Defenestrate Them All: Canadian Politics 2021

BREAKING: @JustinTrudeau says he’s ready to deploy mobile Red Cross vaccination teams to Ontario.

— David Akin 🇨🇦 (@davidakin) April 16, 2021

ok

maybe he should do it then

Might need a request or approval from the province? Not sure how it works.

Ford is already saying thanks but no thanks. Stupid--why would you ever turn down help?

Would help more if we had some vaccines to administer. I think maybe they should stop throwing around words like “secured” when obviously it’s actually completely contingent on whatever new shit will come up.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/feds-secure-8-million-more-pfizer-doses-as-moderna-cuts-coming-shipments-1.5390234

Ontario / Quebec border reportedly closing on Monday.

https://www.macleans.ca/society/health/the-superspreader-events-that-governments-let-happen/

Apparently Ontario has over a millions doses frozen in storage right now.

gl ontario

A little worrying when police departments are more reasonable than elected officials: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-police-checks-covid19-1.5991872

Thought I might have my first police encounter today. Toward the end of a walk, I cut through the Hall of Fame grounds here (four baseball diamonds). I could see a cruiser up ahead in the small parking lot beside the building, but he pulled out before I got there. Suspect it was a speed trap.

you were walking under the limit i assume?

they've reversed the playgrounds decision, which triggered literally every parent i knew in the province; but as-of-yet have not acknowledged that they have done little of what experts have been begging them to do so far.

How does “at least we’re not Alberta” feel now, Doug?

you were walking under the limit i assume?

Nice...I've seen one doctor after another on TV and online say they're got it completely backwards with the outdoor restrictions, and that this could even lead to more transmission as they drive people indoors. So I'm glad they reversed course with playgrounds. Selfishly, I hope golf courses are next, but probably not: there's a perception issue, as a friend points out (golf = rich lawyers and doctors), and also you've got clubhouses in the mix.

i was hoping to get out to the island for some disc golf at some point, but i guess that's probably a no-no?

golf/disc golf seem to me like practically the safest outdoor activities possible

I’m sure the island would be fine, it’s just the access to it I’d worry about.

The walking paradox for me is, the further away from home I travel, the more isolated I can be when I walk; but am I breaking any rules by driving further?

The Stratford police also say they won't be doing random checks. Are there any jurisdictions across the province who haven't said the same? Looks pretty bad on Ford--clearly there wasn't any consultation.

It’ll just get abused by the worse officers in every department, despite what the press releases say.

Walking drunk at 8:10 in the streets of a curfew-ed city was an experience.

Unless you have a 70% chance of surviving your intubation/resuscitation and ICU care you will be allowed to die.
This is coming from Critical Care Services Ontario in the days ahead.
We've all been put on notice.

— Dr. Barb King (@DrBarbKing) April 19, 2021

Sad state of affairs when I'm mildly encouraged that the daily caseload in Ontario has momentarily plateaued around 4,400 for the past three or four days.

AstraZeneca supposedly available to 40+ in Ontario starting tomorrow. Don’t have an appointment yet, but I certainly intend to get one ASAP

I signed up for notifications from shoppers. Hopefully that will get one of those bad boys inside me!

Because I'm working my way through Mad Men again, when I heard the AstraZeneca announcement I thought of "If you don't like the conversation, change the conversation" (I'm not sure if that originated with Mad Men or not).

I 'pre-registered' for a vaccine on Thursday as I was eligible to do so - but I honestly have no idea what the import of this is. The info I received just says someone will be in touch at some point to schedule an appoint but they are not able to provide a timeline.

I somehow missed that the national budget was tabled today: https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/budget-tax-1.5993593

Money for a child care programme, luxury vehicle tax, minor vacant home tax, digital services tax - on the surface of it, mostly sounds decent?

Consensus seems to be that this is an election year budget and there will be elections in the fall.

the third wave probably prevented spring elections

spending seems wise to get the economy going after covid, plus it has the upside of upsetting all the deficit hawks

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/chrystia-freeland-budget-2021-pandemic-1.5993901

More than half of that — $8.4 billion — would go toward early learning and child care, matching almost exactly what advocates had said would be necessary to deal with a lack of high-quality, affordable spaces.

But the budget also offers new and substantial sums for Old Age Security ($3 billion), public transit ($2.6 billion) and measures related to climate change and the environment ($1.9 billion). Expanding access to the Canada Workers Benefit — a refundable tax credit that supports low-income earners — would cost an additional $1.7 billion; Freeland says that could lift 100,000 people out of poverty.

