The running joke online is true this year — no April Fool’s joke could possibly equal what we’ve been seeing for the last few years.
Every April 1, some media outlets have been known to publish or broadcast a joke story to have a little April Fool’s fun with their readers and listeners.
The province turning Highway 400 into a toll road.
Downtown construction being delayed by two years longer than expected due to unforeseen circumstances.
The school board buying a very expensive piece of art.
When I moved to Barrie, I heard from several people about a bogus story that the city was building a bridge over Kempenfelt Bay to ease traffic around the lake. Inevitably, there would be some readers writing in to angrily ask who was paying for it. Others caught on and wouldn’t bite.
Then there was the sighting of fabled Lake Simcoe monster, Kempenfelt Kelly. Not surprisingly, Kelly hasn’t come up for air in recent years.
I wrote a piece years back, at a time when the Pittsburgh Penguins were rumoured to be in the process of being bought by BlackBerry boss Jim Balsillie and being moved to Hamilton, saying they were actually being moved to Brampton.
These stories are meant as harmless fun, but why bother this year? No joke could possibly be more ridiculous than what we see nowadays.
You can go to the cesspool that is the comment section of any Facebook group or tweet and see the unbelievable lack of common sense as you scroll and scroll and scroll.
For three years, we’ve seen people talk about their distrust of the health-care system and how they don’t believe specialists or doctors. Sometimes those comments are even made when they’re at the hospital for an injury or illness they don’t mind seeking treatment for.
Some people want elections overturned because politicians are “corrupt” and “liars.” But not their favoured politician. No, not theirs. The other politicians.
This isn’t in defence of politicians. Far from it.
Federal politics can have an air of April Fool’s. Our current leader has always claimed to be a person for the modern world, hence his famous “because it’s 2015” quote when asked shortly after his election as prime minister about gender parity in cabinet.
Unfortunately, Jody Wilson-Raybould might think that was an early April Fool’s joke.
Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre runs on a platform of being a man of the people, just a regular Joe.
April Fool’s!
He’s a career politician and the only difference between him and Trudeau is the colour of their logos.
Locally, everything is perfect and there are no issues.
April Fool’s!
We have a severe affordable housing problem and one of the most devastating opioid addiction epidemics.
We have people complaining about their rights being infringed upon — from their warm homes and trust fund-purchased wine cellars while not lifting a finger to help the people needing to get out of the many tent cities in the community.
Friday was International Transgender Day of Visibility. If you scrolled Twitter, you know it went perfectly with wonderful conversations from both sides helping each other understand more.
April Fool’s! It was unpleasant to say the least.
People who can’t seem to understand someone just wants to have a different name or pronoun, something that doesn’t affect anyone else at all, were standing firm in their belief that other people’s preferences trample on their rights.
To give another side of the coin, there are some people who don’t understand the issue, who are very new to it and who aren’t sure how they feel.
The second they speak up, they are attacked and made to feel like a racist, sexist or another word ending in ‘ist.’
It’s no joke. We no longer listen to each other. More often than not, neither side wants to hear the other opinion. It pushes people away from the conversation instead of bringing them to the table.
I already know this column will get the “fake news” and “stupid MSM” comments, etc. They often come from a three-day-old Facebook page with a generic photo and zero activity.
April Fool’s?
We live it every day.
Shawn Gibson is a staff reporter at BarrieToday.
