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

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

I've been telling people: calisthenics, including pull-ups and such, have been the key to my own physical fitness for like the past two years.

I mostly do body weight stuff at home when not running or going to the pool, yeah.

I installed a pull-up bar though it's more aspirational than useful just yet...

I intend to go my whole life without doing a pull-up.

Ottawa reaches code red status. Hospitals above capacity; warning that we could reach 800-1000 cases/day by Xmas: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-public-health-red-status-1.576059

Should work better: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-public-health-red-status-1.5760593

A friend of mine there (Ottawa) is freaking out this morning because her kids’ school bus routes have apparently just been “cancelled until further notice” without provision or additional information, and she’s now faced with having to get them there during the same time frame as she’s supposed to be at work. Ride sharing and other backups are a problem right now of course. Seems our system is just failing.

Because of COVID or lack of drivers?

we could reach 800-1000 cases/day by Xmas

This is terrifying.

See you in 6 months?

I've written off the idea of visiting family until spring 2021 at the earliest.

Death toll went up by 29 in Quebec today despite the extra restrictive measures (nonessential visits forbidden). Not that most people give a shit: one of our neighbours had people over the other day. To add insult to injury, the zoomers downstairs are still partying and I can hear them coming and going like it's 1992 and we're at Seinfeld's place. I'm not gonna go all Stasi on them but it's kinda tempting sometimes tbh.

While those deaths are alarming for sure, it looks like the numbers are at least stabilizing in Quebec at around 1000 new cases per day, so the latest round of restrictions imposed by the government appear to at least have some effect.

clemenza, not sure, imagine it’s connected to both a shortage and isolation measures. Seems hard to deal with regardless.

silverfish lining :)

xp

so uh are the BC Liberals even going to exist by the end of this election

ok maybe they won't go the way of the socreds, but they're in pretty deep trouble these days

both a shortage and isolation measures

It occurred to me later that of course they're linked, although I think there was a driver shortage even pre-COVID.

so uh are the BC Liberals even going to exist by the end of this election

inshallah

I did not expect their entire campaign to be a prolonged self-immolation. Here's a thread by their membership chair:

I have long been a supporter of the BC Liberal Party. I continue to stand by the values of free enterprise that originally drew me to this party. The BC Liberal Party under Andrew Wilkinson does not reflect values I support. #bcpoli #BCelxn2020

— Nicole Paul (@nicole_paul) October 16, 2020

And I don't think it even mentions all their senior leadership getting together to call Bowinn Ma (our youngest and greatest MLA) a slut:

https://globalnews.ca/news/7391950/sexist-bc-liberals-take-fire-over-leaked-zoom-video-mocking-ndps-bowinn-ma/

The Green leader Sonia Furstenau outclassed Horgan in the debate, I hope the Greens survive this election

Greens productive alliance with the BCNDP and Weaver's leadership in general has helped them a lot. They're not going to start winning more seats but expect them to increase their vote share. And yeah, it's been fun watching the Libs hilariously awful campaign. Wilkinson is the leader they deserve at this point. They're still going to win at least 36 seats though, even in a worst case scenario because people will still vote for their incumbents who are generally not as appalling as the leader. My guess is NDP:46 / Libs 39 / Greens 2.

it’s incredibly gratifying to see throness finally kicked out, but the fact it took so long just makes for very bad optics, especially for wilkinson. this should’ve happened when throness directly contradicted wilkinson and doubled down on supporting conversion therapy. and this makes it more difficult for wilkinson to justify keeping other problematic candidates.

i’m still not clear on what happens now, is throness still running? what if he gets elected, he’ll sit as an independent? wouldn’t be surprised to see him joining CHP either (esp since they pretty much offered).

also lol at bc libs slowly figuring out that this “say what’s on your mind” thing isn’t really working well in the era of zoom.

just pure schadenfreude

My guess is NDP:46 / Libs 39 / Greens 2

Will Throness keep his seat? That prediction makes a lot of sense to me, but I do wonder what happens to the seat count if the polls showing NDP with 50% of the vote are anywhere near true. Those polls were conducted before today's clusterfuck, too

Throness is now an independent but the Liberals have no other horse in that race. So he will probably be elected. Chilliwack is one of our most...interesting(?) regions.

Throness said that free contraception was eugenics aimed at poor people in a candidates debate! I don't think he can even blame Zoom for that one

Maybe he'll lose. That would be amazing!

it still feels like they think these zoom calls are a smaller audience or something, hence them saying something they’d maybe normally have enough sense not to say. and the fact that you see other people’s reactions - or the lack of, adds to it. it wasn’t just the slut shaming, it was everybody - including wilkinson - laughing that just made it look that much worse.

yeah the hollywood squares layout of nine old white people joining in made for a terrible visual

Another @bcliberals candidate is under fire. This time for tweets from June from a now-deleted account that support JK Rowling’s anti-trans blog. @LorraineBrett20 started a new account in September, but this tweet exists in Web Archive. #bcpoli #BCvotes2020 pic.twitter.com/yJX0m0vlFR

— Charmaine de Silva (@char_des) October 16, 2020

A friend of mine there (Ottawa) is freaking out this morning because her kids’ school bus routes have apparently just been “cancelled until further notice” without provision or additional information, and she’s now faced with having to get them there during the same time frame as she’s supposed to be at work. Ride sharing and other backups are a problem right now of course. Seems our system is just failing.

Yeah, afaict, it is chaos with the schools, with bus routes getting cancelled, several entire schools shutting down for two-week periods, etc. Has there been any investigation of what is behind this huge spike in numbers?

This looks like it could be an interesting and useful documentary (airing Nov 4, aiui): https://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/the-passionate-eye/recycling-was-a-lie-a-big-lie-to-sell-more-plastic-industry-experts-say-1.5735618

one for the doom files

That seems so obvious when you think about it.

new, from the people who brought you "littering"

this planet money on recycling is good: https://www.npr.org/2020/09/11/912150085/waste-land

Oh yeah, recently listened to that.

The @RCMPNS spokesperson on damage to property, threats, assault, vandalism, arson: "We don't see this as a police issue, but we understand both sides."https://t.co/r5IbODLjQZ

— David T.S. Fraser (@privacylawyer) October 17, 2020