Defenestrate Them All: Canadian Politics 2021

I will never understand those who compare Canada with the US or feel jealous that the US has done X-thing better than Canada.

Despite the difficult ties and times the US gov't has bullied the Canadian gov't, I'm thankful the US is seeing a decline in Covid cases and is sending more vaccines to Canada. This can only be a good thing for neighbouring countries, especially ones that are bound to each other like the US and Canada.

im extremely jealous of americans rn

Same tbh. Doesn't have to be 100% rational.

I totally understand. I think there is a lot of jealousy and anger going around in Canada. There is a reason we are where we're at. Whatever happened to mandatory face coverings? The mandate was clearly not being followed enough, despite so many people saying they were. At least in BC, we can no longer use care homes as a scapegoat.

americans had it worse over the course of the pandemic and i don't envy them for that (they're currently at 0.15% of the population dead from covid vs 0.06% for us) but seeing them go full buckwild this summer will be rough

Being able to do everything from my apartment has mostly been pretty sweet tbh.

ya there's a non-insignificant portion of the population who will mourn the end of the coziness FOMO-less homebody pandemic. not me tho

I have heard so many horror stories from the US, I am just glad they can celebrate.

Ottawa Medical Officer warning about outdoor transmission now, calls downthread for social distancing even outdoors:

Ottawans, we moved into the Red zone as COVID-19 levels were rising 2 wks ago + the curve has only worsened. 2 weekends ago we had lovely weather + a lot of socializing. I am seeing many people test positive after being in groups at restaurants, with transmission even outdoors.

— Dr. Vera Etches (@VeraEtches) April 4, 2021

MUST WATCH

Dr. Michael Warner walks us through the story of one patient.

A woman in her 40s who got Covid. Earlier today he fought to save her life.

But before the day ended Covid stole her from us.

Please listen to @drmwarner share his anger and heartbreak. pic.twitter.com/LzreBOxwrS

— Natasha Fatah (@NatashaFatah) April 4, 2021

no thx

i feel like telling people not to meet up outdoors could backfire

Peel schools are going online for two weeks--or one, with the second week the scheduled break.

I'm getting supply work where I live now, so personally, it probably won't affect me--I'll get in my 50 days if the schools here stay open. But who knows anymore.

The thing I don't get is that I thought it was the government's call, not the boards; I would have thought Toronto would have been in lockstep, but only Peel has made an announcement. With the break coming up, the timing is bizarre--virtually nothing will be accomplished in the next four days. Should have happened three or four weeks ago; they may as well take a two-week break at this point. And if they know they're going online for the rest of the year, announce it now.

All of which is easy for me to say. I don't think they have any idea. They're just making it up as they go along.

Been reading some things and perhaps there is good evidence for concern about co2 levels after all (so my bad for being dismissive). Unfortunately it’s related to evidence of genuine airborne transmissibility (vs droplet) though that being still controversial after a full year baffles me.

There does seem to be frustration from the doctors and medical officers that they prefer we not close schools, but it becomes necessary where the vaccine rollout isn’t yet reaching the workplaces and populations that are the actual primary vectors. Sounds like they want a lot more targeting than we are getting.

Oh great:

(1/12) The Brazilian #COVID19 variant is up to 2 times more transmissible, more likely to cause serious illness in young people, and may evade immunity.

Worryingly, it’s starting to spread rapidly in British Columbia, Canada. 🇨🇦

A thread summarising the latest evidence. 🧵

— Dr Zoë Hyde (@DrZoeHyde) April 5, 2021

With regards to the 1M vaccines that are sitting in freezers in ON and the large # of seniors not getting vaccinated, I wonder how much of a factor the accessibility of vaccination clinics is. We live right downtown and we had to drive about 25 minutes to the Canterbury area - sort of a tony residential neighbourhood in Ottawa South - to get my spouse's first shot. By public transit, it would have been two buses, 45m-1h. My parents live in a west end suburb and had to drive to an east end suburb. It seems odd. I don't know why they couldn't have clinics set up at nearby community centres or, say, somewhere like University of Ottawa Health Services, v central and near a bus/train terminal. Testing was a lot more accessible. Is it like this elsewhere?

Yep. See here:

https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2021/04/05/il-y-a-quelque-chose-qui-ne-tourne-pas-rond-dans-la-vaccination-1

Ugh, wow. Are things running better in BC? I'm mostly hearing about this issue in ON/QC.

