Across Canada, December was a month of canceled meetings with friends and family and holidays spent alone. Vacations to escape snow and frozen rain have been suspended while Covid-19 cases have increased again.
The message across the country was clear: a common sense of solidarity and sacrifice was needed to fight the coronavirus.
But in the past two weeks, the country has been convulsed by fury and disbelief, when more than a dozen politicians, political advisers and leading public health figures have admitted to boarding a plane for a tropical vacation during the winter holiday.
“It is an incredible insult for frontline workers, for people who suffer from the loss of loved ones and for those who cannot see their families – whether they are in the hospital or not,” said an ICU nurse in Alberta. . “It is deaf for those who have lost their jobs, for companies or for those who are struggling to put food on the table.”
While outrage is unlikely to topple a federal or provincial government, the outburst of anger shows growing frustration with the country’s political leadership, experts say.
“The public is furious. Many of them just see blatant hypocrisy and find it morally reprehensible, ”said Nelson Wiseman, professor of political science at the University of Toronto. “It fuels cynicism and lowers public confidence – not just in politicians, but in institutions.”
The scandal started last week when it was learned that then Ontario’s finance minister, Rod Phillips, not only traded the gray skies of Ajax, Ontario for the white sand beaches of St Bart’s, but also posted messages on the networks. apparently created to hide their whereabouts. On a holiday greeting video posted when he was already in the Caribbean, Philips sat by a fire, sipping eggnog while thanking his constituents for their “sacrifice”.
Amid a quick reaction, Phillips returned to Ontario and resigned.
But new revelations that politicians across the political spectrum took a reckless vacation continued to arrive.
In Saskatchewan, the provincial highway minister said his trip to California was essential to finalize a real estate transaction, although his home was not even listed when he traveled.
Conservative Federal Senator Don Pletts posted a video recognizing the pandemic “forced us to change some of these traditions, since we cannot travel and meet as we normally would”. Days later, he went on vacation to Mexico.
And in Alberta – the province with one of the worst case growth rates – eight provincial leaders and officials admitted that they had traveled abroad.
The province’s minister of municipal affairs, Tracy Allard – a key figure in the launch of the Covid-19 vaccines – apologized for taking a family trip to Hawaii, despite the government’s own recommendations against travel. She and four others resigned or were stripped of their legislative duties this week.
Justin Trudeau acknowledged that the authorities disregarded the very advice they gave the public. Two of his parliamentary secretaries resigned after traveling abroad for family reasons.
“All Canadians were very disappointed to see so many examples of people who should know how to do things that put us at risk,” said the prime minister.
But for some communities, expressions of contrition have not gone far enough. In the town of Slave Lake, Alberta, the mayor and six councilors asked the regional assembly representative, Pat Rehn, to resign after posting a Christmas message from Mexico.
“It is no secret that the people of this Region have lost faith in their ability to do their jobs,” the group said in a letter to Rehn.
Even health officials were caught up in the scandal. This week, both the CEO of an Ontario hospital and the director of a university’s school of public health admitted that they had traveled to sunny destinations.
“Clearly there was no political calculation behind it – because they didn’t think they had been caught,” said Wiseman.
In a country where the wintry climate can last for almost six months, the scoffers’ tropical destinations are the target of many Canadians.
“We are a winter people, but we feel better when there is no winter,” said David Phillips, senior climatologist at Environment Canada “These [politicians] were going to the lower layers – no more layers – look, while the average person is stuck at home. “
The scandals have caused an almost universal condemnation of the public tired of the pandemic, but they have been particularly damaging to health professionals, especially those in the most affected provinces.
“It is irritating to have [politicians] hide behind misleading Christmas messages that seem to show solidarity with hard-working people, when in fact they are not bothered by their unethical and dangerous behavior, ”said the ICU nurse in Alberta, who has one of the highest infection rates high in the country. “We expect more and deserve better respect than that.”
Another nurse in the province said travel news came when hospital morale hit rock bottom after months of “suffering and death”.
“We are so often disappointed that it looks exactly what we would expect from our leadership,” she said. “Your practice of personal exceptionalism is, honestly, just a slap in the face, but we are too busy trying to keep people alive to get involved.”