Juno News - Opposing lockdowns shouldn't be a partisan affair

00:00:00.000 One really interesting phenomenon that's been going on recently is how Democratic politicians

00:00:11.080 in the United States are doing a better job advocating for reopenings than conservative

00:00:16.500 politicians here in Canada. You know, it was a bit of a cliche early on that reopening,

00:00:22.540 not supporting widespread lockdowns, well, that was a conservative, a right-wing, a Republican,

00:00:26.760 a Trump position to do. And therefore, the left-wing position, the progressive position,

00:00:32.040 that had to be to support lockdowns. But that's not the case anymore. All you have to do is look

00:00:37.400 around North America and read the stories happening in major cities and major states to realize,

00:00:42.020 no, that is just not playing out, at least not in the United States. You've got Democratic politicians,

00:00:47.800 sometimes very left-leaning ones, who are championing reopenings and really fighting for

00:00:52.620 their state or their city. I mean, yes, there's examples of Texas and Florida, obviously led by

00:00:57.520 Republican politicians who are doing very aggressive reopenings, and in Florida saying no mask mandate,

00:01:02.760 of course. But you've also got examples like the Democratic left-wing mayor of Chicago,

00:01:07.380 Lori Lightfoot, who's been really fighting for her city to be able to reopen, see the restaurants get

00:01:12.920 rid of some of their capacity limits and, you know, further liberalize those rules and so forth. And

00:01:17.320 she's been really standing up for small businesses. So you go, clearly, this is not a political issue,

00:01:22.120 or at least doesn't need to be. And it's been very interesting and dismaying to watch how I think

00:01:27.220 Canadian politicians are still just so much further behind the very balanced approach that pretty much

00:01:33.880 all politicians both sides of the aisle are managing to take in the United States. And I think

00:01:39.720 one example that illustrates it the best is what's going on right now in the part of Ontario that

00:01:45.560 borders the Michigan border, the United States border with Michigan, and what Michigan is doing.

00:01:50.160 So on Monday, Doug Ford said the Sarnia region, Lambton County, had to go into lockdown again,

00:01:56.660 lock her down, shut her down. A lot of people really upset about it, and some businesses were defiant.

00:02:01.300 We had gyms and others that said, no, we don't want to shut down at least one video of the cops coming in

00:02:05.760 and trying to bust up one of those gyms that said we are not going to be shut down.

00:02:09.760 But what's going on on the other side of the border? In Michigan, they are just further reopening.

00:02:14.400 You look at stories about Michigan's reopening, and they started a while ago, and the latest

00:02:18.500 developments are just that, okay, capacity limits have been eased further at this locale and that

00:02:22.980 locale, and they're loosening this and that restriction. They are making progress. They are

00:02:27.640 moving forward right on the other side of the border. Ontario moving backwards. And who is the

00:02:33.840 Republican governor in Michigan who's doing all of this? Well, it's none other than Democratic

00:02:39.600 left-leaning governor Gretchen Whitmer, who's actually quite close to Joe Biden. So there you

00:02:44.840 go. Another example of how you have these more left-leaning politicians in the U.S. who are able

00:02:50.820 to do more pro-business positions and just more pro-society positions and politicians like Doug Ford

00:02:57.480 here in Ontario who are just stuck in a rut. And anytime anyone proposes, well, we got to lock down

00:03:02.740 this jurisdiction, they seem to go for it. Very little pushback. And boy, is it very frustrating.

00:03:09.600 to see this disconnect unfold.

Juno News - March 15, 2021