So, you know what this article is going to be about. But, before I begin, I do have to go on a bit of a rant, about… “the guys”.
The Rant
I had decided that I wanted/needed to write this article a while ago. At that time, I had absolutely no thought about mentioning any of the men involved in the fight against the pandemic. But then, the 2021 Budget came down, and Erin O’Toole the national Conservative leader decided he would comment. And what aspect of the budget did he critique? Absolutely none. Instead, he had a little hissy fit trying to convince the world that young Monsieur Trudeau had done a terrible job of acquiring vaccines?????
If you want to win my vote you need to tell me, what your plan is, how you are going to do things differently, and how this is going to benefit me and all other Canadians. Pointing fingers and being accusatory is not good leadership. Especially when the country is in the state it is in.
Every leader around the world has struggled with what to do about the pandemic and what they needed to do internally to combat it. There were a few gold standards set around the world, but in most jurisdictions, people were essentially making it up as it unfolded. Generally, everyone was trying to do the right thing, without actually knowing what the right thing was.
My take is that Canada has done no better or no worse than anyone else. We are at a disadvantage because we do not produce vaccines here, but the federal government negotiated solid deals with suppliers around the world. If there was fault to be measured out, it should be to the vaccine producers who did not live up to the conditions of their contracts.
Further, which political jurisdictions in Canada were doing the worst job in the spring when other provinces were reducing their numbers? Ontario and Alberta. Jason Kenney and Doug Ford’s management ineptitude resulted in widespread infections. And, what has their battle cry been? Blame the federal government for not giving them enough money or vaccines.
I should probably add at this point that I am politically agnostic. I have voted for all three political parties and will probably do so again. However, my feeling is that the conservative movement in Canada has lost its way, and I will have great difficulty voting for the party until it gets its act together. The 1950s are over, let it go. Time to join the 21st-century. Stop being climate deniers. Stop trying to impose your social values and beliefs on others. Stop trying to restrict the upward mobility of the poor, the working poor, those who strive to simply be middle class, AND WOMEN!
There you go. Rant over. On to the good stuff.
Praise For the Frontline Workers
For the most part everyone has been doing a really good job of praising and supporting women working in the front lines of the battle against COVID-19, primarily healthcare workers. While the rest of us are all trying to stay safe, they are out there caring for Covid victims and everyone else with health issues. For them it has meant long, gruelling hours with little rest. And their jobs were tough enough to begin with. Thank you all.
We also need to remember many of the other frontline, essential jobs are held primarily by women as well. Without attempting to name them all, I can immediately think of grocery store clerks, teachers and childcare workers, restaurant staff, social workers, post office workers, bank tellers, etc. According to a recent New York Times article “One in three jobs held by women has been designated as essential.” An American example, but probably very representative of our situation in Canada as well. Most of these women also continue to be the primary childcare parent in their homes.
Nor should we forget all the women, who may not be considered to be essential workers, but are working from home and are trying to juggle childcare with their work as well. Thank you all.
The Leaders in the Pandemic Fight
Above and beyond these hard-working women I feel it is incredibly important for us to recognise and salute the individuals who have assumed major roles in Canada to fight the pandemic by working to provide products and services for individual provinces and the whole country. It can definitely be argued that the big picture fight against COVID-19 is being conducted by a small group of absolutely amazing women.
The following biographies for these women are cribbed from Wikipedia articles, unless otherwise stated. I have included them in their original form, or in revised format by me, without quotation marks so that you will not be constantly distracted by them while reading. I have provided links to all the original articles for your reference.
You might wonder why I go on at length about these women’s academic pursuits and their pre-politics careers. It is because I wanted you to see and understand just how long and hard these women have been working to get themselves into the positions that they are currently in. These are talented, hard-working, smart, professional women.
Canadian Politicians
For me, the jury is still out on Monsieur Trudeau. There is a chance that he is more Margaret than Pierre, but I think that he is doing the best possible job that anyone could have done in his position. He deserves some praise. Not for his central role in the pandemic fight, but for a decision he made and implemented when he became Prime Minister. He completely won my vote when he promised that his cabinet would be comprised of 50% women. A promise that he followed through on. I loved his response when somebody asked the question why he was doing this, “because it’s 2015”. Welcome to the world as it should be.
Many of those cabinet ministers are doing the heavy lifting in the fight against COVID-19. These are a few of the key women involved.
Anita Anand – Minister of Public Services and Procurement
I am impressed with Miss Anand every time I see her calm, intelligent, almost serene, exclamations and question responses around the vaccine procurement process. As Canada’s Procurement Minister, Ms. Anand has been responsible for procuring the vaccines, PPE, and other medical supplies needed to protect against COVID-19.
Additionally, she has largely been fighting an uphill battle against the heavyweights, the EU and the USA, in the search for vaccines for the 34 million Canadians who have needed them. I am quite certain that she has been working 24/7 and had many a sleepless night throughout this endeavor.
