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

These seem key:

“They were very, very quick off the mark to take advantage of the publication in China of the genetic composition of the virus and to develop tests locally that could be produced and used locally,” he said...

In Quebec, massive outbreaks in long term care facilities contributed to the province’s high case numbers and death rates, Buckeridge said. Policies like allowing staff to work at multiple facilities just facilitated the virus’ spread in vulnerable populations, he said, and it was allowed for a long time. B.C. issued an order in March to stop this, although it took some time for the practice to end.

I don’t really want to call the response any kind of disaster, because I don’t think it is. But I have to admit that the mess with testing and especially the constantly changing recommendations is getting very frustrating. They’ve changed our school attendance criteria enough times now that I’m literally confused as to what we’d need to do in different scenarios. That said, our particular school seems to be managing things very well.

The second wave following school reopenings is p close to disastrous imo.

which province? ontario?

i feel so lucky to be living in BC through all this

Ontario, yeah.

I just mean that here, I wouldn’t point at the incompetence or ignorance of many in our leadership who are causing things to actively become worse (unlike some places!) More that general unpreparedness caused a scramble to catch up that is failing some of us in some regards. There are mistakes. I’ve been inside a hospital a few times since spring and it’s very organized and controlled there (could be different elsewhere I guess) If something has to give, I guess parents being annoyed at new shit every week isn’t the end of the world.

Don’t mean to diminish any deaths. Just strictly talking about the response. I would imagine it’s difficult to fix any of this with so many of those you’re trying to protect actively fighting your measures.

It seems believable that if we'd done what BC did with testing and LTC workers, we'd have seen fewer deaths. The reopening of schools could have been managed better too, it seems.

This isn't just the response but also it might have helped if the government hadn't been actively taking apart in-home care prior to this, which pushes more people into LTC homes. NB also that the significant majority of LTC home deaths happened in privatized for-profit homes and that privatization has been on the govt's agenda: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/for-profit-nursing-homes-83-percent-of-covid-deaths-eastern-ontario-1.5604880.

But I mean, yeah, we're not at a loss for WORSE examples that we could look to for comparison.

Rapid testing does seem to be one thing that might have been making the biggest difference right now. I didn’t quite grok it’s potential value a few months ago, but it now seems obvious that if it were widely available enough, life could be near normal.

I’m three hours from where my mum lives right now, and the fact that she’s essentially trapped indoors, in a basement on her own. Says she feels like she’ll never get outside again. And now that the kids go out, I can’t go there without risking her -but it’s getting to the point where the risk might be worth it? it’s awful!

:(

:(

enjoying some of the NDP wins in natural liberal territory being partially down to the BC Conservatives and vote-splitting. In Chilliwack NDP won by 8.5% and the Conservatives took 18% of the vote.

lol yeah I saw them interviewing some liberal supporters on the street who presumably didn’t vote, because they were like “oops!”

Halton spared from further restrictions for now.

What the hell @ Ford giving Oosterhoff a total pass on the huge family party though. “He said sorry” oh well then. I really don’t know how he expects anyone else to abide by the guidelines if he can’t even muster a performative scolding for something so flagrant from within his own team.

lol yeah I saw them interviewing some liberal supporters on the street who presumably didn’t vote, because they were like “oops!”

Halton spared from further restrictions for now.

What the hell @ Ford giving Oosterhoff a total pass on the huge family party though. “He said sorry” oh well then. I really don’t know how he expects anyone else to abide by the guidelines if he can’t even muster a performative scolding for something so flagrant from within his own team.

Glad about Halton...I do wonder if Ford buckled to pressure (a lot of letters from Halton mayors). I notice a discernable change in COVID coverage on the radio the past week or so; much more sympathetic to restaurant owners and other small business people. Reconciling that with rising case numbers is going to be extremely messy.

