Coronavirus giving Canadians a much-needed wakeup call

Canadians do not appreciate just how lucky we are. Due to geography, we have been insulated from the troubles that face most of humankind.

When we had very heavy flooding in Alberta a few years ago, only three people died. At the same time, heavy flooding in Northern India killed 1,000 people.

We had heavy flooding in Toronto about three years ago, but no one died and no one was injured. A lot of houses had flooded basements and we lost our electricity for eight hours. No big deal.

We had an earthquake near Toronto about four years ago and we could not feel it. No damage at all; not even a dead cat. Yet when China has earthquakes, tens of thousands die.

Nature is so kind to us. We do not suffer from hurricanes, earthquakes, lengthy droughts or plagues of locusts. Rainstorms don't cause mudslides that kill hundreds and make thousands homeless. We are a land where famine is unknown.

We have managed to avoid manmade disasters. Our cities have not been destroyed by war. Our citizens have not been exiled and forced from their homes. Large-scale violent political strife is unthinkable.

However, starting this March, Canada was hit hard by the coronavirus. Our belief that the world’s problems are not our problems has been shattered.

Hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of Canadians have lost their jobs. An unknown number of small businesses have been closed and many will not reopen.

Our airlines have almost collapsed.

We now enduring home isolation. We have to line up—two meters apart— when we go to the grocery stores. Our shopping malls have been shut down and office towers are mainly empty. Our schools are closed.

There are few cars on the roads and our buses are mostly empty. Our community centers, movie theaters, bars and restaurants are closed. We cannot meet in groups any larger than five people. No more than 10 people can attend a funeral.

Our unemployed will need government help. For many, this will be the first time that they will have needed public assistance. Our hospital system, in which we have so much pride, is being badly strained. The virus will kill thousands.

Worst of all is that we do not know when all of this will end.

Yet we will learn some very important lessons. We will learn that all Canadians must care about each other and we will learn just how quickly our political leaders, our health professionals and our better business executives can forget their differences and work together for the common good.

But most of all, we will understand that this is a small world and that a catastrophe in anywhere in the world is a catastrophe for all of us. A health problem in China is a health problem for everybody.

We must help all countries that are in trouble, like what China is doing now. Because by doing so, we will be helping ourselves.

Finally, we must learn from other countries. We do not have all the answers.

If we were quicker to follow China’s example by having everyone wear masks whenever they left their homes, if we constantly took everyone’s temperature, if we shut down our cities sooner than we did, if we had been isolating the ill, if we had stockpiles of needed medical equipment and masks, we would have not been hit so hard.

We need more trust in this world and less hatred. The time for cheap political shots against other countries for personal gain is over. May it never return.

Holland Marshall lives in Toronto, Canada. He worked in China for a year and he now visits China once or twice a year.

The opinions expressed here are those of the writer and do not represent the views of China Daily and China Daily website.