Anand holds four degrees: a BA in political studies from Queen’s University; a BA in Jurisprudence from Wadham College, Oxford University; a Bachelor of Laws from Dalhousie University; and a Master of Laws from the University of Toronto. She was called to the Ontario Bar in 1994.
Anand has held academic positions at Yale, Queen’s University and Western University. Before her election, Anand was a law professor at the University of Toronto
Minister Anand is the liberal member for Oakville. She is a professor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. She was born and raised in Kentville Nova Scotia, the daughter of immigrant doctors.
Thank you, Minister Anand.
Patty Hajdu – Minister of Health
As Minister of Health, Ms. Hajdu oversees the Department of Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada, both key agencies coordinating the Canadian government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada.
Minister Hajdu had a very interesting early life. She was born in Montreal, but she and her brother spent their early years in Chisholm, Minnesota being raised by her aunt and uncle.
When she was 12 years old, Hajdu moved to Thunder Bay to be reunited with her mother. That ended up with her leaving home and living on her own at the age of 16. After graduating from high school, she went to work at a non-profit adult-literacy group, where she received training in graphic design.
She attended Lakehead University, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts. In 2015, she received a Master of Public Administration from the University of Victoria. Prior to her election in 2015 executive director at Shelter House, the city’s largest homeless shelter.
Thank you, Minister Hajdu.
Chrystia Freeland – Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance
Ms. Freeland has served as the Deputy Prime Minister of Canada since 2019 and as the Minister of Finance since 2020. She is the first woman to hold the finance portfolio. She, along with the Prime Minister, has become the government’s point person during the pandemic.
Minister Freeland was born in Peace River, Alberta. Her father, Donald Freeland, was a farmer and lawyer and a member of the Liberal Party. Her mother, Halyna Chomiak, was also a lawyer and ran for the NDP in the 1988 federal election.
She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Russian history and literature from Harvard University and a Master of Studies degree in Slavonic studies from Oxford’s St Antony’s College as a Rhodes Scholar in 1993.
She has previously worked as a journalist for the Financial Times, The Washington Post and The Economist while living and working in Ukraine. She later worked for the Financial Times in London as a deputy editor, and editor and also served as Moscow bureau chief and Eastern Europe correspondent for the Financial Times while living in Moscow. Since 1999 Ms. Freeland worked in editorial roles at various news outlets in Canada and the United States.
One of the things I find really interesting about her is that she speaks exclusively Ukrainian at home with her children. She speaks English, Russian, Italian, and French. She is the author of two books about Russian economics and appears in Bill Browder’s book “Red Notice”. Apparently, Vladimir Putin hates her. 🙂
Thank you, Minister Freeland
Women of Science
Dr. Theresa Tam – Chief Public Health Officer of Canada,
Dr. Tam was born in British Hong Kong and grew up in the United Kingdom. She attended medical school at the University of Nottingham. She completed her pediatric residency at the University of Alberta, and a pediatric infectious diseases fellowship at University of British Columbia. As a pediatric infectious disease specialist, played a leadership role in Canada’s response to other public health emergencies including SARS, pandemic influenza H1N1, Ebola as well as Covid. She is an official advisor to the WHO.
In spite of the incredible service doctor Tam has provided to our country she was attacked by rookie MP Derek Sloan who said, “Does she work for Canada or for China?”. A shameful racist, anti-immigrant attack that embarrassed the whole nation. And how did she respond. She held her head high, generally ignored the remarks, and continued doing what she has been doing to help Canadians all along.
Thank you, Doctor Tam.
Dr. Supriya Sharma – Health Canada’s Chief Medical Advisor
Dr. Supriya Sharma has been the calm, thoughtful voice from Health Canada throughout the pandemic. Amongst other duties she was the one who kept us constantly informed about the different vaccines that were approved for use in Canada.
Abbreviated bio from the Pan-Canadian Public Health Network.
She took on the role of Chief Medical Advisor to the Deputy Minister at Health Canada in August 2015, in addition to her role as Senior Medical Advisor of the Health Products and Food Branch in the department.
Dr. Sharma completed her MD from the University of Ottawa. After that, she completed a pediatrics residency at the Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary, and did a one year exchange as a Senior Registrar in Brisbane Australia.
She was a Fellow in Hematology at the Hospital for Sick Children and the Toronto General Hospital. Where she conducted research into sickle cell disease and thalassemia, and participated in a research project with Oxford University in Sri Lanka. Following that she completed a Masters of Public Health in International Health from the Harvard School of Public Health.
Dr. Sharma has held a number of regulatory and policy positions in Health Canada since 2002, and was most recently the Director General of the Therapeutic Products Directorate. She also took a sabbatical working in consulting and with an academic start up out of the University of Western Ontario focusing on innovation adoption in the health care system, and returned to Health Canada in 2013 to take on the newly created Senior Medical Advisor role in the Health Products and Food Branch.
