-Marcus Aurelius
I was on vacation in the Wentworth Valley a couple of weeks ago with some of the family and, on Sunday morning, we found a small country church (which shall remain nameless) to attend. Having been mask free our entire time in the Valley, we reluctantly slapped them on as we entered the church only to find that no one in the place was wearing them. We quickly and happily ripped ours off and enjoyed the service and friendly congregants without having our faces swathed in fabric... a good thing too, because it was as hot as blazes and that old church certainly didn't have air conditioning. And then I came back to the city where some people are wearing masks outside, scuttling off the sidewalks when someone approaches from the opposite direction as though they're lepers, and I've even seen some wearing masks while riding their bikes. Feverishly reading the infection stats every day... fretting if some poor old soul doesn't have their mask pulled up over their nose... reacting with hostility to anyone who suggests that maybe it's time to get back to normal life... it's unhinged.
The Conservatives in Nova Scotia shocked everyone by winning the provincial election last week- with a majority- when all the polls forecast a Liberal victory. There are numerous reasons for this of course, but I truly believe that, in part, it was due to outgoing Liberal premier Iain Rankin saying that he was considering bringing in vaccination passports. I think this may well have pushed any rural fence sitters into voting Tory. I haven't met one person outside of the city that isn't hostile to the idea, and if you look at the election map, almost every rural area went blue (conservative). With a few exceptions, only the Halifax area remained in Liberal control. Practically no one wants that crap here, so the incoming Tory leader and his party had best be taking notes.