Yet, to go beyond that, and to punish our small businesses, punish churchgoers, and accumulate immense, unaccountable power in the hands of just a few politicians, is completely against what Canada is supposed to be about.
Having spent some time in the political world, I can tell you (you surely already know), that our system is far less democratic than it appears. Party leaders have immense power to punish any dissenters, as we have seen across all parties and at both the federal and provincial level.
In effect, a prime minister or premier has total power over the government when their party has a majority, or when the opposition is too weak as in the case of the federal NDP.
Additionally, as much as some premiers have attempted to make it appear otherwise, they – and they alone – have final power over health orders.
So, when a decision is made to shut down church services, to shut down small businesses, while leaving corporate big box stores and government-run liquor stores open, that decision was made by one person, and one person alone.
Give that some thought.
We have reached the place where, in provinces of millions of people, in a nation of 38 million, in a country that considers itself a democracy, one human being at the top of the system gets to decide it all, including things that seemed to be the most basic of freedoms.
Is this right?
Does this feel right to you?
The importance of speaking up
I know this can seem a lonely position to take.
After all, many polls appear to show people clamouring for even more restrictions.
And yet, it is important for each of us to be a strong and courageous voice for the values and convictions that we believe in, and for the freedoms upon which Canada is based.
Many people are afraid to speak out against what politicians and the establishment are saying, yet still feel deep down that something has gone seriously wrong here.
People look around and are thinking, “I don’t want a reset, I just want this crisis to be over.”
People want their lives back, not a utopian ‘reimagining,’ and they certainly don’t want the government coming for what little savings they have left.
Think of what the elites are offering us: A future where our nation drowns in debt, where foreign institutions control our policy, where politicians have immense power over us, and where those who repeatedly fail and repeatedly get it wrong remain in power to fail again and again at our expense.