Abject Failure: Canada’s Public Officials & Political Class Are Devoid Of Credibility

InsightSpencerFernando

The system is broken, and those at the top have absolutely no idea what they are doing with all their unearned and undeserved power.

What does abject failure look like?

It looks like what we see around us today in our healthcare system and among our political class.

After nearly two years of restrictions, mandates, division, demonization, lockdowns, and more, our ‘leaders’ now are telling us that we are back at square one when it comes to covid.

We hear the same claims that our healthcare system is ‘on the brink’, that ‘ICU capacity is full,’ and – just in time for Christmas – we are told not to gather with our loved ones.

Restrictions and lockdowns are returning, while those in power simultaneously impose vaccine mandates while saying two vaccines aren’t enough and admit that the virus is spreading among vaccinated and unvaccinated alike.

Oh, and guess what?

The advice on masks is changing again.

Here’s what Theresa Tam is now saying:

“You cannot have a single-layered cloth mask. The medical masks are better at filtering viruses.” But even the three-ply surgical type might not be enough, she added, saying N95-type respirators are a better fit for people’s faces.”

This gives the impression that the mask mandates were really about imposing a ritual of ‘protection’, regardless of any actual efficacy.

As with many things we’ve seen from ‘our’ governments, it’s more about gaining compliance for the sake of compliance.

It never ends

Theresa Tam has also recycled the same rhetoric from last year, talking about how it will be a ‘few months’ for the pandemic to end, and saying people should reduce their contacts – just before Christmas.

Here’s how government-propaganda arm CBC is reporting it:

“Canada’s chief public health officer says this will not be the holiday season Canadians were hoping for, warning people that if they don’t reduce their contacts over the next several weeks, the country’s hospitals will be overwhelmed.

Dr. Theresa Tam told The National’s Andrew Chang on Monday that now is not the time to be gathering in big numbers.

“Even if Omicron happens to be milder than the previous virus variants, because it’s spreading so rapidly … even a small proportion of people winding up in hospital is going to overwhelm our systems.”

Canada reported more than 14,000 new cases of COVID-19 Monday, though some of the cases were from the weekend, with cases of the highly transmissible Omicron variant soaring and quickly overtaking Delta in many jurisdictions.

While some provinces have already moved to reduce capacity limits in indoor spaces, Tam believes more restrictions may be necessary.

“Putting on the brakes, as we all know, quickly can allow us to resume activities at the other end faster,” she said.”

Let’s go over each of these points.

First, the idea that it “won’t be the holiday season Canadians were hoping for.”

The thing is, that isn’t up to Tam, Trudeau, CBC, or the government.

It’s up to individual Canadians.

The fact that we are at the point where many wait and see what a government official tells them about what kind of Christmas they can have is a huge problem.

Again, it shouldn’t be up to Tam or any government figure to tell people how many they can gather with.

“Overwhelming the system”

We’ve heard this from the beginning:

“The healthcare system will be overwhelmed!”

“ICU capacity is gone!”

What’s being ignored in all the fear-mongering is that ICU capacity was low even before the pandemic. The same warnings came during flu seasons:

Here’s a Global News story from January 23, 2018:

“For many, winter means flu season and this year medical experts say the virus is taking a toll on the Greater Toronto Area health-care system.

“Influenza A is a little bit higher than it should be, but influenza B is off the charts higher,” ER doctor Brett Belchetz told Global News, adding the increase is due in part to a low efficacy rate of the flu shot.

A number of doctors, nurses and administrators at hospitals across the GTA confirmed to Global News there has been a surge of patients on top of a system that is already operating at or over 100 per cent capacity.

Global News learned at some hospitals the term “pre-pandemic” has even been used.”

Let’s really pay attention to that. Back in 2018, before covid, they were already saying the system was “at or over 100 per cent capacity.”

It would seem the system itself is always overwhelmed.

And that’s no surprise.

Our socialized healthcare system lacks market incentives, and is notoriously top-heavy.

The mistake many people make when discussing this is to assume that the only two possible healthcare systems are a privatized American system or a socialist system.

In much of Europe, some hospitals are state-run, and others are private, both of which are covered under universal health coverage in nations.

This enables those healthcare systems to have at least an element of free market innovation and profit motives, while ensuring that people aren’t denied healthcare due to a personal inability to pay.

Yet, many Canadians act as if such a thing doesn’t exist, and seem to panic whenever the word ‘private’ is mentioned in regards to healthcare.

As a result, we are left with our current healthcare system, which has been shown to be woefully unprepared and unable to adapt. This was a huge problem even before covid, something Darshan Maharaja details in his latest article:

“The foundational defect in Canada’s universal healthcare system is that its delivery is determined by an administrative process that is singularly focused on bureaucratic procedure, at the expense of actual medical outcomes.”

Canada spends massively on hospital administration, which it turns out doesn’t do much good when the chips are down.

Now, with the system put under stress, the weakness of that very system has been used as the ‘reason’ why we need to be locked down and have our freedoms taken away, which is absolutely unacceptable.

A discredited political class

With our healthcare system having been discredited and revealed as broken, the same must be said of our political class.

Across the political spectrum, Canada’s ‘leaders’ have shown zero ability to learn, adapt, or innovate. They have stifled internal dissent, and imposed lockdowns over and over again, embracing totalitarian statist measures:

“It’s amazing how lockdowns, which go directly against the fundamental values of our culture, have become normalized as standard policy when the going gets tough. Lockdowns are a totalitarian policy we imported from the CCP. How people support them is absolutely mind blowing.”

Politicians want a socialized healthcare system that gives the state total control, yet when that system fails they use their own failure to impose lockdowns and restrictions on freedom.

You can see the problem here:

If the system was ‘overwhelmed’ pre-covid, and if the system being ‘overwhelmed’ means lockdowns are imposed, then lockdowns and restrictions will keep on happening:

https://twitter.com/awudrick/status/1473298415530516497

Discredited institutions shouldn’t have power

How to respond to the fact that our political class and healthcare system have both been discredited?

Decentralization.

The state-monopoly over healthcare must end. We can provide universal coverage while having a role for the private sector in healthcare delivery.

And we must dramatically cut government spending, cut taxes, and reform our system so politicians are stripped of the ability to impose lockdowns and draconian restrictions in the future.

Centralizing power and authority in the hands of a few politicians and public officials has failed.

There is a scene in the movie V for Vendetta where the dictator is speaking to the nation with another fearmongering speech, yet nobody is at home, and nobody is listening. For all his shouting, his power is utterly gone, as – at the end of the day – no leader has power if nobody is following.

That’s what Canadians need to realize. We don’t need to follow these discredited politicians and officials any longer.

Spencer Fernando

Photos – YouTube

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