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OK, so now for another Throwback Thursday, alternate history, back in time for Covid episode.
By November 1970, I was in grade 13. We had just been through the October Crisis and the invocation of the War Measures Act. I also spent a few weeks in hospital in the fall of 1970, so it's all very interesting to speculate how things might have been, had the novel Coronavirus been blown' in the wind and secretin' in the droplets back in 1970.
Though national and to some extent international in scope, I don't really know how big a deal the October Crisis really was for people outside of Quebec and eastern Ontario. Certainly for those in Montreal, Ottawa and Quebec City, it loomed pretty large. If we had had the Coronavirus then, would it have distracted people from the whole Quebec separatist/sovereigntist movement or would it have only added fuel to their fire? Maybe there would have been more federal co-ordination and interprovincial collaboration in fighting the virus... but then again, maybe not. Maybe the War Measures Act would have allowed for people to be apprehended and quarantined for 30 days without testing on the remotest suspicion of their having the virus, just because some neighbour who didn't like them much made a false allegation about them!
What about social distancing? High schools were definitely overcrowded in those days. Hospitals were not so great either. Much of the time I spent in hospital in 1970 was in a 4-bed ward, even though my family theoretically had semi-private insurance coverage.
In day-to-day life, though, I was pretty much a free-range teenager, able to hang out with my friends when not holed up doing my school work. I don't think I would have coped very well with being cooped up at home with my parents 24/7 and I dare say it would have been equally painful for them!
So stay tuned - next week I'll tackle Covid-80.
By November 1970, I was in grade 13. We had just been through the October Crisis and the invocation of the War Measures Act. I also spent a few weeks in hospital in the fall of 1970, so it's all very interesting to speculate how things might have been, had the novel Coronavirus been blown' in the wind and secretin' in the droplets back in 1970.
Though national and to some extent international in scope, I don't really know how big a deal the October Crisis really was for people outside of Quebec and eastern Ontario. Certainly for those in Montreal, Ottawa and Quebec City, it loomed pretty large. If we had had the Coronavirus then, would it have distracted people from the whole Quebec separatist/sovereigntist movement or would it have only added fuel to their fire? Maybe there would have been more federal co-ordination and interprovincial collaboration in fighting the virus... but then again, maybe not. Maybe the War Measures Act would have allowed for people to be apprehended and quarantined for 30 days without testing on the remotest suspicion of their having the virus, just because some neighbour who didn't like them much made a false allegation about them!
What about social distancing? High schools were definitely overcrowded in those days. Hospitals were not so great either. Much of the time I spent in hospital in 1970 was in a 4-bed ward, even though my family theoretically had semi-private insurance coverage.
In day-to-day life, though, I was pretty much a free-range teenager, able to hang out with my friends when not holed up doing my school work. I don't think I would have coped very well with being cooped up at home with my parents 24/7 and I dare say it would have been equally painful for them!
So stay tuned - next week I'll tackle Covid-80.
