Oh, thank you.
Dr. Henry, I hope you know that, as a British Columbian, my deep respect for you was manifested in leaving you alone when we were both on Galiano at the same time. I figure if anyone is more tired than me, it's you.
I'll try to be concise with my questions, because some of them have been canvassed. I recognize that B.C. elections will still be grappling with some things. I'm getting reports from all over where people feel that they tried to vote by mail, they're not sure that vote got counted, and they're still trying to figure out if their ballot was received. There are questions here.
I wanted to track this to see whether it could be a public health question. We did have a historic low voter turnout. We did see, through the election period, an increase in the incidence of COVID. I mean, compared with New Brunswick when Blaine Higgs called his election, British Columbia's COVID rate was, at that time, six times higher than New Brunswick's. As politicians, particularly those who are looking to the main play—to move from a minority to a majority government—it looks like, quote, “it works”. I'm very nervous about that, because I think we're taking risks as COVID rates go up. We're in a second wave.
I'm wondering if you have any public health perspectives on how likely it is, or whether you have evidence, that people felt they didn't want to participate in an election because of COVID.