Table of Contents
Geoffrey Corfield is a card-carrying member of both The Conservative Party of Canada (federal) and the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (provincial).
Canada is just over 37 times bigger than New Zealand. It is divided into 10 provincial and three territorial jurisdictions, three of which are smaller than New Zealand. They constitute the middle layer of government that New Zealand wisely abolished in 1876. You didn’t need it. But Canada, the second biggest country in the world, does.
It means however that when something like a pandemic comes along there are three levels of government involved: Prime Minister, Premier and Mayor.
What is a pandemic? “A disease prevalent throughout an entire country, continent or the world” (my dictionary).
Is it a pandemic when 82% of all the China Virus deaths in the world are in only 12 countries? (all stats as of 13 June).
Is it a pandemic when Canada has 8,049 deaths, 95% of which are in only two provinces (Ontario, Quebec)?
Is it a pandemic when two Canadian provinces (Manitoba, Saskatchewan), have only 20 deaths combined in three months? New Zealand has 22. There’d be more than 22 obituaries in Auckland alone in any one day.
Is it a pandemic when two Canadian cities (Montreal, Toronto), have 60% of all the deaths in Canada?
Is it a pandemic when the city of Toronto has 67% of all the deaths in Ontario?
Is it a pandemic? No. Yet the entire country of Canada has been hobbled for three months. Four people have died in six jurisdictions.
What happened? Politicians were spooked by the wildly over-exaggerated death predictions (the UK predicted 500,000+ deaths/reality 42,000). “The Sirens Are Calling”.
We’re not used to having daily death counts announced. We have nothing to gauge them against. After one month’s lockdown, the trend of the virus in Canada was apparent. It is not a big killer. It mainly affects older people (94% of deaths in Canada 60+ age group). It mainly affects nursing homes (85% of deaths). It mainly affects cities.
Yet politicians in all three levels of government in Canada were frozen. Unable to see the trends and adjust. “The Sirens Are Calling”.
The most sensible four words uttered by any Canadian politician on the virus has come from the Premier of Quebec, the province with the most deaths in Canada (64%). Asked why Quebec was relaxing its restrictions before anywhere else in Canada, the Premier answered: “We have to live”.
Meanwhile across the river from Quebec in Ottawa, the nation’s capital and a city of 934,000 people where 257 have died of the virus in three months; the Prime Minister cowers away: “The pandemic is still threatening the health and safety of Canadians”.
No, Prime Minister. The Prime Minister is threatening the health of the country. “The Sirens Are Calling”.
If you enjoyed this BFD article please consider sharing it with your friends.
