Perhaps we have some Common Ground to Work with here to explain this fiasco :

The Ground between Conspiracy and Gross Incompetence.

Thanks to Kevan ( a very alert researcher)…THIS piece is perhaps just what we needed to reduce polarization on this discussion and bring both sides together.
Perhaps it’s NOT a conspiracy… but just gross incompetence and playing the political game that has brought about this horrible situation.

Something to ponder This weekend…pass it On.

The following letter was buried on the Randy Hillier website — I assume it was a message sent to his constituents.

A very powerful message………

The COVID road, lies somewhere between Dogma & Conspiracy
The surreal and polarized world following the COVID panic can be difficult for
anyone to fully understand and comprehend. On the one hand, a great many
people have accepted without question or thought that fear and apocalyptic
consequences can only be averted with egregious intervention.

On the other hand, there are those who question this dogma, and instead are left
to search out alternative theories of what we are going through, including
conspiracies between politicians, mainstream media, Big Pharma, and Big Tech.

I don’t agree with either of these two groups; I’m confident in saying that there is
no Grand Conspiracy, while also stating COVID is not the apocalypse that justifies
the end of our freedoms, our democracy, nor our prosperous economy.

I’ve been involved in partisan politics and an elected member in Canada’s largest
provincial legislature for almost 14 years, through 4 terms of office. I’ve been in
opposition, in government and now am an Independent member without partisan
affiliation.

While Canada and Ontario are in the midst of and experiencing our worst ever
public health crisis, it is not the result of COVID or conspiracies. Hundreds of
thousands of medical procedures have been postponed, access to healthcare is no
longer universal, it’s become non existent, the growth, development and
education of our youth is being obstructed through lack of social interactions
while our prosperity and standards of living are diminished. It is due to
incompetence, ignorance, and the immutable truth: politicians never admit
failure, and governments, by their very nature, always seek more powers.

It was excusable, and maybe even prudent, to implement harsh measures early in
March of 2020 due to the vast uncertain, conflicting, and confusing information
regarding this new virus. Instead of being truthful and admitting their
unnecessary overreach which became apparent a month later, politicians doubled
down on the overreach without understanding or considering the downstream
consequences for society.

The singular political priority was not to improve the public outcomes but to
improve their leaders’ popularity, enhance their party’s poll numbers and hide
their incompetence, so that no one could blame them for the excessive
overreach.

All governments have now dug themselves into a COVID hole, so deep they
cannot escape, but what’s even worse, is the public cannot escape either without
recognizing the COVID pandemic is not nearly the problem we thought it would
become, and accept some humility for our role in being duped into apocalyptic
alarmism. It is a bitter pill we must all swallow if we are to ever regain our
standards of living, freedoms, democracy, self-respect, and respect for one
another.

I understand that people may default to ascribing this COVID spectacle as a
conspiracy, but to do so give politicians and governments far more credit than
they deserve. In fourteen years I’ve never known any politician or political staff to
keep a secret; leaks from political parties are constant and unending. However,
the predisposition and proclivity for politicians and political parties to be
incompetent, scandalous, and sketchy, knows no limits within the party
apparatus.

While there are exceptions to every rule in life, consider this: most political
leaders are chosen due to their charisma, personality, appearance or good looks,
and/or party affiliations; very few are elected because of their intellect,
convictions, or independence. That is a fact we can all take to the bank.

While I find the actions and response to COVID by political parties particularly
disturbing, it is the actions and responses by the mainstream media to be most
reprehensible, for they have lost sight of their primary responsibility to the public.

They have remained silent as big tech has repeatedly censored differing opinions,
while turning a blind eye to government incompetence and lack of transparency
in order to gain access. The days of objective truth are behind us, it seems, led
largely by the distracted press, and the gratuitously rude mob on social media.

The only conspiracy we are experiencing is the conspiracy to leave our faculties,
critical thinking, and discourse unused during a most critical time. We have
become victims of self-censorship, imposed upon us by fear, a fear that if we
think differently, we are wrong. This leaves us unable to have the necessary
conversations we used to have with our friends and neighbours…about decisions,
about life, about taking care of one another. Instead, we find ourselves thrust into
a dystopian world beyond anything we imagined possible, where hyperbole is law,
and facts are subjective

Randy Hillier MPP Ontario Canada