Following Britain and Denmark's lead is a crap-shoot

It's finny listening to interviews with the "Freedom Convoy" crowd in Ottawa, and like-minded protesters in other cities. Aside from their ill-considered and rather naive notions of what constitutes "freedom" in a modern democracy, at some point they will usually say something along the lines of, "Look at Britain! Look at Denmark! They have abandoned all COVID restrictions. We should too!" (Some of them were also claiming, quite erroneously, that France and Germany were dropping all restrictions too, but then truthfulness and accuracy has never been a mainstay of this movement.)

Well, for one thing, this is cherry-picking examples. One could just as easily say, "Look at China! They have almost zero cases. We should do what they are doing!" But hardly anyone is saying that, because it is an extreme position, and it has clear draw-backs.

Make no mistake, the British and Danish examples are also extreme positions. They are unproven experiments, which are risking the health, and even the lives, of the  population. And these are experiments driven by a political, not scientific, agenda. Nobody really knows how they will turn out (although some in respected medical circles are calling it a recipe for a "variant factory"). Maybe they will be right. But Boris Johnson and his crowd have taken other extreme (not scientifically condoned) positions in the past. A few of them have paid off (extending the delay between vaccination doses comes to mind), but most have not, and Britain's handling of the pandemic in general terms has been roundly criticized. 

Denmark too tried to lift all restrictions earlier in the pandemic, before having to rethink the move in the face of huge increases in caes and hospitalizations, and its current opening up plan is happening during another record surge in cases, and is far from uncontested. It is being hit hard by the even more contagious BA.2 Omicron sub-variant. Denmark does at least have a more vaccinated population, on a par with Canada's and substantially better than Britain's

So, circumspect Canada should follow their lead and "let it rip"? However, patriotic the protesters feel they are being, that is just not the Canadian way, and the vast majority of the populace realize that. Let's keep following the science and our scientific advisors. Sure they have made some missteps too along the way, but, generally speaking, they have served us well and brought us through in better shape than many other countries (including Britain). And Justin Trudeau has no interest in becoming a dictator and taking away all your precious rights (in exceptional circumstances, some rights need to be sacrificed for the common good).

Keep taking the medicine, hold the tiller steady, follow the science, and all those other hackneyed phrases. Don't try and be flashy, don't be extreme, don't be an outlier or an early adopter. It's the prudent way, it's the Canadian way. If you prefer, it's even the patriotic way.