Hm, numbers are given for each province downthread. ON/QC have a much starker delivered/administered ratio than most provinces:

As of today, we have delivered 10 million #COVID19 vaccines across Canada! Here’s how we’re working with provinces and territories to protect communities: pic.twitter.com/YEKT2CDOO0

— Patty Hajdu (@PattyHajdu) April 5, 2021

the smugness of the crowd chanting "freedom" and the restaurant owner telling the health inspector that he has no jurisdiction over her

https://globalnews.ca/news/7739535/business-licences-gustos-corduroy-lounge-suspended-covid-19/

#NewDeathParty is trending on Twitter bc of Horgan's record in BC, apparently - is there actually any kind of credible case that COVID is being handled worse in BC than in Ontario, Quebec, or Alberta? Is something new happening?

Some of the COVID variants are reported to be spreading faster out West?

I wonder how much of a factor the accessibility of vaccination clinics is.

Yeah, I don't understand how the assignments work. My dad, who is 70, was initially assigned a clinic in Brockville for his first shot before he was able to reschedule and get a location in Ottawa.

Yeah, he lives right in town as well iirc? That seems insane that they would send him that far.

don't blow it for the rest of us pic.twitter.com/S47gk9SGHl

— Justin McElroy (@j_mcelroy) April 3, 2021

Horgan promised to loosen restrictions and said the govt strategy was working great exactly three weeks ago, while the case count was growing and had the risk of growing exponentially. I believe they opened places of worship for about two days before telling them to close again. BC is less transparent about outbreak data than those other provinces, not releasing any numbers on weekends and never or rarely releasing case by age, location, or workplace type, which made it especially galling when Horgan told 20-39 year olds not to "blow it for the rest of us" without releasing numbers showing young people were causing the increase. Schools have been open this entire year, without improvements made to ventilation of old buildings (I believe) and no mask requirements for younger children. Indoor dining has been open until last week. Whistler was kept open despite being a clear covid hotspot. People are frustrated because it feels like this third wave could have been averted with some proactive government interventions.

Is this a credible case that BC is handling it worse than Legault, Ford, or Kenney? Probably not, but there have been more serious restrictions attempted in Ontario and Quebec at least. I think the soft NDP supporters in my circles all expect BC to be doing better than those other guys. Newdeathparty is unfair, and not much of a pun to boot...BC has always done relatively well on the metric of deaths per capita, and the vaccination of the elderly and long-term care residents happened in time to keep death counts low even as we are reaching our highest case numbers:

For now, B.C. continues to be right near the bottom of the death chart often cited by @adriandix, as it does every week.

Big questions in the weeks ahead. Let's commit to the actions needed to keep it there. pic.twitter.com/uCWHwSq8tr

— Justin McElroy (@j_mcelroy) April 4, 2021

But the variants appear to be tearing through younger populations, our hockey team has the worst outbreak in pro sports, and too many people here have decided the pandemic is over. It's scary!

https://www.thestar.com/business/2021/04/06/warehouses-factories-construction-sites-responsible-for-far-more-workplace-outbreaks-than-retail-and-restaurants-data-shows.html

I thought this article, from a province (or city I guess?) that actually releases detailed data, was excellent and should be required reading for Canadians:

Since mid-February, Toronto Public Health has been publishing a list of active workplace outbreaks every Thursday. The agency’s data shows that since the pandemic began, food processing plants, offices, warehouses, shipping and distribution centres and construction sites have been responsible for 378 outbreaks as of March 30 — compared to 51 in bars, restaurants and nightclubs, and 53 in retail, grocery stores and malls. (An official outbreak is declared when there are two or more confirmed cases that could be reasonably linked to the workplace within 14 days.)

That’s 68 per cent of all workplace outbreaks, compared to just under 19 per cent if you combine bars, restaurants, nightclubs, retail, grocery and malls.

The province breaks its sector-specific data down by case, not by outbreak, but the effect is the same. Within the same time frame, Ontario reported 3,266 cases linked to food processing and “other” workplaces, which includes offices, warehouses, distribution centres and construction sites. By comparison, it reported 824 cases linked to bars, restaurants and nightclubs, and 1,339 cases linked to retail.

Since TPH began publishing workplace outbreaks, four of the city’s largest have been at food manufacturers or distributors: Belmont Meats (94 cases), Johnvince Foods (83 cases), Dimpflmeier Bakery (53 cases) and Maple Leaf Foods (25 cases). Union representatives told the Star in February that at least two of the employers — Belmont and Maple Leaf — do not offer paid sick leave.

