Canada is slowly shrugging off that lockdown mentality

Canada is slowly shrugging off that lockdown mentality

By Shachi Kurl, President

As suddenly as they came on — upending our lives, wrenching us away from our friends and loved ones and classrooms and places of work — the shackles of life with COVID-19 are beginning to loosen and fall away.

It’s all too soon for some of us, not a moment too soon for others. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been hinting at an easing of border restrictions once 75 per cent of the country has been jabbed with at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine, and when 20 per cent have had two doses.

For the last 16 months, the land border has been closed to non-essential travel. Nearly half of Canadians told the Angus Reid Institute recently it should stay closed until at least September. Having been locked into a locked-down mentality for so long, and with the ravages of the third wave still prominent in the rear-view mirror, it isn’t surprising Canadians tilt towards caution. But frequent travellers, those who left Canada six or more times in a year in pre-pandemic times, believe it’s time to get on with things. More than half of this group would re-open the border by the end of the month if not sooner.

For the rest of this piece, please view it on the Ottawa Citizen’s site where it was initially published.


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