Pulling the mask off modern-day politics

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/03/2022 (968 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ENDING the COVID-19 mask mandate flips the narrative of the #FreedomConvoy22 that is still blaring horns and blocking traffic across Canada. Now, the people demanding personal freedom are the ones wearing the masks.

No doubt some entrepreneur is already producing masks embossed with appropriate slogans — but a white KN95 mask and a black pen will do just as well. Since people wearing masks are already being accosted by anti-maskers, you might consider adding some Sharpie-slogan spice to the mix:

Options range from the mild “I’m sick” to “I don’t want to die,” to the bolder “I’m just smarter” or “It’s an IQ test.” Perhaps you could go with “I’m just ugly.”

We are all more than tired of COVID-19. But somehow, I expect the virus pays as little attention to political pronouncements as to how we feel. Premier Heather Stefanson (apparently still masked herself) is proof that you should never say “Things can’t get any worse,” because they always can.

Instead of that promised new style of Progressive Conservative government, we have the same badly managed patriarchy as before, just absent the patriarch. And now, after six years of dithering, the ban on cosmetic chemicals for which environmentalists fought so long has been finally been upended, as promised by the PCs — and clumsily, too, as the orders for spring and summer lawn care have already been placed.

It’s really no surprise to me; this government has continually demonstrated even less care for the planet than it has for health care (wait lists, anyone? Maybe a surgical safari to North Dakota?).

Meanwhile, Bill 33 is being implemented, raising tuition on post-secondary programs to which the government wants to control access. Equity and fairness in education? Only if you have the money. Academic freedom? Only if you say the right things.

Environmental protection? We need gravel pits more than farms, and the fewer insects the better. Caring for kids with cancer because of exposure to unnecessary lawn chemicals? They can join wait lists and go on surgical safaris, too.

It must be emotionally exhausting for Opposition members, having to summon their moral outrage, day after day, against the serial bungling of this government. There is no semblance of co-operation, no sense of a shared purpose, no glimmer of the need to govern together for the good of all Manitobans — and how could there be, right now?

“Pander to the base” is the rallying cry of the political right these days, and Manitoba always seems to be racing Alberta and Saskatchewan to the bottom of the pile.

Whether or not “Shoulda, woulda, coulda” will be written on some partisan masks, that’s certainly not the kind of leadership Manitoba needs in a crisis — whether in a pandemic, at the brink of global war, or mitigating the worst effects of a rapidly changing climate.

When New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern took the reins, democracies everywhere wanted her cloned and exported. Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine has stepped into history as the face of opposition to Russian tyranny — and we discovered that dancing comedians make better leaders than do entrepreneurs.

And, if the Canadian government has finally found its backbone, it’s because of the steely determination of Chrystia Freeland — an award-winning author, journalist and oligarch expert already banned from Russia because President Vladimir Putin was worried about her sitting even a long table away from him.

What makes a leader? Someone who stands up for what is right, not just for something that is on the right. There is no pandering in their portfolios, no weasels in sight — and, somehow, people feel these leaders can be both believed and trusted, even if the message is tough to accept.

There is no shortage of leadership contenders when everything is going well and there’s money to be made. It’s much harder to find a leader in adversity, someone willing to step up for others and not just for themselves. It’s no accident there are no oligarchs on the left.

In truth, politics these days has become too much about wearing masks, showing your supporters the image they want to see, telling them what they want to hear. There is too little concern for the common good, too little care for those who can’t yet vote, or for the generations still to come.

This has to change, if we want to survive pandemics, despots and an Earth on fire.

Peter Denton is an activist, writer and scholar working from home in rural Manitoba (and masked when he isn’t).