We Still Have a Government, Right?: Canadian Politics 2020

The school board I'm supplying in, Peel, now has 34 different schools with COVID cases. (Almost all with exactly one.) A week or so ago, there were around 10. I've got four days scheduled this week at my old school, which still hasn't registered a case. Unsettling, though.

Because I spend 97% of my time in St. Marys, I forget what larger cities are like. I was in Waterloo for a movie last night, and the two blocks around the theatre (a rep; only a dozen people to see the film) were teeming--King St., if you know Waterloo. People were masked up to a point, but groups of 5-10 walking the streets together (virtually all in the 20-30 demographic, likely university students) weren't. I was thinking if one or two people in that circumscribed area were asymptomatic carriers, then within a week there'd be another 10-30 people with it.

Short of returning to an April-like lockdown (and unless you're in a small town like me, and that could change), I don't see how this doesn't just become an ever-present part of life until a vaccine comes along.

Yikes. (Ontario.)

http://phildellio.tripod.com/spike.jpg

You're not quite at Quebec levels per capita, but slowly getting there, it seems.

Legault is scheduled to flag Montreal and Quebec City as red zones later this afternoon. 'Difficult decisions' will be made, he says, and while I have no idea what the specifics will entail, it's safe to assume that bars and restaurant dining rooms will be closed. Beyond that, I have no idea what can be realistically done about house parties (especially amongst teens and twenty-somethings), as these seem to be the main cause of transmission at the moment. And schools pose an even bigger dilemma, of course.

I would really like to get tested (no symptoms, but due to volunteering I get around a lot more than most) but I do not like the idea of lining up with a bunch of symptomatic people. I also apparently do not qualify for the asymptomatic testing you can now get at some pharmacies. Harrumph!

I needed a doctor's appointment about three weeks ago for something non-COVID related, so I got a test with relative ease. Booked for the next day in Waterloo--a clinic, not a drive-through--and only had to wait 15 minutes. The line-up hysteria hadn't begun yet. (By the way, if you haven't had the swab, it wasn't nearly as bad as I'd feared, and I'm a total coward--I know it varies from person to person. The nurse who tested me was fantastic.)

What qualifications do you need as an asymptomatic person? I thought that was the whole point of the pharmacies, that anyone who wanted a test could get one.

No, there are specific eligibility requirements. I called my local Shoppers and they listed off the eligible groups on their voicemail.

https://barrie.ctvnews.ca/select-pharmacies-offer-covid-19-tests-including-one-in-huntsville-with-limitations-1.5120835

Maybe they'd take your volunteer work into consideration?

maaaaybe. can't hurt to ask, anyway.

update: I was turned down lol. I should have lied, tbh.

I even went in at 8am when the place was deserted just in case. No dice.

Symptomatic patients will be given temporary precedence, sayeth Legault. I assume it's the same in Ontario.

crazy how those free Vice magazines I used to pick up contained the seeds of the destruction of American democracy

simon saving the trudeau dirt for some trump thread smh

srsly

I need a few drinks in me to tell that one properly.

Was he.... wearing one of his costumes?

That would be telling.

you used to work at a video store in Montreal in the 90s and JT would come in to rent pornos often?

if this is the story and you haven't posted it here I guess we have mutuals lol

What kind, what kind?

don't remember if there were any particulars to this anecdote

not the 90s but close enough lol

gofundme to get a few drinks into simon

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/leslyn-lewis-there-is-a-socialist-coup-unfolding-in-canada

Like father like son.

day just keeps getting better

Under this socialist revolution, there is no need to confiscate your property — they can simply redistribute your wealth through a home equity tax, confiscate hunting firearms that were legally purchased and owned, increase a ubiquitous carbon tax, or even potentially confiscate a portion of your retirement savings through a new tax on the private sale of your home.

Many Canadians rightly fear the repercussions of Trudeau transforming Canada into a cashless society. They have told me that they are afraid the Liberals will impose a social credit score, similar to the one that exists in China where people’s behaviours are monitored through 5G cameras; for this reason, they also distrust the COVID Alert app.

The way that levying ordinary taxes seems to be put on the same level as secretly monitoring people through cameras in a totalitarian state is incredible. Wait until she finds out which party it was that created the GST and packed the Senate in order to force it through.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/green-party-new-leader-1.5749648

First Black federal party leader

joined the greens to vote for her.
it's exciting to think of her in the House

yeah, she's running in the upcoming byelection for Morneau's seat, right? Hope she gets in

Isn't Toronto Centre a safe Liberal riding?

