On the COVID file, Doug Ford's record has been spotty. Martin Regg Cohn writes:
The recurring COVID-19 waves won’t subside anytime soon. But a rising tide of infections in Ontario hot spots doesn’t mean the sky is falling across the province.
Ontario has enjoyed an enviable reprieve. Per capita case counts remain the lowest of any large jurisdiction on the continent, far below B.C. — whose chief medical officer and NDP government were hailed as role models while their Ontario counterparts were pilloried for the past year.
Cohn asks:
Is it Doug Ford’s doing? Or will it be the premier’s undoing?
Is the glass half empty? Or is the vial 89 per cent full (the proportion of eligible Ontarians with one shot so far)?
For all the ephemeral talk of achieving “herd immunity,” our herd mentality has been remarkably robust. Getting nine out of 10 Ontarians to agree on anything — not least inoculation without indoctrination — is a testament to social consensus.
No less than herd immunity, total unanimity is elusive, as social scientists can tell you. In the years after Elvis Presley’s death, annual surveys showed as many as one out of 10 Americans believed he was still alive — roughly the proportion who won’t get vaccinated here.
Ford still will not mandate vaccinations for health care workers. But there is a method to his madness:
There is a pattern to the premier’s performance and a method to his madness: Ford does not so much lead the way as get out of the way.
My point is not to excuse but merely explain Ford’s abdication of leadership — his aversion to political will, and his avoidance of risk.
The premier prefers to pick his fights because he prefers winning odds to losing battles. That’s why he backed off a confrontation with hospital workers — he feared staff shortages and cancelled surgeries — but stuck to his guns with nursing homes, because he felt confident replacement workers could be found.
There is an election coming in Ontario and Cohn asks:
If you’re leery of leading, why bother being premier?
A good question.
Image: The Toronto Star
4 comments:
Germany is the miners' canary. Despite a powerful and large anti-vax movement the Germans have dropped their guard. The result? 50,000 new cases over the last 24-hours.
What are we on know, the fourth wave, the fifth? We've had enough experience of these waves to know that pretending the worst is over invites its return. What's that popular definition of insanity?
Repeating the same results should teach us something, Mound. Unfortunately, we're wedded to ideology -- not to facts.
I don't think it's ideology, Owen. I think it's money. You can be sure that big moneyed interests are leaning on Doug Ford 24/7.
Oh, there's money involved here, Toby -- big money.
Post a Comment