View From the Legislature

Over the past several weeks the Manitoba government has been making a concentrated effort to reach out to diplomatic officials representing countries from around the world. Most often, these Ambassadors and other officials are in Ottawa or in Toronto in their respective embassies or consular offices. As part of my role as Manitoba’s Deputy Premier, I have been able to help lead this outreach effort and have benefited from the perspective of what is happening in other countries one year after the pandemic began.

While I have been able to have virtual meetings with diplomats from diverse countries such France, Australia, Afghanistan, South Korea, the United States and the Czech Republic, to name a few, there are a number of common themes that have emerged. The dominant theme is that every country has struggled over the past year in trying to strike the balance between reducing the spread of COVID-19 and the impact it has on the medical system, with the desire to keep life in their respective countries as normal as possible. Each of the representatives I have spoken with from all parts of the globe indicated that this has inevitably resulted in tension among citizens and division within governments. And in every country this division has caused a great deal of weariness among citizens.

As well, every diplomatic representative I spoke with expressed the optimism that they have for the months ahead as vaccine distribution happens throughout the world. Different countries have different vaccine profiles and different methods of distribution, but each expressed their optimism for a year that on balance provides a great deal more hope than the last. Of course, while every country is in a race to distribute vaccines within their own nation, they are all at different points in the race.

Countries such as Israel are well ahead in terms of vaccine distribution and have seen the severity of COVID-19 drop dramatically. Others, such as Canada, are just beginning to accelerate their vaccine distribution but with the promise that it will increase dramatically in the weeks ahead. And then there are many countries who are relying upon support from other nations to help with the distribution of vaccines to their residents and this will be an important effort to partake in as the pandemic is global, and so a global effort will be needed.

Additionally, there is a common theme that the pandemic has caused both health and economic damage to every country in the world and that there needs to be a focus that looks beyond COVID-19 while still addressing the challenges of the day. In that way, the virtual meetings that are being held with officials from other countries helps to lay the groundwork for the reestablishment of a more normal pattern of connections once it is safe to do so. And that is the clearest and most common theme that every official from every country expressed. Everyone is very much looking forward to a return to more normal times.