Defenestrate Them All: Canadian Politics 2021

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.

Seems a lot better this morning! Sorry to clog up the thread with non politics.

glad you're feeling better!

my wife got her first AZ in the late afternoon last week; went to bed early but otherwise no symptoms. bon courage everyone!

At last:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-vaccine-general-population-1.6007138

alas
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/beavers-shut-down-internet-tumbler-ridge-british-columbia-canada-chewing-stealing-cables-dam/

xpost massively relieved about this!

St. Marys has a population of ~6,000; the one pharmacy here offering vaccinations has a waiting list of 1,500--not all from St. Marys, I'm sure, but still.

Didn't realize it had got this bad:
https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/it-ll-crash-tremendously-alberta-now-leads-canada-and-u-s-in-per-capita-covid-19-cases-1.5412090

and kenney shut down the legislature for two weeks

is he the worst premier? with full respect to some very tough competition, I think he's earned the title

Kenney makes Ford look like Churchill. He is not only the worst premier, he might be the worst premier EVER.

Just for fun google Alberta + curriculum or coal or Hawaii or doctors or parks

Also check out the fuckin clown car of a cabinet (hm, probably should have spelled that with K’s instead of C’s)

Tyler Shandro + Kaycee Madu + Adrianna LaGrange, just fantastically garbage humans.

How this guy ever managed hi-profile Harper cabinet positions is a mystery to me; he couldn’t organize the ordering of a pizza

And that’s nothing to say of his repulsive history actively agitating against gay rights.

this is the Harper era story I will always associate him with:

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/kenney-refuses-to-apologize-for-fake-citizenship-broadcast-blames-bureaucrats

creating a fake citizenship ceremony for a fake news TV station at the same time they demagogued against women in face veils taking the citizenship oath, just disgusting stuff

Tbh, it's probably small potatoes but I'm still angry about this: https://www.vice.com/en/article/88ax7v/jason-kenney-targets-south-asians-for-covid-says-nothing-about-anti-maskers

Maybe it's not a strong comparison but it feels galling that he threatened increased police presence and fines for family gatherings in immigrant-dominated neighbourhoods in Calgary (not sure what the follow-through was) but afaict nothing was done to prevent or even issue on-site fines to 2000 people gathering for an 'anti-lockdown rodeo': https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/alberta-rodeo-covid-1.6011347 . Alberta Health Services is apparently 'considering their legal options' at this point?

Yeah, that one also struck me as particularly egregious.

A bit of hope for the environment at risk west of TO. Current provincial oversight is ultimately way too beholden to developers to be trusted, so I see this as a huge improvement. https://www.nationalobserver.com/2021/05/03/news/feds-take-over-environmental-assessment-controversial-highway-413

Have fun with this Legault quote from yesterday: 'every time I take in an immigrant who makes less than 56,000$, my problem gets worse' (uttered before the Quebec Council of Employers). Today, he stated that he doesn't regret saying it, just like I won't regret saying: fuck you, François, you xenophobic piece of shit.

I guess l'état, c'est lui

Tbf his specific 'problem' is that he wants to increase the average salary in Quebec. Still, it's wonderful to know that I may only be deemed worthy of my place here if I make at least 56k. Does he apply this logic to low-income pure wool Quebecers as well?

Yes, the only way to raise avg salaries is through immigration policy, cripes

Ah well, in much better news, I just signed up for my first vaccine appointment! They're open now if you're 40+

wonder what Legault's family's income was when they came over here

Congrats!

I'm gonna spam F5 starting around 4pm on Thursday.

xp gotta adjust for inflation, doncha know.

I will almost reluctantly admit that signing up was extremely easy, no F5 required. If anything I was briefly stymied by the range of locations to choose from

just finished the long census, took twenty minutes or so

when i booked a vaccine for my partner 2 weeks ago (in the Astrazeneca gen-x cohort), it was astonishingly painless - really impressed by what the gvmt did with Clicsante tbh