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Welcome to week (counts fingers) six of the New Normal. It was on March 16 that the Citizen printed the words of Dr. Vera Etches, Ottawa’s medical officer of health, on its front page. Stay Home, she said.
Feels a lot longer, doesn’t it?
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Pellerin: After the COVID-19 plague has ended, does it have to be politics as usual? Back to video
There is no question the world is a much different place now. Most of it requires a stiff upper lip but there are a few positives. A big one is the complete lack of partisan politicking we’ve had of late. I, for one, don’t miss it one bit.
Seriously; why have we tolerated partisan politics so long? Who, other than those whose living depends on them, needs political parties anyway?
We’re in the middle of a marathon-emergency, and everyone must do their part to defeat this virus so we can get back to arguing over the best way to ban single-use plastics. That’s our big focus right now. But what if we took advantage of this crisis to review how we do politics altogether?
Our system of government cannot work without opposition. Power corrupts, Lord Acton famously said, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. It’s all right during an emergency to allow a political leader to, well, lead with the essential help and advice from experts. In a war, we look to generals. In a pandemic, we become dependent on public health officials. But the emergency won’t last forever.
