[ad_1]
Breadcrumb Trail Links
OpinionColumnists
Article content
In some respects, many Canadians have rebounded from three years of social isolation.
Our unemployment levels have dropped and our sporting and cultural activities have ostensibly returned to normal. However, our desire to “return to pre-COVID normalcy” has been somewhat of a struggle and the pandemic’s legacy continues.
Article content
Governments which struggled to respond to the economic enormity of COVID-19’s impact now find themselves burdened with enormous public debt and creeping inflation, to which Canada’s central bank has responded with increased interest rates.
Advertisement 2
Article content
Suddenly, many homeowners are in a precarious financial position seeking to make mortgage payments on homes they probably should not have bought at inflated prices in the first place.
Concomitantly, and for a multitude of reasons, food prices have soared to the point where food banks are alternates for far too many people. Consumer routines are changing and we seem more inclined to become somewhat reclusive in behaviour and spending.
Prior to COVID, consumer spending was experiencing a rising trend in purchases of services and indulgences, ranging from hotel stays to restaurant meals and financial services.
But in 2020 that imploded and consumer spending trended more to “at-home” or in situ expenditures such as electronics and even ‘to-your-door’ food delivery.
Canadian governments are struggling and incurring even more debt in efforts both to stimulate the economy — for example, more building of affordable housing — and induce behavioural change, such as climate action incentive payments.
Yet the economic impacts of COVID linger especially in relation to discretionary expenditures on restaurant visits, vacations and personal services such a haircuts and hairdressing.
Advertisement 3
Article content
One example of the impact of COVID on our regional economy can be seen in a compilation of data assembled and provided by Tourism Windsor Essex Pelee Island (TWEPI). An estimated 5.7 million people visited the Windsor Essex County region in 2019 (up 6.9 per cent over 2018). Regional visitors generated an estimated $784 million in spending in 2019 (up by 9.3 per cent over 2018).
However, in 2020 the region hosted an estimated 1.7 million visitors (a decline of 70 per cent over 2019). Estimated visitor spending dropped by 68 per cent from 2019 to an estimated $251 million.
There is a bounce-back. TWEPI estimated we saw 4.4 million visitors spending $669 million in 2022.
The impact on tourism and related small businesses borders on disastrous.
Reclusive consumers — sometimes termed ‘hermit consumers’ — are those who spend more time at home, either in consequence of work-from-home opportunities or from a genuine reluctance to venture into crowd-related activities, from shopping malls to sporting and cultural venues.
Apparently, online searches for solitary home activities ranging from how to host pets to gardening have almost doubled from pre-COVID levels.
Advertisement 4
Article content
There is another downside to post-COVID reclusiveness. Many restaurants either have closed or raised prices to such a level that consumers are choosing to dine at home.
Arguably, many restaurants that “could have been” never opened because of higher food costs and staff shortages. Similarly, how many hotels and motels that might have been never materialized due to pandemic disruption?
Ironically, seeking to adjust to post-COVID reality, many have taken their anger out on governments. Frustrated and uncertain, some people seem to find solace in alluring rambles of populist pseudo-politicians.
Akin to the legendary Pied Piper, populist haranguers from Donald Trump in the U.S. to perhaps Pierre Poilievre in Canada simplify complex issues into catchy slogans and self-serving decisions. Those who feel disenfranchised are led to expect complex issues to be solved with simple responses.
COVID provided many of us with cause to be cynical, especially of those who are elected and charged with responsibility to govern.
Bizarre events spun out of frustration over COVID mandates, such as Ottawa’s absurd so-called freedom convoy occupation, or Windsor’s witless bridge blockade in February 2022, suggest how readily civil society norms can be distorted by traumatic social upheaval such as a pandemic.
It is time to live again but to do so we need more goodwill and less rancour and fewer political Pied Pipers.
We need to shed reclusiveness and rejoin the real world by recovering dreams and building new hopes. Enjoy life and try a visit to Bright Lights Windsor.
Lloyd Brown-John is a University of Windsor professor emeritus of political science. He can be reached at lbj@uwindsor.ca.
Article content
Share this article in your social network
[ad_2]
Source link