Back in 2014, Freeland said that the Reagan-Thatcher revolution grew from the idea that "an overgrown, inflexible welfare state" could be blamed for a sluggish economy and high inflation. But the key problems of the modern economy, she argued — low economic growth and high economic inequality — can be traced back to a lack of government action.

"If too much government was deemed the problem of the earlier era of stagflation, it is easier to argue today that the problem is too little of it — too little stimulus, too little oversight, too little redistribution," she wrote.

Seven years later, that looks like foreshadowing.

I thought that piece was at least a little overstated but good lord I'd love to be proven wildly wrong

you're probably right...don't know if it's that different from past Trudeau budgets even

the thinking of Reagan and Thatcher (and, in the Canadian context, Stephen Harper)

This honestly startled me. Even if we forget Mulroney, I'm genuinely curious to hear an argument for why anything Harper did marked a more significant move towards economic neoliberalism than Paul Martin's 1995 budget.

Agree with rob and symsymsym otherwise.

otm

And considering health and education are provincial jurisdiction and are where austerity cuts hurt the most, for me the face on Austerity as a concept is Jean Charest.

From what I understand austerity in Quebec started under Bouchard but I was too young so I'm not sure.

Not defending our Premiers of the day but worth noting that they were at least partly responding to the wholesale slashing of federal transfers to the provinces for health and education in that 95 federal budget. Whether Martin/Chrétien had good alternative options, I'm not best qualified to say, and I'll give Martin that i) he did try to restore some of what was cut later on and ii) the federal Liberals slashed everything - the military and policing as much as the CBC and health care, which is rarely the case for 'austerity'-minded governments. The Fraser Institute were so enamoured with Martin that they published a commemorative collection of essays about that budget, in honour of its 25th anniversary!: https://www.fraserinstitute.org/sites/default/files/budget-that-changed-canada.pdf

Vaccine news:
Quality control questions with the Astra Zeneca doses that are here: https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/more-than-half-canadas-astrazeneca-vaccine-came-from-u-s-plant-accused-by-fda-of-quality-control-problems

Booster doses being planned ('secured') for the next two years, so I guess we're going to be taking them annually?: https://globalnews.ca/news/7783486/covid-canada-pfizer-booster-vaccine/

I saw that quality control article literally five minutes after I booked my AstraZeneca for tuesday. Still going to get it because I’m way more worried about the local case counts, but admittedly not super thrilled with the idea of having America’s rejects.

how does Amir Attaran show up in every article

Long piece on COVID and Peel:

When the lockdowns started, everyone who lived or worked in Peel suddenly had very different pandemic experiences, despite living a few kilometres apart. Restaurants on one side of the intersection between Halton Hills and Mississauga would remain open, while those on the other stayed closed. Gyms in Oakville were filled with people, while those ten minutes away in Mississauga remained shuttered.

When I was supplying in Brampton, I'd stop in Milton for morning coffee, five minutes west of where Halton turns into Peel; I could sit inside, but not when I went out for coffee during lunch. It's been the same up here at times, where I could do something in St. Marys that I couldn't do in London, but obviously the numbers there are of considerably less magnitude.

https://thelocal.to/you-cant-stop-the-spread-of-the-virus-if-you-dont-stop-it-in-peel/

Parks are packed to the brim these days yet we've just dipped below 1000 cases in Quebec so this is a timely reminder:

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/whitecoat/evidence-suggests-outdoor-covid-19-transmission-is-low-here-s-what-you-need-to-know-1.5997300

Also, suspending all international flights to satisfy Mr. O'Toole's demands would be sheer overkill:

https://www.lapresse.ca/covid-19/2021-04-26/o-toole-reclame-la-suspension-de-tous-les-vols-internationaux-entrant-au-pays.php

Instead, more should be done to ensure that the mandatory hotel quarantine is being respected.

Hooray, United States.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/astra-zeneca-covid-vaccine-pandemic-1.6002450

Got the AstraZeneca shot about an hour ago - so far so good!

Great! I'm scheduled for Sunday, still not sure what I'm getting.

Ok, update! Seems like I am a lucky one and having a pretty significant immune response with a fever North of 101, chills and general achey and exhausted feeling. Broke and took a Tylenol which helped a lot. It’s actually kind off bizarre to feel sick after 12 months with barely a sniffle, but it makes me very concerned about what the real deal would have done.

Too bad, glad it broke. I've been exactly the same: not a sniffle since this thing began, which is good, because I'm panicky by nature when it comes to anything health-related. (Panicky by Nature, they were great.) I would have completely fallen apart if I'd exhibited symptoms at any point.