Over the long weekend Stephen McNeil freshened up his look. The change was subtle, but Robert Strang noticed. “The premier got an Easter haircut,” Strang said at the first provincial news briefing after the holiday. “You’re looking good, premier.”
McNeil laughed and thanked the chief medical officer of health. And then they were just a couple guys doing The Steve & Strang Show webcast. “I’m one of those fortunate Nova Scotians—my wife is a cosmetologist. So 30-some years of free haircuts I happened to get one this weekend,” McNeil said. “Unfortunately, the gray is still there.”
It was a welcome moment of humanity. It was also a sign McNeil and Strang are spending an awful lot of time together. (They announced the province’s first cases of COVID-19 in a briefing March 15, and have appeared before the cameras almost every day in the month since.) Play with the slider on these before-and-after photos of McNeil, and see if you’d notice the difference. Remember, in real life you’d be at least two metres away. (Pictures by Communications Nova Scotia.)
This article appears in Apr 1-30, 2020.
Re Stephen McNeil’s new haircut: this isn’t the whimsy you suggest it is, but rather a look at the kind of man who’s first on a lifeboat on the Titanic. True leaders show camaraderie and empathy in crises by taking it on the chin with the rest of us. Many even throw themselves between harm and the folks in their care. McNeil lacks courage and empathy, and doesn’t give a toss for his constituents except to hurt them more when he thinks they’re defying him. These are the attributes of a tyrant.
And where is his $700 ticket? And his wife’s? An RCMP spokesperson told CBC News on April 14 that the province is encouraging people, even those who live together, to practice physical distancing. But we’re not just being “encouraged,” since provincial orders allow for people who live together — even families — to be ticketed for not distancing.