The longer we are in lockdown, the more Liberals will lose. With an under-functioning Parliament and a flattened COVID curve, the government needs to pivot quickly, or any hope of an early election majority may simply be wishful thinking.

By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on June 15, 2020.

OTTAWA—The Liberal COVID-fighting honeymoon is over.

Last week two fatal blows were delivered.

One came from the opposition which banded together to derail tough government legislation on COVID subsidy fraudsters.

The second blow was the picture of the prime minister on bended knee attending a crowded protest with thousands of people at the same time his government is saying you can only gather in groups of five or 10.

Justin Trudeau’s presence at the rally sent an important message about how Canadians need to tackle the issue of systemic racism. He was right to be there.

But his government is off the mark with continued lockdowns, interprovincial travel warnings and international travel bans.

His presence at the protest sent a message in direct conflict to the one delivered daily by public health officials across the country, who are still placing major restrictions on group gatherings for fear of viral transmission.

Until recently, we were told that wearing masks in public would not be helpful. Now we are being told it is a mandatory part of public distancing.

The only people who seem to think things are generally going well must be in a parliamentary bubble.

When asked about the continuing travel ban last week, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said, “The arrangement we have today is working and it is working very well.”

Millions of Canadians who have lost their jobs and/or remain huddled in their homes by government fiat, may not agree with her.

A full-page plea in The Globe and Mail was literally begging the government to reconsider its current lockdown strategy.

The Canadian Travel and Tourism Roundtable enlisted more than 100 companies to support their move to eliminate the 14-day international travel quarantine and reopen the southern border.

As the ad pointed out, the travel/hospitality sector employs 1.8 million people and contributes $102-billion to the Canadian economy.

Similar backlash is happening against travel restrictions in other parts of the world. The United Kingdom is being sued by airline companies for its decision to retain a 14-day quarantine for international travellers who enter the country.

Last month, air travel in the United States fell by 96 per cent, reaching its lowest level in the history of passenger data collection.

Who are the most vulnerable victims of the interprovincial travel and tourism lockdowns? It is the young people, who are facing the bleakest job market.

The May unemployment rate for 20- to 24-year-olds was 29.5 per cent. For those planning to return to school in the fall, the number jumped to a shocking 42.1 per cent. And the problem is not just the unemployed. It is also the mental burden of isolation facing single people working from home.

A close colleague is a millennial whose job was moved to his home at the beginning of the crisis. He was told last week that his office would not reopen until next March. His response was to make an appointment with a mental health professional because the news was so depressing.

It is not surprising that young people are turning their backs on the self-distancing rules of federal and provincial governments. At a younger age, people need more social stimulation. Isolation can kill as quickly as COVID with mental breakdowns and suicides, where the young are most vulnerable.

This lockdown is especially tough on people living alone. Does it make sense to prevent family visits for those who are currently living in long-term care facilities? The loneliness that comes from not seeing a familiar face for months should be considered when quarantines are extended simply based on COVID.

In Ottawa alone, there is now a two-year waiting list for medical procedures cancelled because of COVID. Some postponements are life-threatening, including heart and cancer surgeries that can be fatal if left untreated.

There is going to be a higher death toll in other areas because of the focus on COVID.

The air of parliamentary collegiality which has characterized pandemic relations went out the window because opposition parties are now sensing the vulnerability of the government’s current position.

In the first two months, the prime minister’s daily press conferences were critically acclaimed. Now he is being attacked for spending all his time in scrums while Parliament is mostly muzzled.

The longer we are in lockdown, the more Liberals will lose.

With an under-functioning Parliament and a flattened COVID curve, the government needs to pivot quickly, or any hope of an early election majority may simply be wishful thinking.

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

The time has come to move as a herd.

By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on June 1, 2020.

OTTAWA—Surgical sterility is great for an operating room. But it does not work in the real world.

The notion that after almost three months in lockdown people are expected to either stay home or go to places where they are not allowed to sit down for fear of transmitting COVID is unworkable.

In Calgary, people gather in bars and restaurants in a convivial atmosphere. In Ottawa, you cannot even sit down on picnic tables at the Dairy Queen for fear of an infection outbreak.

In the olden days, Hogtown had another nickname, Toronto the Good. It was based on laws with a distinctively Presbyterian flavour that restricted drinking, dancing, and all things purportedly sinful.

The new normal has unleashed a wave of righteous caterwauling the likes of which we have not witnessed since the seventies (of the last century).

The blowback on the Trinity-Bellwoods park exuberance, was a case in point.

Everyone from the premier to the mayor jumped on the finger-pointing bandwagon, instead of realistically assessing why there was only a postage-stamp park in an area of multiple, low-income high-rise dwellings.

Not everyone has a private backyard to COVID in. In Toronto, the possibility of having your own personal space is even more remote.

So, on a sunny Saturday in May, when the province had announced the loosening of rules to stage two, people came out in droves.

On the fish-eye lens shots that immediately circulated on social media, it looked as though thousands were elbow to elbow.

But when the television cameras arrived, it was clear that people were trying their best to ensure social distancing.

But the armchair critics jumped in to attack millennials, claiming their irresponsibility was putting lives at risk.

At one point, a COVID-commentating doctor was almost in tears on television because he could not understand why people would be undermining the contribution of health-care workers in this thoughtless romp in the park.

Across the pond, critics are vicious in their attack British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s top aid for defying lockdown rules and driving to his mother’s home to drop off his four-year-old with grandma. He claims he and his wife were sick, and therefore the trip was about necessary childcare while they convalesced.

Without drilling down into the details of his explanation, the revelation rocked the country. People are stuck at home and obviously hurting when the rules that apply to them do not apply to others.

But the COVID epidemic has also unleashed the vitriol of unhappy people who normally keep their acidic worldview to themselves.

In today’s world, the COVID police are everywhere, ready to pounce on someone who veers too close on a walking path or accidentally steps in the wrong spot in a grocery store.

The old nosy parker, who was into everybody’s else’s business, is now doing it with impunity, as though their observations on everyone else are in the public interest.

In the condo in which I live, some dwellers have taken to counting the empty visitor parking spots every weekend to make sure that no interlopers are sneaking into the premises.

Last weekend, I hosted two family members for a dinner. It was within the rule of five, and we had covided in their backyard (with self-distancing) several times over the past few months.

To enter the apartment without neighbourly reporting, we made sure family entered through the underground parking, so as not to be outed by anyone looking out their window into visitors’ parking.

I have a friend who is struggling alone to support her husband, suffering with brain cancer. We have a weekly COVID meeting in the passageway between our apartments.

Last Friday, she broke down in tears, describing the loneliness of watching her partner slowly slip away, without the support that would normally attend a dying family member.

Horror of horrors, I hugged her. She needed a human connection and two meters of space just did not cut it.

Perfection may occur in hospital settings, but I think the public’s attention would be far better focused on eliminating risk in long-term care facilities.

With the high ratio of deaths in vulnerable populations, it is shameful that we need the military to expose germ-infested, understaffed conditions in health facilities.

But while we focus on not touching each other, the death rate numbers are largely driven by long-term care neglect.

Canadians have been very supportive of the new normal. But enough is enough. The time has come to move as a herd.

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