(ADAM PROSKIW / iNFOnews.ca)

OPINION

No one’s going to be sad to see the back side of COVID.

It’s been two long, hard years of great personal sacrifice for most of us, some, sadly, more than others. Our poor stressed and overworked nurses and doctors are getting us through this and they’re a big part of why we’re doing this. Don’t forget, protecting the health-care system from being overwhelmed has always been a key reason. We still have a little work to do on that score, as the Omicron variant has again filled hospitals and ICUs.

But as Dr. Bonnie Henry said last week, the end is near and we can expect a gradual reduction in public health orders as COVID becomes endemic and something we just have to deal with as best we can.

So, of course, now that we can see dawn on the horizon, there’s a whole circus of whining and complaining carnies who want to take a victory lap. Over at West Kelowna's Iron Energy Gym Fun House of Mirrors, there’s Brian Mark, the poster boy for gym closures in B.C. thanks to some masterful PR as just a poor business owner who has been following the rules only to take another kick from the government. But look in this mirror over here… now that Bonnie Henry has reopened gyms and they got their business licence back, he claims victory while admitting on social media this week, “we’ve been silently defying for the last little bit, that’s kinda' been our move, we have never discriminated since Day One (that’s anti-vax parlance for not checking vaccine passports). Then he demonstrated how far down the rabbit hole he really is: "In England they are pressing criminal charges for vaccines because they are killing kids.”

SURPRISE!

Oh and look, kids, there’s the political Clown Car again, driven by Bozo Ron Cannan. Give ‘em a wave, Ron! ~BEEP BEEP!~ He’s proven himself on the intelligence test so he’s not a passenger anymore, he’s driving this car and organizing the anti-vaxxers now. He's very popular in that crowd. I don’t see MLA Renee Merrifield in there, she's hiding in the trunk, finally. Kamloops Councillor Dizzy Denis Walsh couldn’t be with them today, he’s the iPad on a spring on the roof, appearing by Zoom, but those giant shoes look great on him. And oh, that ridiculous Clown Car. It’s sponsored by the City of Kelowna! Er, no, sorry it’s Kelowna Now (I always get them mixed up), reliably getting each and every member of the circus wherever they ask to go, no questions asked. Because, news!

Running to catch up and tripping over their shoelaces now are two newcomers from West Kelowna, Twisty Jayson Zilkie and Boffo Stephen Johnston. They look more like mimes, faking their way through an invisible box but maybe they just haven’t had time to fix their make-up. Give them time, they show promise. They stuck their fingers in the air over Iron Energy Gym, sensed political winds shifting, and carefully hopped right into the Clown Car for Amateur Hour to make their big REVEAL!

~BOING! BONK!~ We’re against the vaccine mandate and masks and public health orders and stuff! ~SLIDE WHISTLE, bad-um tss~

I’ll tell you something about these two jokers. I met them for the first time on Feb. 5, 2020 at an open house in my neighbourhood about the 2020 city budget. I asked them about a nearby poster board that said: NEW CITY HALL. It’s a contentious subject in West Kelowna that taxpayers had just finished voting against for the second time. These two had just been elected and in the campaign Zilkie said: "I am not convinced that it needs to be completed in this current term. I believe there needs to be more transparency and a plan that residents can support, agree upon and ultimately have a say in." When asked about this poster board, Zilkie and Johnston hemmed and hawed and muttered something about saving for the future. I shrugged my shoulders and left.

Five days later, and four days after the last budget open house, they announced they’re building a new City Hall. Not once was it disclosed in those open houses.

They’d only been in politics two years and they're already lying to my face — and just helped pull off a dirty trick on voters. 

So it’s a little rich now to hear them proclaiming their courage for speaking out against public health orders, it's only more cowardice. It was a calculated political move, hoping to ride the rising current of people fed up with public health orders, jumping in when the water’s warm enough.

Nearly two weeks before their “interview,” Mark told reporters, "There are city councillors that agree with me but are afraid to speak up.”

Mark turned his plight into a popular social media campaign, then full on whacko anti-vaxx campaign that Johnston and Zilkie hitched their wagons to. They had this reveal planned for days. I know because we caught wind of a division on West Kelowna council about the vaccine mandate. They both insisted they couldn’t speak before Wednesday — the day of their Clown Car reveal. He thought we were simply going to help amplify their proclamation unchallenged, which is absurd but perhaps a reasonable expectation, thanks to Kelowna Now.

They wanted us to repeat things like this: (Zilkie to iNFOnews reporter Levi Landry in as yet unpublished interview) "I believe this is the right thing to do (speak out publicly), and I don't really care if people don't want to reelect me. I can't make decisions based on people-pleasing or getting reelected, and anyone doing that should really question why they do things.” Or Johnston to Landry: "Everything communicated to me about standing up and saying anything... is that it would be the downfall of my political career.”

How brave.

Zilkie to the same reporter: "A lot of people have been marginalized, and (Iron Energy) was heard and they got a lot of support, and that's why the time is now.” "I would have loved to have (spoken out) earlier, but I'm here now and I've felt this way for a long time.”

Or Johnston talking to Steve MacNaull from Kelowna Now: "There's also an element of are people ready to hear what you want to say? For a while, people weren't ready but the tides have started to shift.”

Both claimed to have worked behind closed doors in West Kelowna for months, clearly held these views, but purposely hid them. #courage

They started as they all do, in small steps. They don’t like the City of West Kelowna’s vaccine mandate. That's old news. More, they don’t agree with the gym mandate, which expired before their interview. Masks are not required, end all lockdowns now, no more restrictive measures, they’ve had enough. Johnston also admonishes opposition MLAs and MPs for not coming forward to oppose health measures. When he wasn’t disclosing in camera agenda items, Zilkie did his best impression of an epidemiologist with his belief we should just use rapid tests — the ones we’ve been having trouble procuring and distributing for months.

And finally, vaccines.

"It's definitely reducing hospitalizations and keeping people safe, but it's not protecting other people from getting COVID.”

So, let’s get this straight. These local government legislators made a calculated decision based on public sentiment to reveal long-held views on subjects they know nothing about without even being asked and support people purposely and repeatedly violating laws. Worse, they completely misunderstand — these aren’t political decisions, this isn't the broken US political system. When has Bonnie Henry made any decision based on popularity? Never. That’s not how this works. And thank goodness.

You want to see how it should be done? How about MLA Ben Stewart? He wrote a letter to the Minister of Health asking for evidence that gyms should be in the mandate. He didn’t get suckered in the House of Mirrors, he represented their interest without claiming “support” for scofflaws.

Or how about colleague Jason Friesen: "I provided a letter to (Iron Energy) indicating to them that I too was frustrated with the mandate. I did not provide them a letter of support in their actions because I would wish they would have gone about it in a different fashion. I never like to see people achieving a goal by disobeying laws."

Or how about taking some leadership from the vast majority of your constituents? The 80 to 90 per cent of them doing their best to hold it together through this. The ones who understand why we’re doing this.

They endure and without complaint. They know whining and complaining just makes it harder on everyone. And is the first step to the broken reality of anti-vax, anti-mask movements. Got something to say? Praise them for they are getting us through this. This bawling is only making it last longer. Support vaccines.

Yes, I mock them as they deserve to be mocked. Because all these sad clowns are mocking the rest of us and and cheapening our sacrifices and efforts. They should wear it like a painted-on smile and hopefully voters remember them.

— Marshall Jones is the Managing Editor of iNFOnews.ca

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