In the 11th century, an English King, Canute, supposedly stood on Britain's shoreline and commanded the ocean waves to stop.
Of course, despite his royal orders, the waves kept on coming, which caused Canute to proclaim, "Let all men know how empty and worthless is the power of kings."
Well, I suspect today's rulers, who are currently dealing with the relentless onslaught of the coronavirus, would likely sympathize with that English monarch, they too must feel their power is worthless and empty.
After all, viruses are like ocean waves; they're unyielding and remorseless, they don't care about boundaries or politics or ethnicity or religion, nor do they care about government decrees.
This is why President Donald Trump's plan to ban flights from Europe or Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's measures to tighten airport screening measures, or the various orders of local and regional authorities to shut down events and gatherings, may mitigate the impact of the virus, but they won't stop it.
Essentially, we'll all have to hunker down and endure this current viral outbreak as best we can.
So things are going to get scary.
And that I suspect will be a shock to our collective societal system, a shock that will only be compounded when we all have to deal with the economic fallout that will inevitably result from this worldwide crisis.
In other words, this pandemic will change us, it'll shake up the political box.
How much will it shake things up?
Hard to say, but I suspect one change will be in how we perceive the outside world.
In short, a frightened and angered public could begin to view the international links which today bind the world together, not as roadways for trade, travel and commerce, but as gateways for future pandemics.
This in turn could lead to calls for tighter borders, for economic protectionism and perhaps even for isolationism.
Keep in mind, people were already somewhat anxious about globalism even in good economic times, so worries about another virus outbreak combined with bad economic times, will likely supercharge that anxiety.
This could definitely pose a problem for Canada's elites, which have been pushing for more international trade, for more immigration and for greater involvement in global issues.
For example, Canada getting a seat on the UN Security Council might still be a priority for the Globe and Mail's editorial board, but it won't mean much to average Canadians, who right now are worried about whether or not they'll have enough toilet paper to last the week.
Meanwhile, the fallout from the pandemic could also alter our attitudes towards fighting climate change.
Now in my view, the media has always overstated the public's support for taking drastic action on climate change; yes people care about the environment, but typically they're main concern was always economic-based, so they supported reducing emissions so long as it didn't negatively impact on their standard of living.
So now with many seeing a recession in the offing, economic anxiety will be going off the charts, meaning the Liberal government will have to make creating jobs and promoting economic growth its main priorities, even if that means relaxing environmental regulations or putting off its plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Sorry Greta Thunberg, but frightened people don't have the luxury to worry about melting ice bergs.
My point is, fear is the most powerful emotion in politics and fear will be in plentiful supply for the next few years, helping to shape our policy agendas.
Mind you, it's possible even in the face of growing anxiety about viruses and bad economic times, the Liberals will stick to their globalist, climate change agenda.
But I have a feeling if they do, they'll have the same success as King Canute had when he tried to stop the waves.
Photo Credit: Toronto Star
