You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.
A future Nobel laureate wrote that line, back in those free love, protest-filled days of the mid-60s.
It still rings true, although nowadays just studying the latest poll results will reveal exactly how the climate’s changing.
So, being a Bob Dylan fan and a confirmed cynic from way back, it therefore came as little surprise when Quebec premier François Legault suddenly launched into his own version of COVID-Kumbaya early last week, doing a remarkable, 180-degree swivel from his recent hard-faced, slap down of all those refusing pandemic vaccination in La Belle Province.
Yes, in mid-January Legault was merrily imposing curfews, threatening higher taxes, and generally doing his very best to make life as unbearable as possible for the un-jabbed in Quebec.
Then, poof, it was all sweetness and light, with calls to put past differences aside and come together.
Seriously though, what brought about this sudden change in the political weather, one Saskatchewan and Alberta are also following?
Well, days earlier, a national poll appeared, courtesy of Angus Reid, which showed a dramatic shift in Canadians’ feelings toward pandemic restrictions.
Now, it should be noted, these fellows are not some poll-by-night newcomers. Their work has gravitas, meaning the CBC can’t subsequently accuse Russia of fiddling with the results. OK, they can, seeing our state media monolith’s last toehold on objectivity was torn asunder when it pondered aloud and on air if perhaps Vladimir Putin was behind the recent cross-Canada trucker protests.
So, what did this poll show? Well, for example, in the shape of just two weeks the percentage of Quebecers who agreed restrictions should end and people self-isolate if concerned about COVID, jumped from 34 per cent to 59 per cent. In Saskatchewan it rose from 36 per cent to 62 per cent, while here in Alberta the percentage increased from 39 to 57.
Those are huge swings in a short time. So, it's little wonder politicians everywhere quickly started singing from a different song sheet.
However, this isn’t surprising to those who pay less attention to the endless ranting of those "them and us" groups infesting social media, always claiming to represent ordinary Canadians. They rarely do. Regular folk have much more sense, and much less time, to bother spewing nastiness into any digital void that, as Nietzsche once suggested, eventually looks right back at them.
So, how come attitudes are changing so quickly, considering this darned pandemic has been with us for two long, dreary years?
Quite simply, Canadians figured out two things. First, this new Omicron strain cuts through vaccination defences like a hot knife through butter — four out of five active cases in Alberta currently have some level of vaccination.
Secondly, getting jabbed is now less about preventing catching or spreading COVID and more about keeping yourself alive (vaccination still gives people a much better chance of survival).
Therefore, community responsibility — long valued by Canadians — is fading as personal responsibility takes its place, making it easier to accept risk when you’re the one to pay any subsequent price.
Dylan also once sang about how times, they are a-changing. Maybe so, but some things don’t change all that much — politicians go where the votes are, with the same surety and determination as dogs chasing a ball.
So, like it, lump it, or leave it: COVID’s on a path to become yesterday’s news, still potentially deadly for sure, but like Jason minus his hockey mask, no longer quite as frightening.
Chris Nelson is a long-time journalist. His columns on Alberta politics run monthly in the St. Albert Gazette.
