Defenestrate Them All: Canadian Politics 2021

There doesnt seem to be any appetite for republicanism. Charles will be a relatively short reign follower by the popular William

Payette's statement is almost incredibly unapologetic: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/julie-payette-full-statement-governor-general-resignation-rideau-hall-1.5882916

Mario Dumont made the point that Payette was basically acting like a queen: https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2021/01/22/julie-payette-cetait-pire-quon-pensait
which made me recall something Elizabeth Bruenig said about how no one, including avowed monarchists, wants an actual monarchy anymore.

Someone should point that out to those goofs down below, who were, as a friend said, chanting “1776!” while trying to install a king.

Wait, was an election declared??

I got into politics to make a difference and to build a stronger, cleaner and more inclusive future for our kids and grandkids.

I'm excited to be running again to represent the residents of #OttawaCentre. We have an amazing community and there is a lot more we can do together! pic.twitter.com/w725jJEDnS

— Catherine McKenna (@cathmckenna) January 23, 2021

Under 2,000 cases in Ontario today, only the second time since Dec. 28.

(On the other hand, sitting in a coffee shop, looking up at the TV, and being alarmed that we were headed for 500 cases in a day doesn't seem all that long ago.)

Further to sund4r’s post about possible election drop oops there - just saw what was basically an election attack ad on tv from this organization (whoever they are) https://mobile.twitter.com/worsttimeotoole

https://www.cp24.com/news/ontario-reports-fewest-number-of-new-covid-19-cases-in-two-months-1.5284075

Under 1,700 today. I don't know if the rate of decline is commensurate with the lockdown/stay-at-home measures--maybe they expected to be lower by now--but encouraging nonetheless.

I missed that but the Proud Boys are now listed as a terrorist group in Canada!

Have they designated Nickleback as anything?

We're now at less than 1000 new cases a day in Quebec, which is incredible. If it lasts, I hope to be proven wrong about the viability of re-opening schools.

When were high schools re-opened again?

Jan 18, so it's already been two weeks.

But yeah of course it works, it's winter, there's a curfew, everything is closed (except schools really).

They're gonna roll back some of the restrictions en région so we'll see where that goes.

This, on the other hand, does not inspire confidence:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/vaccine-eu-export-controls-assurances-1.5896223

Ugh. The only upside?? is that the blame Trudeau crowd seem to have come completely around from “this vaccine can’t be trusted/omg they want to force us to take it against our will/conspiracy!!!” to “Where my vaccines at JUSTIN?!”

we want our Bill Gates microchips now dammit!

I hear some of them got recalled already.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/02/americas/canada-coronavirus-vaccines/index.html

Not sure if that's good or bad on balance.

Bad for the short-term, good for the long-term, I'm guessing.

Feb. 8 for most Ontario schools, Feb. 16 for Toronto/Peel/York.

Mixed feelings for me. I'm really anxious to get back to supplying--going stir-crazy--but the last day I was in a classroom, just before Christmas, there were no cases in my school (they had a couple just after that), and no variants. So after reaching a point where I wasn't nervous at all, a bit of that has returned.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/lecce-schools-southern-ontario-reopening-announcement-1.5898328

Just noticed this: "Temporary certification of eligible teacher candidates who are set to graduate in 2021 to stabilize staffing levels, following high levels of absenteeism."

The usual, I'm guessing: here's this new thing, sort it out yourself.

Ottawa schools have reopened already.

Seeing this this morning kind of depressed me:

NEW --> The U.S. is on pace to vaccinate 75% of its population against Covid-19 this year, while Canada would need almost a decade to reach that coverage level, according to Bloomberg’s Covid-19 Vaccine Trackerhttps://t.co/jxLYwJTJiW @TimLoh @business pic.twitter.com/31IL38tnyy

— David S. Joachim (@davidjoachim) February 4, 2021

I mean, obviously the pace of vaccination is going to increase a lot throughout the year, but we are lagging far behind many countries

It's really sad, yeah. I was complaining about this in another thread, but I have no idea when my parents (over-65s) will get their shots. Meanwhile, their friends back in Romania have all been vaccinated already.

Same; this plus Real Winter has got me pretty bummed out

Man, that chart is some irresponsible reporting.

I've actually been enjoying this winter because I've had no choice but to overcome my phobia of running in sub-zero temperatures and because last year I was in England, whose bland, maddeningly consistent weather all year round drove me up the wall.

This is a good winter! Not too cold, a lot of snow on the ground but not constantly snowing.

ffs

https://www.cp24.com/news/moderna-expected-to-scale-back-covid-19-vaccine-shipment-to-canada-once-again-document-1.5295457

I just get inevitable SAD in February. I know it's sunny as hell in Montreal today and not even that cold -- it's the (~6 months of) lack of colour that gets me.

English winter is psychologically debilitating, I do agree with that.

I really like the kind of -5 to 0 C range we're in right now in Ottawa. The -12 weeks are what get me.

Man, that chart is some irresponsible reporting.
― jmm

Can you expand on this? That was always a big topic when teaching data to kids--to be careful of misleading graphs--so I'm interested in this. Is it the scale you're talking about?

