Hugh Mackenzie
I must confess that there have been moments in recent times (not too many fortunately) when I have wished that Kathleen Wynne was still premier of Ontario. Now that I have caught your attention, let me explain why.
When it comes to the management of the COVID-19 pandemic, I believe that in many ways Premier Doug Ford and his government are getting a bum rap. Have they made mistakes? Yes. Could some things have been done differently? Of course.
On balance, however, in spite of the endless finger-pointing and couch-potato critics, the Ford Government has handled the myriad complications that come with a world-wide, game-changing pandemic as well as anyone else. In spite of wishful thinking by partisans, there would be no significant difference if Kathleen Wynne were still premier or if premier-wannabes Andrea Horwath and Steven Del Duca (whose only mantra so far is that if Ford is in favour of it, they are against it) were in the cat seat.
Well-known pollster Angus Reid observed recently that the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has driven a surge of criticism of Doug Ford. Indeed, his public support has dropped to 32 per cent. But many people are tired, frustrated, and angry over the restrictions brought on by COVID-19 and finding someone to blame is predictable and easy. Would it be any different if someone else was premier? I doubt it.
The Ford Government has been widely accused of hoarding vaccines and not having the infrastructure to get them into people’s arms. Federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu this past Tuesday perpetuated this by stating that Ottawa has delivered more than four million vaccine doses to Ontario and that “only” 2.5 million have been administered. She is factual in that statement, but it clearly leaves the impression that there are 1.5 million vaccines sitting around somewhere in Ontario.
What she purposefully failed to mention, however, is that more than a million of those vaccines had just been delivered to the province in the previous two days and over the Easter holiday weekend when much of the country was shut down. At the time of Hajdu’s statement on Tuesday, the province barely had had the time to even open the boxes.
Nevertheless, this week has been a record for the Province when it comes to vaccinating people. It has proven that once the vaccine was available, the infrastructure set up by the provincial government is working. This has happened not because Doug Ford suddenly woke up, but rather because sufficient vaccines finally became available and the province was ready for them. Assuming the flow of vaccines continues, the Ford Government predicts it will have vaccinated 40 per cent of adults in Ontario within the next four weeks. If achieved, that will be remarkable.
We are now well into a third phase of COVID-19 and its variants. Today, Ontario is reporting nearly 4,500 infections on Saturday, a record and a disturbing one. Opposition leader Andrea Horwath has said that Premier Ford has marched Ontario straight into a third wave of this pandemic. That is incorrect. We have been in the midst of a global third wave surge for the eighth week in a row. Canada, including Ontario, is not immune.
It is fair to wonder, however, if actions taken previously by the Ford Government would have lessened the effect of the third wave on Ontario. That will always be a matter of conjecture. But it has always been a balancing act and, at the end of the day, it has always depended on the behaviour of individuals.
If the government had completely shut down the province for, say, the past six months as some had suggested in an effort to contain a surge, would we have accepted that or would it be inviting civic rebellion, some of which we have already witnessed? Was it important to balance the economy, financial viability for individuals, and people’s mental health with the reality of having to control the virus? Should the Province have taken police-state measures to deal with anti-maskers, pandemic deniers, and the thousands of individuals that ignored crowd gathering restrictions? We will all have our views in second-guessing what should have been done, but it really is a damned if you do and damned if you don’t scenario.
Perhaps a better title for this article would have been, “In defense of Doug Ford” but I really do feel we are firing too many missiles here. One further example includes the condition of nursing homes, a problem that has been evident over at least four previous administrations, and only the Ford Government has established an arm’s length panel to do something about it. In relation to COVID-19, it should also be noted that in January of this year there were 774 COVID-related deaths in long-term care homes in Ontario. In February there were 201 deaths and in March there were nine deaths. I don’t recall Ms. Horwath or Mr. Del Duca mentioning that!
For the record and for those with pen in hand to jump on me for defending Doug Ford, let me say this: If you actually read my previous articles related to COVID-19, you will have seen that I have been critical of the Ford Government on several issues related to their management of the pandemic. Conversely, although there are many aspects to the Trudeau Government’s responsibilities in relation to the current pandemic, I have only been critical of one of them, and that is the timely acquisition of vaccines. On that, based on other countries on a per capita basis, the record speaks for itself.
The bottom line on all of this is that people have to get vaccinated. Vaccines must be available, and they must get into people’s arms. That is the only way we get to control this pandemic. Finger-pointing and second-guessing, no matter how much we enjoy it, simply won’t cut it.
To that end, I applaud the editorial in Saturday’s Toronto Star. It was a cogent argument for promoting mass vaccinations. Two paragraphs stood out to me.
The first was, “For make no mistake: if we are going to get to the level of ‘herd immunity’ necessary to defeat COVID-19 in all its variant forms, a polite ‘please get a shot’ won’t be enough. The message is going to have to be a lot tougher, and it will include making clear that getting vaccinated will be needed to do some basic things like travel or attending big events.”
The other was, “Getting to a level of vaccination that will allow us to safely reopen society, without fear of yet more outbreaks and lockdowns, is the most essential task we face.”
Amen to that.
Let’s just concentrate on getting people vaccinated.
Hugh Mackenzie has held elected office as a trustee on the Muskoka Board of Education, a Huntsville councillor, a District councillor, and mayor of Huntsville. He has also served as chairman of the District Muskoka and as chief of staff to former premier of Ontario, Frank Miller.
