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Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1313659
42 BCBUSINESS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020 NIK WEST was very wise," says BC Green Party Leader (and health critic) Sonia Furstenau of the call to make Henry the face of the prov- ince's pandemic response. "It showed that the decisions were evidence-based and science-based, as opposed to political." As a team, Dix and Henry made an excellent information delivery system. Add to this the fact that they showed a willingness to trot out modelling projec- tions as a way of modifying behaviour (and at the same time, creating more social capital by establishing greater trust), and you have a basic recipe for getting people onside—a key factor in any public mobiliza- tion. In short, they treated British Colum- bians as adults. The fact that the messenger and mes- saging were transparent, consistent and on point was critical. But what the govern- ment didn't do may have been as impor- tant as what it did. Premier John Horgan, for example, wisely stayed out of the spot- light, draining public health directives of at least some partisan blowback poten- tial. But B.C. has always been a politically divided province. After the last bitterly fought election, the NDP had a razor-thin mandate, kept in power only by an alli- ance with the Greens. It was prime ground for the opposition BC Liberals to pounce on any missteps, sow the seeds of division and make political hay. But while Henry and Dix remained the public faces of B.C.'s pandemic response, they had allies. One, at least, came from unlikely quarters. U N I O N D O S As the Liberal health critic, Norm Letnick, MLA for Kelowna–Lake Country, had been an inspired choice. An entrepreneur and business administration instructor at the now-closed Okanagan University College, he was on track to receive a PhD in health economics from UBC before his new role forced him to postpone his studies. Let- nick had an independent streak: in 2009, he voted against his own party, opposing an act that allowed the removal of at-risk persons to a shelter against their will. It was, he explained at the time, a "mat- ter of conscience." It was also unconven- tional, and representative of a mindset that Letnick would bring to the table in his new role. Instead of playing traditional opposi- tional politics, Letnick, along with Sonia Furstenau, worked hand-in-glove with Adrian Dix—an example of nonpartisan cooperation that reflects well on all three. The groundwork had been laid immedi- ately after the 2017 election. "Within days after I was asked to be the health critic, I approached the minister," Letnick remem- bers, "and I said, 'I only do things to achieve a positive end. And so we have a choice here. We can either do the traditional oppo- sition/executive council roles, or we can do a holistic government approach.'" And how was that received? "To [Dix's] credit, he said, 'I would love to do it that way.' And we've been doing it that way ever since. So when COVID hit, it was a natural transition." Furstenau agrees. "From the very out- set," she says, "Adrian's been one of the ministers who has gone above and beyond in terms of communicating and asking for input, and being very open and wanting to collaborate." It's been a strategic win for B.C., which has been able to focus on trying to get things right instead of protecting exposed political flanks, a refreshing shift from what has taken place elsewhere. Federally, the all-party team spirit witnessed in the early days of the pandemic has dissolved into more familiar patterns of partisan bickering. And in the U.S., where wearing a mask has become an ideological litmus test, Dr. Anthony Fauci, that nation's lead- ing infectious disease expert, was side- lined because his expert opinions didn't align with what the Trump administration wanted its "base" to hear. In B.C., there's been very little, if any, politically based confusion. (During the recent provincial election campaign, Let- nick avoided disparaging Dix, even as Lib- eral Leader Andrew Wilkinson hammered Horgan on the NDP's COVID economic recovery plan.) And that, notes crisis man- ager Bakshi, is as it should be. "There's no room for politics in a public health emergency, because politics hinders response and distorts public perception of a situation," she says. "While other governments were playing politics, B.C. took decisive action, including letting a scientist with war room experience lead the pandemic [response] while elected officials played supportive roles." C O N C R E T E F O U N D AT I O N S In the pre-COVID 2019 Global Health Security Index from the Economist Intel- ligence Unit (EIU), Canada ranked fifth overall for pandemic preparedness—not bad, but behind the U.S. and the U.K. (ranked No. 1 and No. 2, respectively). Although there are several metrics trotted out to measure the devastation wrought by COVID, from overall infec- tion rates to the total number of deaths, perhaps the most relevant number is the cumulative per capita death rate. With a COVID mortality rate of 27.69 per 100,000 people as of November 1, Canada's death toll, while unacceptably high, is dwarfed by those of some other industrialized countries. By the same point, with 70.77 deaths per 100,000, the U.S. had fared worst of all the Group of Seven nations, followed by the U.K. (70.60), Italy (64.63) and France (55.69). (Germany had experienced 12.87 deaths per 100,000 through early November, while Japan had only 1.41—a suspiciously low figure that some have said may be due to misreporting.) The EIU's assessment notwithstand- ing, Canada's showing indicates that we were fairly well positioned to engage the kind of system-wide response necessary L E A D E R S H I P L E S S O N Get everyone on the same page. In critical situations, especially, there's no room for internal politicking or self- interested manoeuvring. L E A D E R S H I P L E S S O N The structure of your organization is critical to its success. Make sure you have contingency plans and ad- equate systems in place to cover potential disruptions.