Roundup: Exasperation over provincial inaction

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You can almost see the exasperation creeping into prime minister Justin Trudeau’s weekday press conferences, as yesterday, he implored the premiers to do more to fight the pandemic and to stop trying to keep businesses open, because they will still fail without healthy populations. He also obliquely asked mayors and public health officials to use what powers they can if their premiers won’t. Because this is a matter of provincial jurisdiction, and the federal government has almost no levers. And the numbers are getting very serious in this country.

In Ontario and Manitoba, there are record high numbers, and Manitoba is going into a province-wide lockdown, while in Ontario, Toronto’s chief medical officer of health is imposing more restrictions on that region after Peel Region did the same earlier in the week. In Alberta, doctors are imploring the government to institute a “circuit-breaker” lockdown for at least a couple of weeks so that they can get infections under control before they completely overwhelm the healthcare system, but Jason Kenney says no, because he’s concerned about “civil liberties.” And you can tell just how seriously Alberta is taking this – their chief medical officer of health retweeted advice telling people to only socialise in “structured settings,” which means bars and restaurants. There are no words.

As for Doug Ford, he made his own swipe at Trudeau’s remarks, insisting that if Trudeau is talking about him, that they need more financial support for businesses, which is ridiculous at this point. The federal government has been shovelling money out the door – not always in the most effective manners, mind you, because they have very limited levers, whereas provinces have more direct levers that they refuse to use. And Ford here, playing the victim, is just engaged in buck-passing so that he doesn’t have to look like the bad guy when things go into lockdown, and they’re going to have to sooner than later. He keeps saying he’ll act when things get “out of control,” but by then it’ll be too late. Positive tests are a lagging indicator. Hospitalisations are a lagging indicator. Deaths are a lagging indicator. If you’re waiting for things to get “out of control” rather than stopping the exponential growth when it presents itself, that’s negligence. But then again, Ford’s apologists seem to think that there is greater political cost for him to closing businesses than there is in preventing hundreds, if not thousands of deaths, and if that’s the calculation, I can’t even with these people.

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau also said that it was “unacceptable” that MP Yasmin Ratanasi had illegally hired her sister in her office, and he expected a follow-up by the House on it.
  • Here is a look at some of the logistical challenges with rolling out the possible Pfizer vaccine, particularly as it needs ultra-cold storage.
  • The manufacturer or a possibly “life-changing” cystic fibrosis drug is finally planning to apply Health Canada to sell the drug in Canada, after a long delay.
  • CBSA has been emptying out immigration detention centres and using alternative means because of pandemic fears, and some hope this can be permanent.
  • Now-former Liberal MP Yasmin Ratansi is also facing allegations of abusive comments to staff, and of making racist comments regarding constituents.
  • Nunavut is in the process of passing a bill to ensure Inuktut-language instruction in schools, but it may not get fully implemented until 2040.
  • Andrew Leach gives a damning excoriation of Jason Kenney’s failure to take responsibility for doing his job in a pandemic, and his choice to blame everyone else.
  • Heather Scoffield hopes for an American “stimulus” package (it’s not really stimulus) that will help stabilize their economy, as it affects ours too.

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2 thoughts on “Roundup: Exasperation over provincial inaction”

  1. Ontario can’t even get regular and high-dose flu shots to everyone who wants one. As a senior, I despair of getting a COVID-19 vaccination in this province when one becomes available – even if the chosen candidate doesn’t require special frozen transport. And by the way, where are all those rapid tests the PM said were being sent post-haste to the provinces? Doug Ford whined endlessly about not having them, so what’s he doing with the hundreds of thousands that are supposed to be in his government’s hands by now?

  2. The premiers are egging on Trudeau to impose the Emergencies Act unilaterally so they can offload their responsibilities to him and then point fingers that he’s behaving like a dictator. Blanchet set up for this last week with his obnoxious concern trolling over the War Measures Act. In the meantime, people are getting sick and dying while Kenney goes tin foil Trump over “civil liberties,” Moe just… acts like Kenney’s aptly named stooge, Legault picks distraction fights over head scarves and (what else) language, Pallister normalizes anti-maskers while counting down the advent calendar to when he can head back to Costa Rica, and Ford (again, like Trump) chows down on Big Macs and fries. O’Toole and his clown car ratchet up the accusations (and memes, can’t forget the memes!) that Trudeau has “failed,” and Singh again obfuscates about jurisdiction while Charlie continues to beat the dead WE horse into glue. All for what? To “get” Trudeau at the expense of people’s lives. So much for “we’re all in this together.” Not when there are points to be scored and Libs to be pwned.

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