Thank you, Doctor Sharma.
Dr. Bonnie Henry – B.C. Provincial Health Office
Dr. Bonnie Henry is a Canadian physician who is the Provincial Health Officer for British Columbia, the first woman in this position. Henry is also a clinical associate professor at the University of British Columbia. She was a family doctor and is a specialist in public health and preventive medicine.
During her third year of her medical degree at Dalhousie, Henry enlisted in the Royal Canadian Navy and served as a medical officer after graduating. She served for ten years at CFB Esquimalt, located in Victoria, B.C. on Vancouver Island.
Born in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Henry grew up in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. Her father was a major in the Canadian Army; the family lived in many different locations due to his postings, including Calgary, St. John’s, and the Netherlands.
In 1986, Henry received a BSc (Honours) from Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick. In 1990, Henry earned her Doctor of Medicine degree from Dalhousie University Faculty of Medicine in Halifax, Nova Scotia. From 1996 to 1999, Henry did a residency in preventive medicine at the University of California, San Diego. In 1999, she earned an MPH degree in epidemiology from San Diego State University. In 2001, Henry completed a residency in public health and preventive medicine at the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada.
And thanks to all the rest, including Dr. Deenan Hinshaw , Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer of Health and Dr. Eileen De Villa, Toronto’s Medical Officer of Health.
World Leaders
Early on in the pandemic, Forbes magazine produced a thoughtful article about how female leaders around the world we’re leading in the successful battle against COVID-19. It pointed out how a “female leadership style” seemed to have been more effective than the traditional “autocratic male style” of leadership… Think Jason Kenney and Doug Ford… Ouch.
Although Angela Merkel seemed to lose it a bit later in the pandemic, she, and all the other women leaders around the world, must be saluted for how they mitigated the devastating impact of the virus in their countries. The graph chart below from the Forbes article demonstrates just how successful they were.
Thank you, to each and every one of you.
The One Amazing Woman I Feel For
Christine Elliot – Deputy Premier of Ontario
When the leadership race for the conservative party in Ontario began, I had hoped that Christine Elliot would emerge victorious and that the party would begin to go down a much less rigid, very right-wing path. The liberals had probably been in power too long, and I was ready to vote for change.
Much to my surprise, and probably too many others, she lost the race to Doug Ford. And the race was lost in the most bizarre of manners. As the CBC reported:
“Elliott had 32,202 votes to 30,041 votes for Ford, giving her an edge in the popular vote of 51.7 per cent to 48.3 per cent for Ford.
Elliott also had more votes in 64 ridings, with Ford having the edge in the other 60.
But the PC leadership was not decided by either the popular vote or the number of ridings supporting a candidate. Instead, it came down to points (what the party called electoral votes).”
Huh? She had more votes, won more ridings, but lost because Doug Ford had more “electoral votes” like in the American system. So, we ended up with yet another Ford to embarrass us around the world. ” Is it just me or does she always look embarrassed/disgusted/annoyed/unbelieving when she is standing behind him when he’s speaking at one of his little announcements at a podium?
Hang in there Ms. Elliot, your turn will come… And the sooner the better.
The She-Session
So how did we repay all these amazing women? The frontline workers, the healthcare workers, the politicians, the scientists and all the millions of other hard working women? Sadly, with an enormous “she-session” reecession. Global news reported that “female-dominated service-sector jobs were among the first to disappear”, and that early on in the pandemic “62 per cent of the jobs lost between late February and March” were women’s jobs and that “In aggregate, women also lost around 50 per cent more work hours than men during the same period.” They also speculateed that the “female-dominated sectors that were the first to shut down may also be the last to re-open and recover“.
Even the women who didn’t lose their jobs and were able to work remotely from home continued to be the primary providers of childcare in their homes – and, in many cases they were forced to be teacher assistants to help their children with remote learning. Not good.
Hope is On the Horizon
And what are all the amazing women in this country asking the nation to do for them to ease their burden? As usual, not terribly much. They simply want to be provided with affordable, accessible daycare so that they can leave their children in good hands while they go off to work.
The Global piece asserted that “Women need someone to watch the kids to be able to return to work — and Canada needs female workers back on the job in order to stage a full recovery.” And that without a daycare program “we run the risk of setting women back decades.”
And at long last, the promise has been made to make that happen.
In its 2021 budget, the federal government promised to set up a national day care plan that would provide parents with access to inexpensive, less than $10 per day, childcare. Mothers everywhere will be able to afford to go out and work.
This is a very important step for women, our economy, the nation as a whole, and the children that it will serve. Let’s do the right thing and get this done. It is the least we can do for all women. Pay equity would be nice as well, of course.
