EDITORIAL: Canada is re-open -- it's time to celebrate

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On Friday, Ontario finally entered Stage 3 of its re-opening plan. This means that indoor dining, gyms, movie theatres and other establishments that were closed for many months can now re-open their doors.

Good riddance to Ontario’s lockdown, which was one of the longest and strictest in the world.

Our American neighbours would probably be in shock to learn that 14 million people had lived under these rules for so long.

Now, the majority of Canadians are living under relatively open conditions. British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan have even embraced the good, new science and data so much that they’ve nixed their mask mandates.

Re-opening was the right call. Now, it’s time to celebrate.

Canadians have been separated from their family and friends for too long. The activities that they enjoy have been denied to them.

The majority of people are vaccinated and cases of COVID-19 have crashed and are on the retreat. If there was ever a time to live life, it’s now.

Who knows what the future will bring? There is currently discussion of troubling variants and booster shots and other speed bumps around the corner.

Maybe they’ll come to pass or, just maybe, they will prove to be exaggerated fears like the other predictions that never came to be.

Regardless, things are looking good right now. Canadians are enjoying the warm weather and the summer, which always seems to go by too fast.

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Let’s get in some of those activities and past times that were put on hold. Let’s be sure to give our kids as normal of a summer as possible.

That said, we can’t entirely forget about COVID-19. There are those who are very high-risk who will still need to take precautions.

We also need to continue to advocate for smart policies leading into the fall.

This includes making sure kids across Canada resume in-person learning along with extracurricular activities.

It also involves saying no to unnecessary vaccine passports, which will accomplish nothing and only create further hurdles for small businesses.

We’ve come a long way and we’ve sacrificed so much. It’s now time to embrace the good news and live a little.