April 4, 2023: A little over three years since the March 16, 2020 lockdown began, it seems cautiously safe to say that the pandemic is over in Ontario. Covid itself likely ended in early 2022 with the Omicron wave, while the various lockdown laws were gradually rolled back over subsequent months. While Ontario is mostly back to normal, there are still residues of pandemic policies. As of this writing, covid vaccine mandates remain at most Ontario hospitals for health care workers, and the United States is one month away from suspending its requirement of covid vaccines for air travel.
My medical practice changed quite a bit during covid - from working in the ER in Brantford and an urgent care clinic in Ottawa to doing telemedicine to patients across the entire province of Ontario. At some point I began to notice a particular flavour of “covid stress” that most often emerged from people who lived or worked in downtown Toronto.
It was increasingly observed in 2021 that Ontario’s response to covid was one of the most stringent in the Western world.
Once travel restrictions eased somewhat in early 2022 and people began to take holidays again, a frequent personal observation was of how relaxed people felt when they left Toronto (and to a lesser degree, the rest of Ontario). And how tense they felt when they returned. “In the Maritimes you can just go to a restaurant,” one person said - the unspoken premise being that this was still hard to do in Toronto.
How exactly did Toronto continue to make the top 10 “best cities to live” during covid times? For example, here is Forbes 2022:
Perhaps one possibility is that the “best city” lists omit happiness in deciding on their rankings. So, for interest, here are the happiest cities in Canada: ( 2017, pre-covid)
A 2022 list does not include any large Canadian cities in its top ten happiest:
It is quite possible - my personal experience and clinical experience agree - that covid was particularly rough on people who lived in big cities.
Such as Toronto - the 8th best city to live in in the world.