Huge crowds gathered over the weekend in Toronto's Trinity-Bellwoods Park. Our political leaders were horrified -- with reason. On the other hand, they have not been leading by example. Susan Delacout writes:
While their disappointment was understandable, it was also a bit rich. When it comes to leadership by example during this pandemic, some notable Canadian politicians have amassed an array of examples of what not to do. Why does this keep happening?
Mayor John Tory is the latest public figure to sheepishly acknowledge he had strayed from his own advice when he played fast and loose with mask-wearing in that same crowded park over the weekend.
And he’s not alone in the pack of leaders who have failed to walk their own talk during this crisis.
Justin Trudeau crossed the Ontario-Quebec border to spend Easter with his family at Harrington Lake, even though that option was not open to other families with property in Quebec.
Premier Doug Ford visited his own cottage that same long weekend — to check the plumbing, he said — and then on Mother’s Day, held a gathering at his own house that was larger than public-health-prescribed limits.
Meanwhile, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer piled his family into a not-physically distant plane ride from Saskatchewan to Ottawa in April.
Thomas Wolfe wryly observed that some people had a talent for, "making the world safe for hypocrisy, " But hypocrisy won't get us out of this crisis.
Image: Dreamstime
