It was Groundhog Day this week, and weather-predicting rodents aside, the day called up the movie of the same name where a man is forced to live the same day of his life over and over.
It’s felt a lot like that recently.
A year into the pandemic, most of us are tired and grouchy. We’re tired of having Dr. Bonnie Henry and Adrian Dix wagging their fingers at us and listing what we aren’t allowed to do. We’re grouchy when we see every other person we know doing those things anyway. (Whistler weekend anyone? Friends meeting up for drinks?)
With every new rule announced, the rule followers’ lives are squeezed into a smaller box. The rule breakers continue to do what they want.
Of course, it’s easy to point to flagrant flouting like the “private nightclub” recently busted in downtown Vancouver.
But a recent Postmedia survey showed about half of us also admit to not strictly following the rules. That’s not surprising. Whether it’s a liberal interpretation of “essential travel” or a casual swapping of “household” for a “bubble,” a lot of us are looking for loopholes.
And while most of the no-nos remain “recommendations” rather than rules or orders, that’s likely to continue.
Perhaps the arrival of the virus variants will spur the government to up its game. With tests required prior to boarding international flights, and a 14-day quarantine after, it’s worth questioning how these strains even made it into Canada. But now they are here, we must do all we can to stop them.
For too long, the guilt of the good-hearted has been the sharpest stick in the government’s toolbox. Time to change up that plan.
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