Mandryk: Political arguing overtaking reason in Sask.
By Murray Mandryk
Maybe we’d be better off in Saskatchewan if some people stopped looking at this province strictly through their own political filters.
This has been long-standing in this province, but its sadly gotten worse during this pandemic.
For far too many see each and every COVID-19 development as some grand opportunity to make a pronouncement regarding their political allegiance.
Yes, pandemic information can often be confusing, contradictory and — depending on the source — quite possibly wrong. Yes, it’s a free country — you get to express your opinions.
But some people don’t get that not everything they hear actually supports their core beliefs or that it needs to be spun to support their worldview. Some of it is just reality — simply matters of fact.
Consider the recent fifth wave regarding the Omicron variant in which we are seeing unprecedented daily case numbers, but — at least so far, less deaths and ICU admissions.
This underscores the reality that Omicron — while serious, according to every reasoned medical professional you will talk to — is less serious than the Delta variant that swamped Saskatchewan’s hospitals and ICUs to the point of having to send people out of province.
But while a smaller percentage of people who now contact COVID-19 are getting seriously ill right now (largely because of a higher vaccination rates than before) the sheer volume of cases remains a serious threat to swamping our hospitals (largely because we still don’t have enough people vaccinated).
A certain percentage of those hospitalized will wind up in ICUs. And one of the added pressures is that health care workers are also now contacting Omicron, meaning there are fewer of them available to care for the sick.
These realities are simply facts that really can’t be debated. We surely all can agree that no one truly wants to see anyone hospitalized or in ICUs.
Yet that really isn’t stopping some from twisting and contorting this reality to argue that “Omicron is just a cold” and no precautions are needed or that “vaccines don’t work, so, therefore, there’s no point in getting one.”
Similarly, it’s troubling to see how some are absolutely gleeful at any tragic sign of increased illness or hospitalizations because the more important thing to them is to be proven right … or see the Saskatchewan Party government as proven wrong.
Maybe if we were instead truly respectful of the notion that someone else might have a point, we’d be getting through things a lot better.
But it isn’t just COVID-19. Consider the very good news coming from Federated Co-operatives Ltd. and AGT Foods and Ingredients that they are proceeding with a $2-billiont renewal diesel and canola crushing facility outside of Regina.
With its potential to create $4.5 billion in economic activity and 2,500 jobs during construction, and 150 permanent jobs when it opens in 2027, everyone can surely agree this was great news, right?
Heck, this announcement even had the added benefit that it should significantly reduce fossil fuel consumption in Saskatchewan, thus contributing to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Now, consider the stupidity of online comments that Premier Scott Moe is just using this to distract from COVID-19 or, conversely, that this project wouldn’t have been built if we had a socialist NDP government instead of Moe’s Sask. Party administration.
No politician is going to pass up a good news announcement like this that also supports Moe’s suggestions; we do need to be looking past COVID-19.
As for it wouldn’t have happened under the NDP that drove away business; it is a project driven by the Federated Co-op that’s run by Scott Banda, who ran for the NDP leadership in 2001 and whose dad was an NDP MLA.
Maybe we’d be better off if some would simply put down their partisan political filters.