Roundup: Coronavirus case in Canada

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We can expect a bunch of questions around the first two suspected cases of coronavirus being treated in Toronto when the Commons returns for Question Period tomorrow, and it’s a question of how much we’ll see any kind of politicking being played around it. The line is that we’re not expecting an outbreak in the country – but we’re already at a situation where the suspected case was symptomatic on a flight so that means tracking down the other passengers.

Over the past week, we’ve seen a lot of interviews with former officials, political or bureaucratic, who dealt with SARS and MERS, and they insist that lessons have been learned in Canada, even though we don’t know how this coronavirus will compare. That said, the Ontario government already slashed Toronto Public Health’s funding, so that just may come around to bite them in the ass.

Amidst this, Matt Gurney is decidedly more pessimistic about the preparations and says that the facts we know around this suspected case mean that the system didn’t work, and that’s going to be a problem going forward. He has a point, but we’ll have to see how the response changes in the days ahead.

Good reads:

  • Prime minister Justin Trudeau will be hosting a meeting with Venezuela’s interim president Juan Guaidó in Ottawa today.
  • Chrystia Freeland sent an open letter to opposition leaders, asking them not to delay passage of the New NAFTA implementation legislation.
  • The Canadian Press has obtained briefing notes for the public safety minister regarding officials grappling with how to deal with rising far-right extremism.
  • A construction firm with several federal and military contracts was recently hit by a ransomware attack.
  • Here’s a look into the use of Canada by foreign content producers as a “branch plant” for the industry while actual Canadian content plummets.
  • Parks Canada has been collecting the memoirs of the last surviving Inuit “bone collector” who helped the World War II war effort.
  • Here is an interesting recap of a discussion featuring Jane Philpott, Lisa Raitt, and Megan Leslie.
  • Following the party’s caucus retreat, Andrew Scheer says he plans to run as an MP again next election, but refuses to answer questions about his spending party funds.
  • Peter MacKay had his big launch on Saturday, but kept his speech safe with shots at Trudeau, including a yoga versus hockey swipe.
  • Sources close to Michael Chong say he’s still considering running for leader, but will
  • only take the plunge if he sees a clear path to victory.
  • Éric Grenier tries to deduce the effectiveness of caucus endorsements in the current Conservative leadership race.
  • Steve Paikin has some thoughts about the English-language debates during the last election, and how they might be improved. (Part 1 and part 2).

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3 thoughts on “Roundup: Coronavirus case in Canada”

  1. Here we go with the “shots” the conservative mainstay, MacKay has made his first of many mistakes by eschewing good policy {which the tories don’t have} and attacking Trudeau.
    The problem with that is that Canadians of any political calibre are disgusted with ad hominem attacks. The never learn Cons will be behind the eight ball again.

    • MacKay’s ads need to be reported to the Epilepsy Foundation of Canada. The tautologies are just stupid (“Canada is strong because Canadians make it strong”) and dog-whistle to the “Proud/Strong” Manning hate groups that are likely backing his campaign. But the flashing lights and colors are a health hazard.

  2. We can also expect more fearmongering about “dirty” immigrants and refugees and “yellow menace” dog-whistling targeting the Chinese-Canadian community. I would not be surprised in the least for the coronavirus to become a subject of that farcical “Canada-China relations” committee and weaponized as yet another attack on Trudeau and the Liberals. (A committee that was probably going to serve as grandstanding for the leadership contest until the Harper party came down with a case of “coronation virus.”)

    The tinfoil mouthbreathers that comprise their base think Mary Ng is the health minister and an agent of Beijing sent to poison Canadians (and paid by the Trudeau Foundation, which in turn gets its money from the Clinton Foundation, and from George Soros, who has a lab that created coronavirus from aborted fetus tissue that then gets put into vaccines, which also cause autism, and Trudeau brought back the virus from Soros’ lab in Costa Rica, which masquerades as a doughnut bakery just like Hillary’s satanic pizza parlor, and… you get the idea).

    Alberta provincial MLAs are already retweeting conspiracy theories, and the federal Cons fish from the same poison fever swamp of ideas. Michael Chong might want to stay out of the leadership race for no other reason than he’ll get demolished by the paranoid racists within his own party. Why is he even there?

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