Just Before the Second Wave Hits ... Again and Again

This time last year, I photographed a fallen tree in Queen's Park. Under lockdown, parks staff stayed at home, like the rest of us, their chain saws and wood chippers idle. 

I wondered in my blog post then about what seemed to me like a narrowly-focused policy reaction to the pandemic, attacking one problem (the virus) by creating loads of others. Recalling the words about the effects of the lockdown from a post a couple of weeks ago: 

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... 

I also predicted Doug Ford's love affair with public opinion wouldn't last. It didn't.

But a year ago I could not imagine that, a whole year later, new COVID cases would number in the three thousands a day, nor that we would, in almost every other respect, be in exactly the same predicament. 

Leaf buds by the Necropolis, Cabbagetown.

Well, not exactly the same predicament. About forty per cent of Ontario adults are vaccinated, and a tsunami of shots is on its way. By the end of May, all you'll need for a jab in Ontario anymore is an 18th birthday and an appointment. 

A robin in a blooming forsythia bush - it just doesn't get more like Spring.

Another sign that things have changed is, last year, there weren't influential publications talking about a Roaring-20s-like boom once we've ridden the virus out of town on a needle. 

While that sounds like fun, we should remember that the 20s ended with the Great Depression, and that the Great Depression ended with WWII.  

So, while I'd like to imagine that the pandemic will end Doug Ford's political career the same way it ended Trump's, I'm not going to look for any other happy, historical parallels. 

Real life doesn't work like that. At least I hope it doesn't.

Thanks for reading!

Have great week!

Karen