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I’m in PEI now. I flew down on Saturday. Because of low travel volumes AC cancelled the YYZ-YYG direct so I went through YUL. I wore two masks - a KN94 and a surgical mask. And kept my distance from everyone. /1
Everything went very smoothly. I’ve been watching AC’s Covid announcements and both of my flights routinely have at least one passenger who has Covid. But I stayed away from everyone and I was very masked up /2
I’m down here because my folks are in LTC care here & I want to visit them and help out. So I’m in a 2 week quarantine now. PEI public health calls every day and if miss that call the police show at the door, evidently. The calls are short and to the point-very professional /3
About day 10 of the quarantine I’ll be sent for a test, with results same or next day. And then on the last day I will be told the rules of the day for living within the general population. /4
I did this in June, and stayed for about 6 months, so all that is pretty familiar. Restaurants are open, my gym is open, my favourite music club (the @Trailside_Cafe) is open, and I can visit my cousins and other family whenever. Retail is open too. People wear masks. /5
Compliance here is very high. People look out for each other. I think Islanders realize how well they have it and they’re determined to keep it that way. Dr. Heather Morrison, PEI’s CHO, is a local hero. So too is the Premier, Dennis King. /6
When Covid first started spreading I came down to PEI and removed my folks from LTC - We were going to wait it out in the country. But we quickly realized we didn’t need to do that, and so, after quarantine, back they went. /7
It soon became obvious that their decision to move to PEI (they were both born and raised here and they spent half the year here their whole lives, but lived mostly in Ontario) was a very lucky stroke. /8
If they’d stayed in Ontario, we might well have lost them. I can’t really express how profound that feels to me now. The anxiety over everyone in Ontario LTC, and the luck I feel that we didn’t go through that. /9
But mostly, what I feel is gratitude to PEI and the extraordinary people who run public health here and make the political decisions for public health. I’ve never had any doubt since then that they will do everything humanly possible to keep Islanders safe. /10
When this is over, I want to be here. There’s going to be a party. And I think a lot of folks will have a lot of gratitude to express to these fine people. I want to be here to see it, and to tell them what they did for my family, and how we feel about it. /n
Well this blew up! Here's the interview I did with @mattrainniecbc about my visit. https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-130-mainstreet-pei/clip/15821082-rob-hyndman