Hugh has served on a number of provincial, federal and local boards, including chair of the Ontario Health Disciplines Board, vice-chair of the Ontario Family Health Network, vice-chair of the Ontario Election Finance Commission, and board member of Roy Thomson Hall, the National Theatre School of Canada, and the Anglican Church of Canada. Locally, he has served as president of the Huntsville Rotary Club, chair of Huntsville District Memorial Hospital, chair of the Huntsville Hospital Foundation, president of Huntsville Festival of the Arts, and board member of Community Living Huntsville.
In business, Hugh Mackenzie has a background in radio and newspaper publishing. He was also a founding partner and CEO of Enterprise Canada, a national public affairs and strategic communications firm established in 1986.
Currently Hugh is president of C3 Digital Media Inc. and enjoys writing commentary for Huntsville Doppler.
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Anna-Lise Kear, nothing wrong with an elite, nothing at all! What is wrong though is when you think your an elite, and your not such as this PM we have, causes issues and in this case deaths to many! Doug ford has his team and that is it! He is not making judgement calls and decisions with out input from his elite team! As far as sick time! From my experience, it can be one of the most costliest for a small business and big business!!! Its a fact! There are honest people out there that wouldn’t abuse it but let me remind you something, there are a lot of others that would! Safe day to all first responders out there, and more so now more then ever, to those that are making it work, thanks!
Doug Ford and Lecce are doing the best they can. If they could do any better – they would. Believe me, this is not a compliment nor any endorsement for the Progressive Conservatives.
Mr. Beacock; There are times when we need the “elites” of our society. If the meaning of “elites” in this context is someone who is well educated and experienced in their chosen field, then do we not want the “best” that we can have in handling this science, research, and public health driven pandemic?
There is a time for finding the “best”, not the mediocre. It is a sign of wisdom in leadership, I think to surround yourself with only the “best” advisors and to take their advice. That requires humility, wisdom, and enough smarts to know who is the brightest and how to listen. It requires discernment as to how to pick the best out from the merely close at hand and convenient resource.
One more “imagine” from me. Imagine if we had an “elite” communicator – the best only need apply.
At this time we have no women as premiers of our thirteen provinces and territories . This to me is unfortunate, as I personally have the feeling that women would have done a better job to control this pandemic.
We have had seven female provincial/territory Chief Medical Officers who have communicated concisely and with empathy over the past year to their citizens . They are listeners, collaborative, and non partisan when ” making” decisions . However, in many instances their advice was not followed by their premiers. So here we are today in an explosive third wave of the pandemic in this country , except for the Atlantic provinces .
From Quebec to the West Coast the premiers have not indicated a real desire to lock down their provinces until it was too late .
In Ontario, from my perspective, I feel that premier Ford is more concerned about his business buddies and not the health and safety of Ontarians . If he had followed the medical/epidemiologists advice in January we would not be in a third lock down extending to May 4 .
We will never know how these women ( Rona Ambrose PC , Rachel Notley NDP, and Kathleen Wynne Lib ) would have handled this pandemic , but I personally feel that their empathy /caring/love for their citizens would have been inspiring to all Canadians .
Keep up the good work there Doug Ford!!!!! Trudeau thinks he is an elite! What’s he done for us? Messed up big time with china on the vaccine! SNC! Countless other issues! Canadian Armed Forces Greg Norman! Sexual assault investigations in the CAF’s, shut them down quickly, didn’t he! Arm chair critic’s LOL! This is a learn as we go situation and there will lots of people think they could have done better! Think you can do better? Step up to the plate! Doug Ford is doing a great job! Enough said! Have a safe lock down, we are where we are, because of some people’s inept ability to do as their asked!
Mr. Mackenzie and all; recall the populist rhetoric from the Conservative party during the last provincial election. What stands out was the distain for the “elites”. Kelly Leitch was indeed a pediatrician – one of the “elites”. Campaign included a “buck a beer” slogan and very little else in platform. We also had chants of “lock her up” coming from the populace in response to the sis-boom-bah of the campaign.
Populism is emotional abuse of the electorate; we get what we vote for and then do the dance.
For the past year (not just since the third wave), we could have benefited from some of these “elites”.
Imagine, elites in medicine, public health, biological and environmental science having a direct effect on policy decisions. Imagine elites in public ownership of a functioning vaccine lab. Imagine elites who would support common good in their support of front line, essential service work (not responding ideologically- afraid to offer paid sick days to essential workers -because “they” might get used to it!).
Yes, DF has inherited some previous missteps of the Conservative government. Yes DF is in a uniquely difficult place of leadership in a horrific pandemic. DF hasn’t chosen to be guided by and does not recognize the best of the elites who could help Ontarians most. DF and the Conservative cabinet have collectively mis-stepped multiple times at key decision-making crossroads. No, I couldn’t have done better – but there are a lot of “elites” who could and would have.
The blame for the 3rd wave lies squarely on the narrow shoulders of those who deny medical science because it interferes with their everyday pursuit of what is best for them irregardless of what harm it may do others . Ignorance is apparently bliss for some .
Importing Variants During A Pandemic.
Doug Ford is not responsible for importing all the Variants into Canada. Our international airports have remained open despite the health risk associated with this decision. Why would the Feds leave international airports open (60,000 +/day) when they did not have and adequate vaccine supply secured to protect the population? Forcing are entire population to remain in lockdown for far too long. And now thanks to our open border policy we have variants from several continents infecting the population. Will the vaccines we purchased be effective against all these variants? Let’s hope that the variants don’t overwhelm our fragile poorly funded health care system.
Doug Ford’s biggest mistake was not realizing the system was on life support when he got elected. Making cuts without addressing the long standing issues has had a devastating effect on our health system. Norm Miller witnessed the neglect while in opposition for over a decade. He obviously did not feel that all those years his constituents health care needs were ignored by the governing Liberals warranted any action other than cuts.