While the government may have the legal authority to impose restrictions upon us, moral authority continues to elude them. While legal authority can be legislated, moral authority has to be earned. As long as citizens do not recognize the moral authority of the state, mass compliance with restrictions simply won’t happen..You could hear it in the tone of Premier Kenney’s press conference last week. The premier alternated between pleading and scolding Albertans in hopes of getting them to comply with state-imposed restrictions, fourteen months after they were promised “three weeks to flatten the curve”. That approach is going to be doomed to failure so long as citizens don’t feel that the premier has the moral authority to ask or order them to do anything. If anything, it will encourage the non-compliant to dig their heels in further..In order for Premier Kenney to gain moral authority, citizens have to see some indication that he and other leaders in government have some direct understanding of the pressures that they are putting people under. We don’t just want the government to offer the standard news releases claiming empathy and understanding. We want to know full well that politicians and senior bureaucrats understand exactly what we are going through. What citizens see are a number of people in power who are living in a cloistered bubble and have lost touch with what is happening to the common folks outside of their halls of power..It doesn’t help when we hear Dr. Hinshaw, Health Minister Shandro, NDP Leader Rachel Notley, and Premier Kenney parrot the all too tired line of, “We are all in this together,” as they continue to collect their guaranteed government salaries..It is insulting to see a lineup of people who have not missed a single paycheque during this year of misery, pretending to understand what it’s like to be impacted by lockdowns..The disconnect between government officials and common citizens was vividly displayed last winter when it was discovered that a number of politicians and senior staffers had been enjoying tropical vacations, while the rest of us were locked in our cold and lonely homes for Christmas. It wasn’t just the gross hypocrisy of the travelers that got to us. It was the dumbfounded response from government leaders, whether Premier Kenney or Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi. They really didn’t understand why this was a problem until it fully blew up in their faces. They have no idea how common citizens are feeling and this is how they lost the moral authority to lock us down..One way that government could regain the moral high ground would be to put themselves in the shoes of citizens by cutting the compensation for every civil servant from janitorial services to the premier himself down to $2,000 per month for the remainder of the period that restrictions are in force. If they believe that people can live on that for a year under restrictions, I don’t see why they can’t do the same. They could just learn to tighten their belts, take from their retirement savings, put off vacations, remortgage their homes and max out their credit cards like the rest of us have. Sacrifice just a little more for just a little longer as Dr. Hinshaw would say. I suspect that restrictions upon citizens would be gone before the end of the next pay period..If this pandemic is so dire that we can suspend Charter rights like freedom of mobility, association, and religion, why should government union contracts be immune? Are compensation contracts with unions actually stronger than the Charter of Rights which is supposedly a contract between the state and all citizens? If so, our priorities have become a little skewed. Salary cuts for union members would surely silence the Alberta Federation of Labour President Gil McGowan’s constant calls for increased lockdowns. Even NDP Leader and former premier Rachel Notley would suddenly support letting everybody get back to work..We know that the government would consider this, but that really is what it would take for them to retain some form of moral authority as they try to impose more restrictions upon us..Something more realistic would be an initiative to directly expose government decision-makers to those who they impact with their decisions. This could be done with a large round table meeting where they could pitch lockdown proposals in person with the true “stakeholders” as the government likes to put it. No remote meetings. No masks. Just a big room where people can make eye contact and communicate directly with each other even while socially distanced..Let Dr. Hinshaw and Premier Kenney look some of the remaining small business owners in the eye as they explain why they are imposing new restrictions which will crush the enterprise which was a creation of somebody’s heart, soul, effort, and savings..Let’s see officials directly tell seniors who have been incarcerated for a year away from extended families that they will not be free to see their grandchildren in person just one more time..Let’s have Health Minister Tyler Shandro explain in-person to a child that has a one in a million chance of dying from COVID-19 why they will have to give up a second year of organized sports and socialization with their peers..Will senior health officials with six-figure incomes be able to maintain eye contact as they explain to a single parent who has been laid off from the hospitality industry why they will have to continue to live on a macaroni diet and beg their landlords for another extension on late rent?.These direct interactions will probably never happen, but if they ever did, we would either see the government back down on restrictions, or at least see them gain some respect from citizens as they impose them. It’s a world of difference to have to tell somebody in person why you intend to continue to put their lives on hold, than it is to do it from a closed press conference with carefully controlled questions from favoured journalists. The state can’t keep just talking to us. They need to listen to us..As long as the government doesn’t have moral authority, they won’t see widespread compliance with restrictions. We will continue to see churches, businesses and individuals standing up and refusing to comply and we will see government support continue to plummet along with public respect..If the Alberta government can’t find a way to gain moral authority, they will surely lose legal authority as well when the next general election comes. If the government plans to continue with or even expand restrictions they had better figure out how to connect with citizens, and fast. They can’t keep telling us that we are all in this together when it is so clear that we aren’t. We need to see at least a glimmer of understanding of what we from government officials of what we are enduring. By all indications so far, they don’t have a clue..Cory Morgan is the Alberta Political Columnist and Host of the Cory Morgan Show for the Western Standard