Wow, with 82% of polls reporting, the Liberal is unsurprisingly winning Toronto Centre but new Green leader Annamie Paul is a strong second!: https://enr.elections.ca/ElectoralDistricts.aspx?ed=2255&lang=e
York Centre is pretty much a Lib/Tory tie with about 75% of polls reporting.

Sask Party win their fourth straight majority govt in SK, sigh: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/saskatchewan-election-2020-1.5777823

I honestly don't know what people love about them.

Feds putting $1B into Rapid Housing Initiative to build up to 3000 new homes, targeting 15 cities. Plan apparently includes rehabilitating existing buildings (empty motels, rooming houses from what I hear) into new homes: https://pm.gc.ca/en/news/news-releases/2020/10/27/new-rapid-housing-initiative-create-3000-new-homes-canadians

More details here: https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/liberals-pledge-1-billion-for-cities-to-buy-motels-hotels-for-rapid-housing-program-1.5113413

Record immigration numbers planned for the next three years: https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2020/10/30/canada-raises-immigration-targets-to-record-level-eyeing-covid-19-recovery.html
Exact numbers here: https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/news/notices/supplementary-immigration-levels-2021-2023.html

American media people talking about this on Twitter, with some saying "ah, but these are mostly highly skilled immigrants, not refugees", with others pointing out the # of refugees is still several times the US's levels.

Business community gung-ho for this, acc to Star article.

If any of you have tips, lord, I will gladly move. Take me away.

currently unclear if we are accepting migrants from failed states

I have actively considered applying for PhD programs at Canadian universities, even though whatever degree I'd get would be professionally useless, just to attempt to maybe get a job in Canada after. I'm totally serious.

I'm sorry to tell you that many Canadians also think you need to attend an American phd program to be worth hiring, assuming you mean an academic job

Yep, and I know that, too. There's a part of me that hopes against hope of a trajectory like SFU---> post-grad work ----> UNBC or something. It's all pipe dream bullshit, but I can dream.

I should say it's not *impossible* -- my supervisor has a Canadian phd, but he did a post-doc in the US, so yeah an exotic enough post-doc could possibly swing it! Aggravatingly, the generation above him often have trajectories like BA->MA->PhD->faculty all at the same institution (which I think is maybe not ideal but is now quite unimaginable anyway)

I mean, a PhD from McGill would surely open more doors than a PhD from a mid-ranking SUNY school (quick scan of f/t faculty bios at a top uni confirms this) but tbh there are also not enough academic jobs anywhere to plan around them anyway.

(My PhD is from a SUNY school ftr.)

Oh I know there are no jobs. It's just a fantasy

Tbh I would just like to live in a slightly less horrible settler colonial state.

I've felt pretty sanguine the past couple of weeks, but as an outsider, with a very murky understanding of what Trump can and can't do in the next 48 hours, I'm feeling queasy again.

Oops.

Was going to say...perhaps wrong thread.

#OneThread

Fake wolf pack warnings?

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/canadian-military-to-establish-new-organization-to-use-propaganda-other-techniques-to-influence-canadians

Apologies for linking to post media, but it’s a weird story

Wow, did many people see this coming? This article implies it’s all GM reinvesting, but I also read that they expect some tax dollars will be involved. Many people in the ‘shwa must be having a slightly better morning today.

https://www.cp24.com/news/1-3b-deal-will-return-vehicle-production-to-oshawa-plant-gm-and-unifor-say-1.5175832

meanwhile in Canada: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/whole-foods-bans-poppies-1.5791551

It's the perfect story for every Canadian politician to act outraged about

to make people extra mad they should have made white poppies mandatory instead

hahahaha

conservative are going to get mad that this is woke culture and forget that the CEO of WF is a union-busting randian from texas who doesn't believe in anthropogenic climate change

and is only doing this because whole foods banned employees from wearing BLM masks in the US

Horgan's so angry, he's *this* close to calling Whole Foods "dude" https://t.co/IpvokfKm7Q

— Justin McElroy (@j_mcelroy) November 6, 2020

I’m also learning that Whole Foods exists in Canada.