Friday, August 13, 2021

Dear Mr. Trudeau

Thank you for reading my letter. 

Let me begin by saying that I had hoped to maintain a congratulatory tone throughout this missive. After all, you have done a very good job keeping us relatively safe during the extraordinary times we have undergone these past 17 months.

You delivered on the vaccine.

You delivered with CERB

You initiated badly-needed supports for businesses devastated by the pandemic.

You set a national example during our time of confinement.

You followed the Covid rules, isolating when required.

You showed your willingness to forsake tonsorial splendour.

You talked to us daily about the disease.

You wore a mask.

Essentially, you were a positive role model when the times demanded one.

You really had our backs.

But now, sadly, I must turn to the darker side of your soul, the political part demonstrating the grave dichotomy between your public persona and your deeper self. 

What will so many people infer from your calling an unnecessary election during a fourth wave? Surely many will see it as a reckless, even ruthless, willingness to place your political hopes (a majority government) over the health and safety of your fellow citizens.  

Consider this. A fourth wave of Covid is convulsing the nation. People, even the vaccinated, are contracting the Delta variant, said to be as contagious as chicken pox and deadlier than the original virus.

Your chief medical health officer, Teresa Tam, continues to advise extreme caution.

In Canada's most populous province, Ontario, growth of the virus is alarming, and has now reached a reproduction rate of 1.62, meaning, of course, that every 100 Covid cases causes an average of 162 infections.

Of course, you know all of this. And yet you are calling an election that will require millions of Canadians to congregate dangerously at polling stations, which brings me to another disturbing point about your recklessness. Presumably, the bulk of polling stations will be in their traditional locales, many of which are schools. Have you not considered the health risks you are inflicting on children trying to get back to a reasonable approximation of traditional learning?

There is more that I could say, but allow me to close by reiterating my disappointment in the path the media tell us you have chosen. It is a path that will serve only to deepen cynicism in an electorate that expects much better of you.


6 comments:

  1. Most of the commentary I'm getting bears you out, Lorne. This election will revolve around the pandemic, how well the Libs handled it and whether the government should be made to pay for calling us to the polls when the "fourth wave" is just taking hold.

    I don't have strong feelings about that, for or against Mr. Trudeau. As I hunker down indoors with my blinds tightly drawn against Day 2 of the second Heat Bubble while wildfires rage and blanket vast swathes of the country with PM 2.5 smoke clouds, I fear this election will not focus on the very existential threat facing Canada and our young people.

    If the other parties had anything much better than Mr. Trudeau they might try to make the climate emergency an election issue. They don't, not really. Neither the Tories nor the NDP will advocate the "induced implosion" of Canada's fossil energy industries. They're like the Romans' two-headed god, Janus.

    Covid-19, in some variant(s), could well be with us years after the clock runs out on the climate emergency. There'll be no remedies coming from the floor of the House of Commons.

    Canada has never faced an existential threat, not even during WWII. We're not constituted, as a nation or as a people, to rise to the threat. That would begin with acknowledging the enormity and urgency of the threat and no leader is willing to take that electoral risk.

    This election is not about the nation's needs and the public's wellbeing. It's about who can hold onto or grasp power. The people are just bit players in a political pantomime.

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    1. No matter what the external situation may be, Mound, the rule seems to be "politics as usual." The possibility of real leadership emerging is non-existent.

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  2. The people are just bit players in a political pantomime.
    Political pantomime is just enabling climate disaster.
    This may be disaster capitalisms' finest moment
    Everything will be up for grabs

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    1. That we are just bit players neatly sums up the situation, lungta.

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  3. All of this seems rather insane, Lorne. As we hurtle to the abyss, we continue to jettison our ability to do the right thing.

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    1. Well, continuing with lungta's observation, Owen, I guess the government regards us only as "poor players who strut and fret their hour upon the stage and then are heard no more." Time to prove them wrong.

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