They arrived for the 100th time as they usually did, socially distanced, as masked and serious as our very own Batman and Robin. Yet so much was different Friday, as would be expected at the final McNeil-Strang COVID-19 update.
When we think of this period, the image that remains may well be these towering men seated day after day on the same stage, giving us the good and bad news, bucking us up when we need it, scolding us when we deserved it.
For the past 11 months, it was the most watched show in all of Nova Scotia. Strang, previously a little-known public servant, became famous, as did his colourful ties.
And before our very eyes a friendship, that may come to symbolize how the province came together to keep COVID-19 at bay, blossomed.
How, under the circumstances, could it not?
Steven McNeil said during the past 11 months he and Robert Strang, the province’s chief medical officer of health, experienced lots of emotions up on that stage, some good some bad, as anyone would battling a pandemic.
Friday, amidst all the important talk about community vaccine clinics and transmission rates, which John McPhee outlines elsewhere in these pages, the bromance was on full-display.
“It has been a privilege to work beside you for the past year,” the premier said of Strang in some prepared remarks. “You have made my job easier, you have treated me with respect and kindness.”
He grew downright emotional during the question period when asked if he had any personal reflections of his time working with Strang.
“I’ve said that one of the blessings for me of COVID is getting to meet Doctor Strang and getting to know him,” McNeil said.
Then he harkened back to a recent interview we had in which he talked about how his mother, who raised 17 kids alone after her husband died, was his role model.
“Good male role models are hard to find,” he said. “Last March I found one.”
Strang, he went on to say, is “an extraordinary Nova Scotian who I think all of us owe a great debt of gratitude.”
The premier said that he was proud of what Strang has accomplished leading the fight against the coronavirus, but “also proud of the fact that I got to know the man.”
In what may be one of his last public acts as premier, McNeil wanted to say to all Nova Scotians that Strang “may be a great public health doctor but he is an even better man and person.”
Friday, the doctor, who wore a tie with an Annapolis Valley tartan in honour of McNeil, made it clear that the admiration is mutual.
The premier, he said, “is someone who is principled and honest who always put the health of Nova Scotians first and foremost.”
When asked if they planned to keep in touch Strang said that he sure hoped so, and that he’d never been to Upper Granville, McNeil’s home.
When that day comes, McNeil made it clear there would be cold beer in the fridge for his guest.
What will they talk about I wonder?
Sports perhaps, since McNeil is a hockey guy and Strang, a high school hoopster and a Raptors fan.
They are both dads, so parenthood might come up.
Surely, at some point the talk will turn with pride to those days when, together, they kept the plague from our borders.
It was nice to think of them like that Friday as they exited the stage for the last time together.
I have no idea what the rest of their day was like. But in my mind I see the last scene from Casablanca, the old movie about friendship and noble causes.
You know the one where Rick Blaine, played by Humphrey Bogart and Capt. Louis Renault, Claude Rains, walked into the fog, the strains of Les Marsellais building the background as Bogie says, “Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”
