My Nazi Granddad, Revisited ... Not Again

April 2020 - when what I chopped for dinner was the most interesting thing I'd seen that week

A year ago this past week, Bruce and I developed some mild symptoms, so we self-isolated for two weeks. To beguile the tedium, I wrote again about the pain my grandfather inflicted on his children because of his beliefs.  

Now that Ontario is riding its third COVID wave, and Doug Ford has announced more ineffective, draconian, harmful measures, we are hiding in our home again.

Even as a lazy metaphor, Groundhog Day isn't great for the current situation, because that story was about redemption. A more appropriate metaphor would be Cormac McCarthy's The Road, which begins with catastrophe and then painfully descends through harsh struggle to death ... because Doug Ford was probably in charge then, too.

As partisan as these remarks may seem, I back them up with the opinions of people who do know what they are talking about. 

Here are some from an article in the Toronto Star, responding to Ford's most recent ham-fisted proposals to control the spread:

Dr. Martha Fulford, infectious disease specialist and associate professor at McMaster University, said ... 

“It feels to me extraordinary that a year into this, we’re incapable of having targeted interventions to try to decrease the risk of COVID and not cause even more harm to the fabric of our society, because of course COVID isn’t the only thing we’re dealing with anymore — we’re dealing with mental health, we’re dealing with despair, we’re dealing with broken lives, we’re dealing with overdoses, we’re dealing with domestic abuse, we’re dealing with child abuse”...

And here are some from the National Post, specifically about the decision to close playgrounds:

“Most of the province has been in some form of lockdown since last fall,” Ford ... observed. “… The reality is there are few options left."

First of all, that makes no sense. Ford hasn’t tried shaving his head, wearing his shoes on the wrong feet or singing 9 to 5 to open every press conference.... Those “options” make roughly as much sense as closing playgrounds. 

The unlikely spectacle of The Toronto Star and The National Post agreeing on something, by the way, is #3 on my list of sure signs that the end times are upon us.

The consensus about Ford's latest wild stab in the dark extends farther than feuding news outlets. As part of his "I'm trying everything but doing nothing" approach, Ford has given police new powers to stop and interrogate people on the sidewalk and in their cars. 

Even the police have said they are not keen on further eroding civil rights to help distract from the fact that Ford has no idea what he is doing. 

Actually, Ford has one idea. He very clearly wants to vaccinate his way out of this. At his press conference yesterday afternoon, he twice held up a chart with modelled vaccination scenarios to make his point. Then, because the vaccination programme is in disarray, he blamed the feds for not delivering.

It's not the fed's fault that Ford has a bad strategy. If vaccine supply is outside of your control, it shouldn't be the central part of your plan. 

Ford's one idea is driven by the ideology of small government, and, just like my granddad, he would rather hurt the people he's supposed to care about than admit he's wrong.

Thanks for reading!

Stay safe!

Karen

Your Tax Dollars At Work - Pandemic Edition

 

Late afternoon, April 13, 2021, half of Sherbourne Street between Dundas and Gerrard was crammed with at least eight firetrucks and other emergency vehicles. The only odd thing, aside from the sheer number of trucks, was that there was no fire.