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On the eve of the swearing-in of Wab Kinew and his NDP government, I was in my seat at the Centennial Concert Hall for the musical based on Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill.
While I’m certainly familiar with the songs from her 1995 megahit album, you oughta know she was never the soundtrack to any of my adolescent angst because I was already 30 when it debuted.
And yet, the Broadway musical, which I’d highly recommend, did strike a chord with me in the second act because of a single line that tugged at the angst I currently have over our city’s deepening addiction crisis.
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In Act II, the ever-so-perfect suburban mom lands in hospital after a nasty turn from her secret painkiller pill-popping. Her out-of-touch husband can’t believe what’s happened and turns to the doctor, demanding an explanation because his oh-so-pretty wife doesn’t look like a drug addict.
“What exactly do you think a drug addict looks like?’’ is the matter-of-fact answer from the doctor.
On the walk to our parked car, we passed a homeless person settling in for the night along the sidewalk who certainly fit the stereotypical profile of a drug addict. A little further on, closer to the Disraeli Freeway, were the flashing lights of a fire truck tending to what could have been yet another addiction statistic.
But among that concert hall crowd of people ostensibly living ever-so-perfect suburban lives were even more addiction statistics, people who presented more like that mom on stage than the usual typecasting.
If part of our failure to address what has been happening on our streets is we are addicted to an “Us vs. Them” mentality about who does and doesn’t need (or deserve) timely access to harm reduction or treatment — well, that’s certainly a jagged little pill to swallow.
Before the curtain fell on the Tony-award winning production last night, there was a reckoning that offered the hope of healing, just as there will be a similar reckoning as the curtain rises on this newly elected NDP production.
Among the cabinet jobs is a newly created portfolio with addictions right there in the title — minister of housing, addictions and homelessness — a message to everyone from Main Street shelter workers to senior bureaucrats to suburban voters.
It’s as if there is suddenly a broader view of the problem and the solutions on Broadway.
In the words of Alanis Morissette as the fire trucks are coming up around the bend:
You live, you learnYou love, you learnYou cry, you learnYou bleed, you learnYou scream, you learn
Bernadette Smith (right) takes the oath of office, becoming minister of housing, addictions and homelessness and minister responsible for mental health. Looking on are Premier Wab Kinew and former sentaor Murray Sinclair (far left), who presided over the signing of the oaths. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press)
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