TREVOR’S TAKE
TREVOR HUTCHINSON, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
The rise of civility
For a majority of Canadians the amount of co-operation among levels of government and traditional rivals at the start of the COVID-19 crisis was a refreshing sight. With the national Conservative Party leadership vote postponed, some of the rear-view criticism of the government by the candidates subsided, if only a little. But nature and politics hate a vacuum, leaving Andrew Scheer regularly criticizing most decisions and taking credit for almost everything. As one commentator quipped, Scheer has come across as someone watching a house being painted who stands there saying “You missed a spot.” And Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre has been taking Monday morning quarterbacking to a new level. But as the kids say, ”haters gonna hate.” It seems for some the urge to stay partisan, even during a global crisis, is just too great. Even city councillor Pat Dunn has been retweeting Trump talking points. But like the vast majority of Canadians — according to a recent poll — I think that the federal government has done a pretty good job rolling out the biggest program of spending and procurement ever attempted in peacetime. Is the support system perfect? Of course not. Has it been improved by the input of all the political parties? Absolutely. While I have appreciated Premier Doug Ford’s work and his willingness to consult the other parties at this most difficult of times, I am wary of the populist photo ops that seem to be increasing. Even the 40.5 per cent of Ontarians who voted for Ford probably didn’t vote for him to be a pickup-driving delivery person. And no offence to hard-working couriers, but he’s paid by us to take on bigger files. We are called to come together now, and most of us are doing just that. There will be time to question the wisdom of Ford’s planned $200-milliondollar cut to public health and his many other slashes to the health care system later. We are being reminded in painful ways: policies and the budgets that support them are important. Ford’s decision to have comprehensive resident quality inspections be completed for only 1.4 per cent of the total number of nursing homes in Ontario last year should be questioned. We can only hope the decision to cancel the dollar-an-hour raise to minimum wage and three paid sick days will be reviewed, given the glowing way in which the unsung heroes of the front line are being feted by the right. And Ford’s suspension of all environmental reviews — apparently for the period of the pandemic only — should be watched cautiously for any abuse. There will be time for all of this later: It’s all hands on deck now. Here’s hoping the extremely partisan will join those of us from many different viewpoints and just try to get through this together.
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We will overcome.
SOLUTION
to this month’s crossword, page 33 Be Fuddled 1
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2
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14
F
17
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3
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24
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32
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28
37
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41
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65
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67
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18
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26
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10
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42 46
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39
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© ClassiC 13
N
57
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68
40
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12
27
36
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48
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35
11
22
D O O R
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59
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7
21 25
56
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6
20
38
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54
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15
33
50 53
5
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X 19
23
4
49
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N
66
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69
A
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N 63
C O
64
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