Day 8: Emergence

We have been inside for a week now.

My kid’s temperature was low this morning, 35.5. At least is not fever. She’s fatigued, but nothing else.

As it was a sunny day, we opened the blinds, spread a blanket, and read in the sun for a couple of hours. It felt a bit like being outside (although the temperature today was only 1 degree).

It turns out that, despite the great care displayed by Costco employees and patrons yesterday, people in Vancouver decided to all go out to the beach or to exercise in various ways. Trudeau was stern today when he said enough is enough and reminded everyone that we should stay in to protect the vulnerable. The local response has been excellent. People are maintaining their distance, only going out for essentials, and generally on their best behaviour. I don’t expect less from Canadians. The vast majority of people here are socially conscious and it shows.

When I first moved to Canada, in 2010, I started buying Chateleine and Canadian Living. I think it might have been the later that ran a contest with a money prize. The point of the contest was to nominate a person who had made significant contributions to the community. It is not that people don’t care about themselves or that their families wouldn’t come first. They know that it isn't pie and that empathy and kindness can be distributed more widely than those things that can be counted.

In the afternoon, I heard Deena Hinshaw’s address. She was as calm and composed as ever. We are in this together.

Then, I tuned to watch our own premier, who belongs to a party that upholds policies I can never agree with. To hear Moe refer to the need for unity in the country was as hopeful as reading that Andrew Scheer exhorted everyone to respond to this crisis in unison. As I prepared the ceviche we would have for dinner, I felt proud to be in a place where politicians are able to put their ideological differences aside to work towards a common goal (even if they might still accuse each other of using the crisis to try to gain power).

Perhaps some individuals still need to be educated, but the Canadian leadership can serve as an example to countries divided by issues that have nothing to do with the situation at hand. And I have more time to cook (or not, whatever the case may be).

9:24 pm:

Canada cases 2088

Deaths 25

Recoveries 10

World cases 381.293

World deaths 16.572