Outbreaks at two separate Toronto police facilities involving 35 cases forced Toronto Police College to suspend in-person training in February. Other major Toronto workplace outbreaks in the past three months have included Alumicor Limited (20 cases), DECIEM skin care (18 cases), Sky Window Technologies (20 cases), Sweet Maple Candies (17 cases) and Ya Ya Foods (12 cases).

Thanks, that helps.

someone please strangle Doug Ford already i am sick of this bullshit

the news the past week: the ICUs are filling up with people under 50!

Ford gov't today: we've lowered the vaccine eligibility to 50 and up!!!

kill me

Meanwhile Montreal is making sure that leftover doses are going to cops. Not teachers, cops.

oh lol and they haven't even given a firm date for when they're lowering the eligibility so there's that

THIS FUCKING ASSHOLE

60 is still the cutoff point in Quebec...

71 in BC, I think

No surprise, Toronto schools have joined Peel in shutting down. Having one online and the other in-person didn't compute--Brampton and Mississauga are basically extensions of Toronto.

I have to wonder if the situation in schools is deteriorating faster than they're saying. ("They" meaning the government, I guess.) Erring on the side of caution hasn't exactly been the rule the past year; action is generally taken only when it has to be taken. Shutting down now, rather than holding on for three extra days, only makes sense in that context.

Is anyone taking this seriously?

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/conservatives-public-inquiry-covid19-response-1.5976456

If anything, I have more of a problem with our successive provincial governments' cavalier approach to healthcare than I do with the feds.

Just saw Biden give a summary of vaccination progress that makes it clear just how much of a free pass every politician here got for as long as Trump was in charge.

The most Canadian thing to do would be to focus on the one thing the Americans have done well for the past ten years at the expense of everything else.

I take your point, but at this juncture, won't speeded-up vaccinations make the everything else secondary? I know they're not the whole solution; you have to keep doing everything else. But without vaccinations, there seems to be early evidence that the everything else can't keep up with the variants.

Anyway, my main point was that everything is relative, and having Trump as your point of comparison did give Ford and the rest something of a free pass with the press (I'm sure I got lured into that too)--although the damage he did spilled over to us in many other ways.

the news the past week: the ICUs are filling up with people under 50!

Ford gov't today: we've lowered the vaccine eligibility to 50 and up!!!

seriously. I hate him/them so very much. the fact that his approval ratings are good (if declining, verrrry slowwwly) is enraging. this is from less than a month ago:

A new Angus Reid Institute poll this week pegged Ford’s approval rating at 50 per cent. That’s down from a high of 69-per-cent approval in the early summer, but still miles ahead of the dismal 31 per cent Ford had at the start of the pandemic. A Mainstreet Research poll in late February reported that 43 per cent of Ontarians were likely to vote for Ford if an election were held, and the PCs dominated in every age group.

Again, there is a direct connection there, I believe, to who he's being compared to--that decline may accelerate quickly.

I sure fuckin hope so, and I hope it happens without too much more death. The provincial opposition has been invisible, as well.

Biden said today that every American over the age of 18 will be vaccine-eligible by April 19.

1) Does that mean they'll actually get it? The vast majority, probably not.

2) Is a target like that even possible for us? With the vaccines we're getting delivered, probably not--which may be our fault, I don't know anymore.

But it will be hard to maintain that approval rating when you put the over/under-50 announcement next to that, unless the blame gets mostly deflected onto Trudeau.

All he had to do last spring was look gravely concerned at his press conferences (he did, and I do believe that was genuine), step aside and let doctors speak when it was a medical question, and shut down everything for the first month (or was it two months? I can't even remember anymore). Trump's daily horror show took care of everything else. We're a long way from all that.

https://thetyee.ca/News/2021/04/02/Canada-One-Big-Pandemic-Response-Experiment-Zero-COVID/

eh it's kind of relevant that the provinces that did zero covid are the maritimes, not really a perfectly controlled experiment

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-stay-at-home-order-covid-19-1.5977646

Richest postal codes in Toronto have highest vaccination rates, lowest deaths.
Poorest postal codes, low vaccination rates, high number of deaths.
Thread 👇👇👇 https://t.co/5Jhv06Ap3G

— Judy Trinh (@judyatrinh) April 7, 2021

I can understand a slight discrepancy based on average age, but those numbers are fucking wild.

Anyone care to explain why that is?