Editor:
With active COVID cases at an all-time high in B.C., perhaps it’s time to resurrect the seven o’clock cheer for our frontline workers — students in particular.
Although many don’t consider students to be part of the workforce, I think we can now say they’re doing a job — and a dangerous one, too, on the frontline of the COVID pandemic.
They’ve been placed in crowded classrooms without adequate social distancing, are not required to wear protective gear (at all times), have had the windows closed on them when outdoor air quality was hazardous, and are now invited to attend school if they have sore throats or runny noses or are feeling dizzy.
Their job, of course, is to show the NDP’s target voter that John Horgan has made things “normal” again, that children are back at school, and parents are back at work.
To be sure, the NDP might have mandated an increase in paid leaves to allow parents to care for their children during emergencies (and raise us to the standard of almost everywhere else in the OECD). The NDP, however, is not in the business of making our province a more humane place. Their job is merely to appear to care about people, while pursuing business (in all senses of the word) as usual.
As someone from out of province once quipped to me, B.C. is a land of “environmentalists” driving SUVs.
Patrick Parkes, New Westminster
