Ontario’s Premier, Doug Ford, has been a poster boy for leading from behind – far, far behind. He has consistently avoided taking necessary steps, or has done so only after conditions worsened to the point that they could no longer be ignored. In this leadership vacuum, an increasing number of organizations – public and private – have been introducing their own rules that mandate vaccines and masking. I assume that once these mandates cover almost all of Ontario, Ford will then decide to introduce such a requirement.
To take one more example, this time from the federal level, we have had vague promises of a vaccine passport being developed, but nothing ever appears, and presumably won’t until we get beyond the disruption caused by an unnecessary election – IF then.
I appreciate that those in leadership positions face great challenges these days but I can’t understand why they make these challenges even greater by ignoring issues until they worsen sufficiently. I am particularly baffled by the frequent “excuse” that taking logical actions would somehow be discriminatory. Of course it would be and it should be! If people refuse to wear a mask or to get a vaccine (without a valid reason), they should face constraints on their activities. For many decades, we accepted the logic of vaccines to protect from polio, diphtheria, measles, chicken pox, and a host of other diseases. Why, then, is there such resistance to a vaccine for the deadly COVID disease?
It would appear that one explanation is the proliferation of social media today, a breeding ground for conspiracy theories. Far too many people no longer trust governments (perhaps not entirely surprising) or expert advice (surprising and very disturbing). Instead, they happily embrace whatever crackpot theories are propounded via social media – and the wilder they are, the more they attract attention and support. All the more reason for our leaders to be decisive and to make the tough choices no matter how controversial. If we are to emerge from this long COVID tunnel, we need our leaders up front showing the way, not lagging behind and evading responsibility as much as possible.