Hope and Despair
40% of young Canadians say they're at a mental health breaking point.
Two years of government COVID policies have caused immense damage. To people’s businesses. To their careers. To their relationships. And to the mental health of nearly everyone. When hope fades, despair can become a tsunami.
Public opinion polls should, of course, be taken with a grain of salt. But when pollster Maru surveyed Canadians during the third week of January, just before the Freedom Convoy got rolling, the results were alarming.
According to it’s publicly-released findings - five pages titled Canada’s mental health crisis - young Canadians are in big trouble. Among those aged 18 to 34:
27% have “recently experienced suicidal thoughts/feelings”
40% say they’re “at a mental health breaking point right now”
51% say young people in their immediate circle are “experiencing real mental health problems as a direct result of the pandemic”
53% are “Worried sick about their future because COVID-19 seems relentless”
59% are “very worried about the mental health of people in their own family”
When 4 out of 10 young adults describe themselves as near the breaking point, we need to stop what we’re doing right now. This is a disaster. Few problems outrank this one. We need to pull ourselves out of this COVID quicksand and get back to normal before further damage is done.
This is simple. Government policies are causing despair. Despair kills.
Tomorrow: How the convoy restored hope