving the bubble over the holidays, said campus spokesperson Cindy MacKenzie. All of them will be required to isolate when they return, she said.
Sarah Elliott, a fourth-year student and president of the student union, said while administrators have been encouraging students to stay inside the Atlantic bubble, “There’s also a total understanding that it’s been a long few months and a lot of people need to see their
families.”
Elliott said she will be returning home to Pickering, Ont.
“I haven’t been home since May, so I’m very looking forward to it,” she said.
For those students who’ve chosen to stay on campus this winter — the university anticipates 30 to 50 — members of the Antigonish community have reached out with offers to “adopt a student” and bring them into their homes for the holidays, she said.
“It’s so lovely. It speaks to the community. We’ve been overwhelmed by that.”
Richard Vanderlubbe, president of tripcentral.ca and a board member with the Association of Canadian Travel Agencies, said there’s been an uptick in flight bookings in recent weeks with winter approaching, but overall numbers are still down significantly.
“There could be big changes at the last minute with domestic travel because, of course, there’s seats available,” he said. “Normally, as you get closer to Christmas, there’s not a lot of seats available and prices are through the roof. We could see potentially more activity at the last minute just because there
are so many available flights and people deciding at the last second, ‘Hey, maybe I will go visit family.’ ”
Vanderlubbe said he respects those customers who don’t wish to fly right now. But in his view, it’s reasonably safe to travel.
“The airport volumes are very low. It’s very easy to socially distance in the airport. On the flight, everybody is masked,” he said.
The notion that travel within provinces is OK, but travel between provinces is bad doesn’t make sense to him. “I think the risks are manageable. It’s not perfect, nothing is. But honestly, airport authorities and airlines are doing everything they can and being as responsible and serious about this as they can at a lot of cost.”
Still, some families say the risk is too great. Aliya Jiwan-Thawer, of Markham, said when she got married her husband promised her parents in Edmonton that he would bring their only child home every Christmas.
For more than a decade, they’ve carried through with that promise, except the two years when she was pregnant. This year will be the third time.
“We didn’t want to risk it this year,” she said. “I have young kids in school and our priority is to keep them and their schools safe. My parents aren’t young. My mom turns 70 in February. I’d like nothing more than to go see them, for them to see their grandkids and for me to hug them and know they are OK. But it’s too risky for everyone,” she said.
“I’m sure they’re going to miss this time with us. When you
have little kids, they’re very loud and the house is filled with lots of noise and laughter. It’s certainly going to be hard, but my mom assured me that we were making the right decision.”
Toronto’s Janine Keogh said her family will also be staying put this Christmas. Normally, they would travel to Canmore, Alta., and spend the holiday with her father, her siblings and their families.
But because her father’s health is compromised, they just didn’t want to risk it. Everyone will celebrate Christmas in their respective homes.
That doesn’t mean all15 members of her family in Ontario and Alberta won’t be connected.
On Christmas Day, each will get a box under the tree containing personal messages from the 14 other members of the family telling them why they are loved, Keogh said.
“We want everyone to have that feeling of being connected to each other, not through a little Christmas card or a quick Zoom call, but something that’s taken a little bit more time and is meaningful. It could create a new tradition. It’s something to remember this year by positively.”
And instead of exchanging gifts, family members will be donating to their favourite charities.
Asked what message she’d give to folks who are weighing whether to travel this holiday season, she said: “My perspective on that is twofold: The virus only moves if we move, so we’re better to stay put. That’s the first message.
“The second one is: When we are free to get together next, we want everyone there. And so we isolate now, so no one’s missing when we get together.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged restraint on travel plans for the upcoming holiday