One certainty remains. The community spirit of Prince Edward Islanders and other devastated Atlantic Canadians cannot be destroyed.

By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on October 3, 2022.

OTTAWA—Not too many people are foolish enough to fly into a hurricane. Most people focus their efforts on trying to get away from them.

But last week, I joined the ranks of the storm watchers, those slightly twisted meteorologic amateurs who like to fly into the eye of the storm.

In my case, the trip had nothing to do with weather.

Instead, my high school basketball team planned a week-long girls’ reunion on Prince Edward Island, the starting date of which just happened to coincide with the arrival of post-tropical storm Fiona.

The team, which started playing together back in 1967, never gave a moment’s thought to cancelling the trip. After all, we are fighters, part of a high school girls’ squad that could beat anything.

Our multi-year undefeated record was testament to that as our coach, Cecilia Carter-Smith, reminded us when the storm battered our two-storey lodging.

We arrived in beautiful downtown Charlottetown a few hours before Fiona landed.

I flew in on an Air Canada turbo-prop from Ottawa, and midway through the flight, we hit a series of air pockets that literally got my praying for my life.

The 78-seater Q-400 flew at 35,000-feet, smack into the middle of headwinds that were a precursor of Fiona’s flight to Canada.

When the flight began, we were warned about potential turbulence by the captain. He wasn’t kidding. The plane was tossed from the top down and from side to side like a badminton shuttlecock.

At one point, the nose started to veer sideways with one wing leaning higher by the minute.

Luckily for everyone on the plane, the pilot was skilled enough to handle the challenge. Within about 20 minutes, he had permission to fly down to 15,000 feet which cut the buffeting considerably.

During those frightening minutes, you could hear a pin drop. Everyone appeared to keep silent counsel. For my part, I was repeating the rosary and trying to forget the fact that my grandmother died in a plane crash.

My mind was filled with doom and gloom, but prayer pushed it out until, finally, the plane descended to a more comfortable altitude.

The pilot finally broke the silence, calmly advising everyone what we already knew. The worst was over and we were now on a manageable flight path.

Upon arrival in Charlottetown, our team was commiserating on whether the hurricane would even happen or whether this was just a hyped-up storm prediction that would not materialize.

Just to be on the safe side, we ordered three pizzas, which turned out to be a good move as in the wake of Fiona, we had no electricity and no way of actually feeding ourselves as all restaurants were in the same powerless situation.

We were staying in one of the century-old homes owned by the Great George Hotel, a fabulous downtown heritage property which is just like a second home.

Our edifice was just down the street and our bedrooms were on the second floor. I was facing north, right in the windy path of Fiona’s wrath. The wind howled and the rain pelted, but it wasn’t until an ancient tree towering over the building was cracked by the storm that we began to worry.

In the end, two giant trees were felled on both sides of our house, but by the grace of God, neither of their oversized trunks hit the building.

We emerged unscathed the following morning, only to be confronted with the hard evidence of Fiona’s massive destruction in every community on the island.

Everyone was pitching in to help with the cleanup. In one instance, a family of 11, whose roof was decapitated by Fiona, was offered free lodging by the Murphy clan, generous owners of the Great George. The lodgings allowed them some respite from the elements while they hatched a plan to rebuild their home.

Neighbours pitched in to help neighbours, and no one was left wanting for food or water.

It truly was a community effort as the rebuilding began.

When we left the island almost a week later, there were still swathes of the province without power, and electricity crews were working double overtime trying to restore some form of normalcy.

Some natural wonders, like the dunes in the Prince Edward Island National Park and Teacup Rock, may never come back.

Other losses, like the iconic 100-year-old trees throughout the province, will be replaced. One certainty remains. The community spirit of Prince Edward Islanders and other devastated Atlantic Canadians cannot be destroyed.

Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.

But at the end of the day, the bulk of the blame will be borne by the federal government.

By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on June 13, 2022.

OTTAWA—To mask or not to mask. That is the question.

As the provinces move to end requirements for wearing masks in public places, the federal government continues to insist that COVID rules will not be loosened.

As passengers return to air travel, they are continuing to experience massive delays, the blame for which is falling directly on the shoulders of the government.

The chaos at Pearson International Airport is so bad that a former National Hockey Leaguer has dubbed the airport “the worst place on Earth.”

Ryan Whitney, who hosts a popular podcast, tweeted about Pearson after taking 30 hours to complete an Air Canada flight from Edmonton to Boston.

One video showed Whitney waiting for six hours to rebook a cancelled flight only to be turned away. His documented video went viral with more than one million views.

Upon arriving home in Boston, Whitney declined media requests but posted his final unmistakeable global rebuke: “God bless anyone who ever has to step foot in that hellhole.”

Air Canada, and the airport, are blaming delays on federally required pandemic related tests and mandatory vaccination questionnaires.

Frustration has reached such a point that pro-Liberal Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie has been on the news calling the situation “completely unacceptable. It is not how we want to be viewed by the rest of the world. … Tourism season is on us. We need to get this fixed!”

Finger-pointing will continue between governments, the airport management, the airlines, and national regulatory authorities like the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority, which is responsible for all screening.

But at the end of the day, the bulk of the blame will be borne by the federal government.

As the summer season looms, the last thing anyone wants is chaos at Canada’s largest airport.

Fifty countries around the world have already decided to drop their COVID airport screening requirements.

But instead of following their lead, the federal government is continuing to require lengthy screening processes, notwithstanding the request by everyone in the airline business to ease up on COVID processes.

