If you are a life-long fan of the Maple Leafs, you know the feeling of disappointment. Actually, for anyone born after 1967, you have had a lifetime of disappointment, so last nights crippling 3-1 loss over Montreal, well that’s just part of the character-building of being a Leaf’s fan.
This story is not about being disappointed in the Leafs, but in our Premier and the continual head-scratching decisions our Ontario government makes in the name of keeping us all safe; the closing of golf courses, not allowing owners of boats to enjoy the water, the opening of big box retail at the expense of independent business and so on. The list is long and frustrating for most Ontarians.
But last night, seeing 500 fans in an arena that holds 20,000 added a new blood-boiling frustration. Was this a typical Canadian arrangement that if we can’t all have fun, we better not let anyone have some fun? Oh, and if we are going to concede and let anyone into the game in a province still in lockdown, let’s make sure they are the front-line health care workers. Nobody could complain about that.
Well yes, I can. Of course, health care workers have been heroes through Covid, but so have the couriers that deliver our boxes, the small business owners that have managed somehow to stay in business and the restaurant owners that have seen their life’s work depleted. For the first time since March 2020, I now realize that anyone who has come out of the past year and a half with any dignity, drive and determination is considered a hero.
But what’s really driving me nuts is that most Canadians are still in a waiting line of hope for a second vaccination, where we once again get to the promised land of normalcy. So last night’s game should have had 10,000 fans of fully vaccinated attendees and they shouldn’t have had to wear masks. Isn’t that the whole point of being fully vaccinated? They should have been living life as a fully vaccinated person as life used to be. What’s the point of being fully vaccinated if you are still restricted in where you can go and you still have to wear a mask? I watched last night’s game on an American station and this was also a head-scratching observation from our friend’s to the South.
Ontario, you blew it last night. You had an opportunity to show the rest of us what life on the other side of two doses looks like -something to look forward to. But instead, you took the politically correct lame way of playing it safe with 500 fully vaccinated, mask-wearing attendees from one subset of society in the arena. How’s that for inclusivity? How’s that for showing hope?
Sorry Leafs. Maybe next year.