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The National Capital Commission should close portions of its parkway system to allow breathing room for walkers and cyclists hemmed in their houses — all day, for weeks now — in this historic pandemic battle.

Seems like a win-win, no-brainer, but this being Ottawa, there will, naturally, be 97 meetings before a plan is ready. The NCC did say this week it is developing a pilot project to close part of the Queen Elizabeth Driveway to vehicles. No details yet. It takes a village, after all, to put up a barricade.

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Why expand the idea to other NCC roads? Because what we’re doing now isn’t working very well.

I’m on the shared path beside the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway about every other day, toodling between the Champlain Bridge and Tunney’s Pasture — on a mission to preserve the last fumes of sanity.

On bright, sunny days, it’s crowded. Cyclists are out, and families, and runners, and strollers, and the elderly. Can’t blame a single one of them; we’re all going a little nuts. You shut Gatineau Park, every city park, every gym, close the playing fields. It doesn’t leave much close to home.