Yeah, the title being "Long Wait" and the scale going up to "10 years", as though readers won't equate the two.

I guess it's misleading in the sense that it seems to imply it will actually take Canada 10 years to vaccinate 75% of the population, but it says pretty clearly that it is about "current vaccination rates" and that is what is actually being compared and it is just showing the numbers in a way that is easier to process (i.e. at the current rate, this is how long it will take to achieve herd immunity). I guess the title being "Long Wait" is irresponsible.

Walking in the woods is the only thing keeping me sane. There is a definite change in the air these past few days, and even though it’s still cold, the sun is that little bit stronger, the birds are active, and you can feel the season changing. It’s a definite mood booster.

I’m kind of at a loss with seemingly everyone (not u peeps) complaining about every single thing. Most of them all contracting each other too. I mean, I’m not happy we’re behind on vaccines either, but I’ll still be surprised if we don’t get them soon. Not really sure what it is Trudeau should have done differently. Without existing capacities (that are being brought back? but it will take time), making deals seems the best gamble - and was he supposed to have locked us in bigger or sooner on vaccines that didn’t exist yet? Putting more eggs in one basket might have been faster IF we got lucky, but that would have been a huge risk. Diversifying and yeah maybe being further back because of it, is probably still the most reliable strategy. I guess we’ll see. Just having a hard time with all the anger all the time.

contracting should be contradicting

The criticisms on lack of transparency have some validity of course, but in practice, in an environment where information just tends to get weaponized instead of being used constructively, it’s gonna happen.

Yeah, I'm not sure if the current govt made some kind of foreseeable error here or if we're just unlucky.

Maybe it’s just tied up in being such a resource driven economy where we are usually prosperous enough that our super reliance on finished things being imported usually runs silent, but a global emergency where all of our suppliers at once are forced to look after their own needs, or the needs of more “persuasive” powers first, exposes our vulnerability. It was always a gamble. Since we didn’t proactively think it worth compromising a bit of prosperity to be prepared, having patience may just be our lot.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/443061/number-of-deaths-in-canada/

So now that it’s February, I was expecting to see this in the news but didn’t, so was poking about for the Canadian mortality stats of last year. If you look at the graph view, it’s pretty surprising that on paper, it looks like a fairly average year. The death rate is actually only very slightly out of line with the normal increase. It’s true w covid, there are detriments beyond deaths, but still. in context it looks like we did pretty well? Exact numbers on excess deaths are also available from stats can up until October or so, and it looks like it was really only in April and May that we had any extra death numbers in the hundreds. Have to assume that also spikes post Xmas, but couldn’t find stats on that yet.

I haven't seen anything for Canada overall, but for Quebec, mortality rate is up 10% for 2020:

https://www.cp24.com/news/number-of-deaths-jumped-10-per-cent-in-quebec-in-2020-due-to-covid-19-agency-reports-1.5286166

normally, the rate from year to year is around 2%, so this is a big jump

Imagine if we hadn't gone into lockdown, enforced face masks & physical distancing, etc.

Yeah, here’s the equivalent chart for Quebec only

https://www.statista.com/statistics/568022/number-of-deaths-in-quebec-canada/

It’s listing about 2k less deaths than that cp24 link, but it may be incomplete. Definitely does show a larger deviation than Canada as a whole.

NEW --> The U.S. is on pace to vaccinate 75% of its population against Covid-19 this year, while Canada would need almost a decade to reach that coverage level, according to Bloomberg’s Covid-19 Vaccine Trackerhttps://t.co/jxLYwJTJiW @TimLoh @business pic.twitter.com/31IL38tnyy
— David S. Joachim (@davidjoachim) February 4, 2021
I mean, obviously the pace of vaccination is going to increase a lot throughout the year, but we are lagging far behind many countries

― silverfish, Thursday, February 4, 2021 9:22 AM (six hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Man, that chart is some irresponsible reporting.
― jmm

Can you expand on this? That was always a big topic when teaching data to kids--to be careful of misleading graphs--so I'm interested in this. Is it the scale you're talking about?

― clemenza, Thursday, February 4, 2021 10:53 AM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

they made a chart a few weeks ago showing the same thing for the US using a linear extrapolation of vaccination rates at the time. linear extrapolation based on current vaccination makes no sense. if you look at the supply and contracts, it has been clear for months that canada would be slow to start up due to the timing of big contracts, and actually it had been a little bit faster than anticipated until the last week. hopefully the slow downs in moderna and pfizer are temporary (so far they mostly have to do with pauses in production to scale up capacity at plants, which should be good for long term supply). also we have a big purchase of astrazeneca coming up in april that would make mass vaccination of the general population this spring/summer feasible, but we haven’t approved that vaccine yet fsr

the province (BC) says im (late 30s healthy person) likely to be vacc'd in september, which seems realistic?

you’re in August iirc. that timetable is assuming we never get or approve the AstraZeneca vaccine though. it’s purely based on Moderna and Pfizer

it would be extremely annoying if americans get summer 2020 return to normal and we don’t lol