Right in the centre - Random observations
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- Published on Friday, April 1, 2022
By Ken Waddell
Neepawa Banner & Press
I find it interesting how various topics seem to compete for the public’s attention. For two years, the world was fixated on COVID-19. I guess that was appropriate, but C-19 would not have been nearly so serious if society and the governments that allegedly speak for society had been more prepared.
More prepared, and had taken action sooner. More prepared and not wasting their time on some actions, as well. In last week’s column, I called for an inquiry and it needs to happen.
When the top news story of the day is riding high, all other topics get shoved in the drawer. The past month’s news cycle has been rightly consumed by Russia’s highly illegal invasion of Ukraine. Again, it would not have been nearly so serious if society and the governments that allegedly speak for society had been more prepared. Everybody knew Russia was going to invade. If 200,000 troops and hundreds of tanks and trucks lined up on the border didn’t give away the “secret”, then surely Russia’s own words would have done it. If the UN, Ukraine or NATO had blasted the first Russian tanks to enter Ukraine off the face of the earth, then the war would not have gotten a foothold. Every war starts by somebody not standing up to the bully, the aggressor.
The western world knew it was coming. Even Canada has been spending the past eight years training Ukrainian troops. The western training of the Ukrainian army is one of the reasons the war has lasted this long. The Russians didn’t believe the Ukrainian army would stand up as well as it has. The only mistake is that the Ukrainian army should have been even better prepared and acted sooner with western ally countries backing them up. Borders should be sacred and treated as such.
Early actions are needed in every war. Let’s take a closer to home example. In Winnipeg, in the early C-19 days, the infection showed up in a couple of care homes. Understaffed, under prepared and maybe scared to admit they had a problem, a couple of care homes didn’t take quick enough action and they lost a lot of residents, dozens in fact. They were blasted in the media for calling in paramedics and ambulances. The problem wasn’t that the care homes called in ambulances, the problem was they should have called them in days earlier. When someone gets sick beyond the ability of a family to care for them, they call an ambulance. It should be no different at a care home. When they see a resident needs more care than can be provided in the home, they should call an ambulance and sooner rather than later. It’s a lot easier to win a battle than it is to win a war. If the battles are handled, the war will not even start. Maybe just like facing Putin.
It is also interesting, dare I say amusing, that the federal government switched from talking about gun control to climate change to COVID to trucker protests to the Ukraine war. Now that C-19 has settled down some and Canada has delivered all its available ancient military resources into Ukraine, it’s time to get back to the old standby issues. More coming now on climate change, in spite of the fact that Canada does almost nothing to harm the climate compared to China, compared to all the tanks, fuel and buildings that have been exploded in Ukraine, along with the occasional volcano. Canada, and our current major party leadership, are all alike on this issue. We fret about what Canada does to global warming all the while Canada and the US sell off their mining interests (including a coal mine in the US) to Chinese-backed companies.
Isn’t it also interesting that, according the Canadian government, it’s a no-no to own guns but it’s okay to sell or give “lethal weapons” to Ukraine? Just wait, banning guns in Canada will be back soon enough.
Then finally, there is the now famous NDP-Liberal “coalition” government. Yeah, they don’t call it a coalition, but it is, in effect, a coalition. If it holds, the Trudeau Liberals will be in power until 2025. Please note that all new announcements, such as day care, are now being dubbed with a 2025 implementation date. That’s not a coincidence. The Liberals are lining up as many things as they can to come together in 2025 so they can boast about all they have done in time for the next election. It’s smart politics.
This week’s biggest irony is the fighter jet purchase announcement. Those same fighter jets that the Harper government wanted to buy and the Liberals cancelled in 2015. Now those jets are the best thing since sliced bread when it’s a Liberal idea. Probably twice as expensive now, but that doesn’t matter, as the Liberals can switch it from their “to-do” list to their “look what we did list”.
Below are a couple of links to columns that readers might find informative. The first one is to retired Manitoba judge Brian Giesbrecht’s columns and some from the Winnipeg Sun
https://fcpp.org/authors/brian-giesbrecht/
https://winnipegsun.com/author/brian-giesbrecht/
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this column are the writer’s personal views and are not to be taken as being the view of the Banner & Press staff.