While the government may have the legal authority to impose restrictions upon us, moral authority continues to elude them. While legal authority can be legislated, moral authority has to be earned. As long as citizens do not recognize the moral authority of the state, mass compliance with restrictions simply won’t happen..You could hear it in the tone of Premier Kenney’s press conference last week. The premier alternated between pleading and scolding Albertans in hopes of getting them to comply with state-imposed restrictions, fourteen months after they were promised “three weeks to flatten the curve”. That approach is going to be doomed to failure so long as citizens don’t feel that the premier has the moral authority to ask or order them to do anything. If anything, it will encourage the non-compliant to dig their heels in further..In order for Premier Kenney to gain moral authority, citizens have to see some indication that he and other leaders in government have some direct understanding of the pressures that they are putting people under. We don’t just want the government to offer the standard news releases claiming empathy and understanding. We want to know full well that politicians and senior bureaucrats understand exactly what we are going through. What citizens see are a number of people in power who are living in a cloistered bubble and have lost touch with what is happening to the common folks outside of their halls of power..It doesn’t help when we hear Dr. Hinshaw, Health Minister Shandro, NDP Leader Rachel Notley, and Premier Kenney parrot the all too tired line of, “We are all in this together,” as they continue to collect their guaranteed government salaries..It is insulting to see a lineup of people who have not missed a single paycheque during this year of misery, pretending to understand what it’s like to be impacted by lockdowns..The disconnect between government officials and common citizens was vividly displayed last winter when it was discovered that a number of politicians and senior staffers had been enjoying tropical vacations, while the rest of us were locked in our cold and lonely homes for Christmas. It wasn’t just the gross hypocrisy of the travelers that got to us. It was the dumbfounded response from government leaders, whether Premier Kenney or Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi. They really didn’t understand why this was a problem until it fully blew up in their faces. They have no idea how common citizens are feeling and this is how they lost the moral authority to lock us down..One way that government could regain the moral high ground would be to put themselves in the shoes of citizens by cutting the compensation for every civil servant from janitorial services to the premier himself down to $2,000 per month for the remainder of the period that restrictions are in force. If they believe that people can live on that for a year under restrictions, I don’t see why they can’t do the same. They could just learn to tighten their belts, take from their retirement savings, put off vacations, remortgage their homes and max out their credit cards like the rest of us have. Sacrifice just a little more for just a little longer as Dr. Hinshaw would say. I suspect that restrictions upon citizens would be gone before the end of the next pay period..If this pandemic is so dire that we can suspend Charter rights like freedom of mobility, association, and religion, why should government union contracts be immune? Are compensation contracts with unions actually stronger than the Charter of Rights which is supposedly a contract between the state and all citizens? If so, our priorities have become a little skewed. Salary cuts for union members would surely silence the Alberta Federation of Labour President Gil McGowan’s constant calls for increased lockdowns. Even NDP Leader and former premier Rachel Notley would suddenly support letting everybody get back to work..We know that the government would consider this, but that really is what it would take for them to retain some form of moral authority as they try to impose more restrictions upon us..Something more realistic would be an initiative to directly expose government decision-makers to those who they impact with their decisions. This could be done with a large round table meeting where they could pitch lockdown proposals in person with the true “stakeholders” as the government likes to put it. No remote meetings. No masks. Just a big room where people can make eye contact and communicate directly with each other even while socially distanced..Let Dr. Hinshaw and Premier Kenney look some of the remaining small business owners in the eye as they explain why they are imposing new restrictions which will crush the enterprise which was a creation of somebody’s heart, soul, effort, and savings..Let’s see officials directly tell seniors who have been incarcerated for a year away from extended families that they will not be free to see their grandchildren in person just one more time..Let’s have Health Minister Tyler Shandro explain in-person to a child that has a one in a million chance of dying from COVID-19 why they will have to give up a second year of organized sports and socialization with their peers..Will senior health officials with six-figure incomes be able to maintain eye contact as they explain to a single parent who has been laid off from the hospitality industry why they will have to continue to live on a macaroni diet and beg their landlords for another extension on late rent?.These direct interactions will probably never happen, but if they ever did, we would either see the government back down on restrictions, or at least see them gain some respect from citizens as they impose them. It’s a world of difference to have to tell somebody in person why you intend to continue to put their lives on hold, than it is to do it from a closed press conference with carefully controlled questions from favoured journalists. The state can’t keep just talking to us. They need to listen to us..As long as the government doesn’t have moral authority, they won’t see widespread compliance with restrictions. We will continue to see churches, businesses and individuals standing up and refusing to comply and we will see government support continue to plummet along with public respect..If the Alberta government can’t find a way to gain moral authority, they will surely lose legal authority as well when the next general election comes. If the government plans to continue with or even expand restrictions they had better figure out how to connect with citizens, and fast. They can’t keep telling us that we are all in this together when it is so clear that we aren’t. We need to see at least a glimmer of understanding of what we from government officials of what we are enduring. By all indications so far, they don’t have a clue..Cory Morgan is the Alberta Political Columnist and Host of the Cory Morgan Show for the Western Standard
