So this is it, the biggest shopping day of the year. In Ontario the stores are closed, the province starting yet another lockdown this morning.

All in the name of shutting down the pandemic. Yet we have been down this road before. There was a lockdown in the Spring, COVID-19 cases were reduced, but the disease was not eliminated. Which has me wondering why officials think it will work any better this time.

A decade from now COVID-19 will be a memory, or at least all of us hope so. Academics then will be feasting off the subject. Who knows, maybe they have started already.

There will be studies on preparedness, from medical and political standpoints. My guess is no-one will look good in those.

There will be assessments of the economic fallout from restrictions and slowdowns and restraint of trade. I expect those will show a devastating impact, that perhaps the planet won’t recover completely from in the next ten years.

Today there are so many unanswered questions. Will businesses recover when they are allowed to re-open? Will people ever again feel comfortable being in enclosed spaces with other people? If not, what does that mean for professional sports leagues?

Are face masks and hand sanitizers now a permanent part of public life? Or will we go back to the old normal once a certain percentage of the population has been vaccinated?

Will the downtown core recover, now that it has been discovered many people can work from home effectively? Or will we crave human interaction too much to be happy working remotely?

What will an increase in remote work do for public transit planning? And new home construction? If people need a home office, will they want bigger houses? What does that do to housing prices?

Will countries revamp their supply chains so they are less dependent on international trade? Will food self-sufficiency be important? What about vaccine manufacturing capacity? Or making medical equipment locally?

That is now things are looking to me on Boxing Day 2020. Instead of shopping for great deals, I’m sitting at home thinking. And asking questions for which there are no answers at this point.

What about you? How do you imagine the post-pandemic world? Leave your message below.