“This is not the face we want to show the world,” Crombie told CTV news in a wide-ranging interview explaining how Pearson’s problems are affecting business and tourism in the region.

Transport Minister Omar Alghabra has been working double overtime, trying to ensure that security and airport screening hires are made and trained quickly.

Agencies involved in the hirings have even allowed employees in training to go right to the frontlines of work at the airport.

The transport minister announced the hiring of 865 more screening employees, who must go through training before they are fully operational.

Alghabra’s hands are tied on the health front, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reiterated last week that science dictates a requirement for airport rules should remain in place.

He reminded Canadians we are still experiencing the pandemic. Travel rules will remain in place until at least Canada Day.

Alghabra has to simply keep reassuring stranded travellers that his department is working hard to fix the problem.

Non-travellers are not worried about lineups, but for those trying to get back to pre-COVID business normalcy, the delays are damaging.

With such a large contingent of GTA Liberals, it is hard to see a solution to the political pressure they must be feeling.

Passport delays are further adding to travel grief, with long lineups reported at many offices across the country.

Add the Pearson mess to dismal provincial Liberal results in the Ontario election, and members going home for the summer will be getting an earful from their constituents.

Most Canadians are not personally invested when government programs face glitches.

But when it comes to travel, every single Canadian who intends to leave the country needs a passport.

Likewise, tourism operators who have been starving during COVID are hoping to see a springboard to normalcy this summer.

But with all the bad news on Pearson going global, many foreign travellers may think twice before making Canada their chosen destination.

One answer would be to end COVID screening requirements on all flights.

There is no doubt that certain health risks are attached to those measures, but with provincial governments de-masking most activities in their provinces, the danger of going into a crowded restaurant is probably equivalent to passenger travel risk on planes.

Medical professionals may not be happy with the de-masking requirements, but the general population is ready to embrace the new normal.

After more than two years in lockdown, people want to be free.

Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.

Voters are always happier in the spring and the economic fallout won’t yet be felt.

By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on February 8, 2021.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has to keep saying that he does not want an election. Forcing the country into a vote in the middle of a pandemic may be seen as an impolitic move.

However, the three provinces that have gone to the polls during this pandemic have all been rewarded with majority governments.

So those who say the calling of a COVID election would cost votes are wrong. Sure, there would be a couple of days of grumbling at the beginning of the campaign. But very quickly, pundits and politicians would start debating the big issues facing Canadians at the moment.

Economic and health uncertainty are the obvious themes that need to be addressed.

Thus far, these are both issues where the opposition parties have not been able to secure much traction.

The Conservatives have been hitting hard at pandemic mismanagement. With Pfizer delaying their promised deliveries, and provinces adding their criticism to the rollout, the government has suffered some political damage. However, that will be forgotten as soon as the rollout returns at the end of February.

These hiccups are happening around the world, and Canadians are not alone in the challenge of securing and delivering vaccines to needy citizens.

But most Canadians will not hold that against the government once the election is called. Instead, they may attack the opposition for being offside in a world pandemic situation.

Last week Green Party Leader Annamie Paul tried to carve out her own COVID space, accusing the government of being a bad global citizen because it tapped into a previously contracted number of vaccines from Covax. Paul said the Canadian government should not have access to a vaccine that was developed primarily to assist poorer countries.

But the Green Party leader won’t get much support on that one. If she had read the fine print of the Canadian Covax funding announcement last fall, she would know that one-half of the $440-million invested in the Covax vaccine was intended for Canadian vaccine use.

And when Canadian lives are at risk, it seems strange for a Canadian politician to deny the vaccine to her own country.

Similar criticism was reflected in some international media reports, which accused Canada of being greedy as one of the few developed countries tapping into the Covax vaccine.

While the world needs a global strategy, all politics is still local. And Paul will not get a lot of support for attacking the Liberals’ desire to protect Canadians.

The government is also facing a long-term economic meltdown as province by province, businesses are forced to shutter, and citizens are required to stay home in lockdown.

Liberals delivered a death blow to the airline industry by asking them to shut down flights to the Caribbean and Mexico in a popular, but misguided effort to stop the spread of the virus.

By all accounts, air travel was responsible for little more than one per cent of the COVID transmission, but that did not stop the government from introducing a punitive hotel quarantine for any citizen returning from abroad after next week. This requirement has zero pandemic value, as it supplements a COVID PCR test before anyone gets on a plane and after they get off. It also requires those who have been vaccinated to quarantine.

And even though the viral mutations came from the United Kingdom, Brazil, and South Africa, none of these destinations have been shut down.

The move was largely intended to keep people from travelling during spring break and it worked. But the airlines have also laid off thousands and Air Canada shut down Rouge last week. Professor Fred Lazar, of the Schulich School of Business at York University, said travel is being unfairly targeted in the pandemic fight. “They are doing it to cater to the vast majority of Canadians that have a holier than thou attitude toward travel.” Full disclosure, I am one of those shameful snowbirds who left Canada for southern climes, despite the best advice of my government.

But even if the move did not make health sense, it was very popular, and managed to distract attention from vaccine rollout problems.

Some Canadian routes, cancelled during COVID, will never return, exacerbating regional isolation.

Meanwhile, once the vaccine gets rolling, there will be a collective sigh of relief. That is the moment to trigger an election. Voters are always happier in the spring and the economic fallout won’t yet be felt.

Most Canadians will reward the Liberals for taming the COVID beast.

Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.