This seems a bit... after the fact?:

NEW: Premier Ford announcing $35 million more for schools in hotspot regions like Toronto, Peel, Ottawa. Says more teachers can be hired for social distancing and more computers bought for at home learning. #covid19

— Cynthia Mulligan (@CityCynthia) October 5, 2020

I have a good friend who works for the Greens and guessed she'd win, though she wasn't her first choice. She is concerned about her lack of media training, but otherwise seems happy enough with the pick.

https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/ontario-shutting-down-indoor-dining-gyms-and-movie-theatres-in-three-covid-19-hotspots-1.5139458?123=

too fuckin late dumbass

Would pay to see Conrad Black react to this https://t.co/hqPnKn7OMq

— ArielTroster (@ArielTroster) October 10, 2020

(xpost)

I totally understand that viewpoint. Would never have guessed I'd say this, but I'm a little more sympathetic to Ford than you are. A reminder that I started a separate thread when he got elected so I'd have somewhere to ridicule him for four years.

Dean Wormer's Revenge: The Doug Ford Thread

I don't think he's comparable to Trump's reckless cheerleading; I think he genuinely anguished over this decision. He continues to say the right things--excoriating people who don't follow guidelines and don't wear masks--and, although he got caught a couple of times--to model what you're supposed to do. This will be a shock to those restaurants and movie theatres (and the rest) that were just starting to come back, and you can only paper that over with government relief to a certain degree. My area isn't affected--not yet, anyway. It's like keeping schools open (I continue to supply--in Peel, no less, although at one school only); it's not ideal, but there would likely be a steep cost to closing them for a certain window of kids (younger more so). Anyway, he did, in the end, do what the situation calls for.

My anger is more directed at all the irresponsible behaviour that led to this spike.

The mixed messaging has enabled the irresponsible behavior imho

You could make that argument. But because he doesn't quite have a subservient cult like Trump--I don't think, maybe I'm wrong--I still expect people to say "Okay, this restaurant is open, but I'm supposed to do x, y, and z if I want to stay open." And they didn't.

(I keep hearing mixed reports as to how responsible restaurants are in this. I've heard not-very, and I've also heard the opposite.)

My guess - and I live right in what I consider the heart of downtown Toronto, on Bloor West in the Annex - is that the restrictions were simply much too loose. I believe most of the alarming behavior I've witnessed is perfectly by-the-book.

Like, for volunteer reasons I go out more than anyone I know, and take the TTC more than anyone I know, and no-maskers or even dicknosers are pretty rare.

Maybe my standards are lower because of the utter disaster it’s been here so far, but Toronto seems to be doing well relative to its size.

We've still been staying relatively locked down but ime in downtown Ottawa when I've been going to shops or getting food from cafes, people are being p careful and responsible with masks, distancing, and sanitizer so I'm a little surprised that the numbers are as high as they are. I don't know where it's coming from, really.

xps

A friend travelling abroad reports that Canada is being regarded internationally as one of the Bad Places due to our weak response to the uptrend in cases.

yes that is the correct response

I don't know where it's coming from, really.

The thing that really baffles me is gyms, especially smaller martial-arts places and the like, also dance studios. Every one I walk past seems to contain not-insignificant numbers of people sweating on each other in close contact.

Anecdotally, the kids I work with were frequently telling me about having to stay home bc of someone in the family or a contact being sick, or someone else in the same class, or someone in another class that was out at the same time for recess, etc. Reopening of schools seemed messy. What did you find, clemenza?

Seems a bit extreme to me. We’re not faring that poorly in terms of deaths per 100k pop. (the key indicator imo), and even then, Quebec is the main culprit by a significant margin.

(3xp)

these guys make the "mixed messaging" case pretty well I think

https://www.ohscanada.com/features/mixed-messaging-covid-19-leading-distrust-ontario-experts-say/

I don't know where it's coming from, really.

Exactly my feeling. First it was weddings and family get-togethers, neither of which totally made sense to me. Not that an outbreak couldn't happen in that context, but how many weddings were happening? I assumed, wrongly I guess, that there were far fewer than normal. You don't hear about those now--the attention has shifted to the loosened restrictions. But if, as your eyewitness accounts suggest, most everyone is doing the right thing (they definitely are where I am), what's going on? I did mention a couple of weeks ago what I witnessed in Kitchener--bands of six or seven university-age friends roaming around without masks--and that was disconcerting.

I was just looking at the school COVID page, and I've got to believe schools are next. Two weeks ago, Peel had a few schools with one case; now there are double the number of schools on the list, there are a few with two cases, and there's one high school with three. (Mine is still at zero.) There's a school in Ottawa with ten. I've been mostly comfortable, but with a couple of nagging moments: an autistic kindergarten girl who was very physical (I thought "she should be at home," then immediately thought "what can she get out of distance learning?"), a boy who picked up the class phone, talked for 15 seconds, then passed it to me--who took it without thinking.