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

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.

Tbh I wish we had Ontario’s numbers right now. We’ve got double the casualties for slightly more than half the population. All I’m saying is you guys are role models in comparison, so... silver lining?

I suspect it's more like a week or two of lag time. Hope not.

This article puts down some of the QC/ON difference to different rates of testing and methods of recording, but also different approaches to school reopenings and, uh, a greater inclination towards risk-taking in francophone culture (?). They cite BC as the real role models: https://www.google.com/amp/s/ici.radio-canada.ca/amp/1740069/quebec-ontario-covid-coronavirus-pandemie

Testing is one thing, death rates are another. The ‘Décès’ section of this La Presse article from two weeks ago sums it up nicely: https://lp.ca/flY5wS.

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.

Well, that's dumb if they weren't maintaining proper distancing - it's hard to do those things with masks on so they should have not been reopened w/o significant precautions. Out of medical necessity, we've been using public pools, which have been v careful here - it was actually a huge pain that they were shut down for months and I really hope it doesn't happen again. This person's experience is cautionary: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/swim-covid-disability-pov-1.5654249

it's still nice outside people, there are loads of ways to exercise outside. or at fucking home.

(not directed at you tbc sund4r)

I feel a little foolish about having gone to the movie theatre a few times in September where they were allowing masks to be taken off. Not that any COVID cases seem to have been traced to there, but yeah, shoulda been more careful.

ive been to a few movies, always seated super far from anywhere else. i don’t think it’s a huge risk

it's still nice outside people, there are loads of ways to exercise outside. or at fucking home.

― it bangs for thee (Simon H.), Saturday, October 10, 2020 11:52 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

not for long..

running is nice until, like, mid December imo

and you can do lots at home with little or no equipment