Roundup: Playing gotcha with the leaders

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Yesterday had no presser from prime minister Justin Trudeau, but did have a ministerial presser featuring Marie-Claude Bibeau and Deb Schulte. Bibeau laid out additional measures and funding for employers of temporary foreign workers in the agri-food sector so that they can properly quarantine those workers when they arrive, and eventually properly explained the measures taken with the arrivals that the Bloc lit their hair on fire about on Saturday (which the government could have done three days ago had they been more competent in their communications). Schulte spoke about the new federal guidelines for long-term care facilities, but because it’s provincial jurisdiction, they’re hoping the provinces implement said guidelines (but no, they don’t really have any levers to force them because of the constitutional division of powers).

Of course, all anyone could talk about today was the fact that Justin Trudeau *gasp* went to see his wife and kids at Harrington Lake (where they have been staying since Sophie Grégoire Trudeau’s recovery) over the weekend, which people claim is in contravention to public health dictates. Erm, except that’s not really true because Harrington Lake is an official residence that is 20 minutes outside of Gatineau. It’s a gods damned suburb where people live year-round. It’s not cottage country where you have small populations and poor public health services that people are attempting to flee to and exposing the locals when they raid the area store on the way up. That was the behaviour that Public Health was warning against, but hey, let’s try to play gotcha.

And then there was Andrew Scheer, who decided to bring his wife and kids with him back to Ottawa on the government jet sent to pick him up for the Saturday sitting. It was supposed to be Elizabeth May, Carla Qualtrough and Scheer, where they could each physically distance on the plane, but with Scheer bringing his family (to spend the rest of the current pandemic period at Stornoway rather than in Regina, where they had been) at the last minute, and May and Qualtrough opted not to be dicks about saying no. (May and Qualtrough were flown back to BC after Saturday, for the record). It may say something about Scheer’s particular sense of entitlement, and that perhaps he should have made arrangements clearer beforehand so perhaps a different plane could have been sent, but the accusations between partisan camps over this is about as mature as we’ve come to expect during a global pandemic.

Good reads:

  • Government figures show that nearly six million Canadians have applied for the CERB (which includes those who applied for EI before CERB was online).
  • Documents show that most of the protective equipment sent to China was nearing its expiry date (not that it satisfies the critics here in Canada).
  • It looks like it may not just be protective equipment and ventilators we’re afraid of running low – we may also be running out of anesthetics needed for ventilators.
  • Inuit leaders are hoping the pandemic won’t delay their plans to fight TB in their communities.
  • OPEC countries have agreed to a production cut, but it is unlikely to be sufficient to help the Canadian market in any real way.
  • Canada has asked Iran to delay downloading the Flight PS752 black boxes because of the travel restrictions related to the pandemic.
  • The Liberals have been holding daily caucus meetings by teleconference (which proves my point that this can help a Skeleton Parliament work).
  • Conservative MP Marc Dalton tweeted (and then deleted) that if COVID-19 deaths are mostly in long-term care homes if it was time to re-open the economy.
  • Would-be Conservative leadership candidate Jim Karahalios has received court authorization to pursue a lawsuit over his disqualification.
  • One of the major transport companies that ships food and supplies to Newfoundland is having a cash crunch and calling for a subsidy to keep good flowing.
  • Jason Kenney says he would authorize the province to use treatments of vaccines approved by other jurisdictions if Health Canada is “too slow.” Erm…
  • Dan Gardner explains the psychology of risk and how that applies to the lack of adequate preparation for a pandemic such as this one.
  • Susan Delacourt ponders the utility of political parties turning their data-mining and gathering tools toward the pandemic.
  • Colby Cosh walks through how two small island nations were able to test their populations so effectively for COVID-19.

Odds and ends:

My latest Loonie Politics video discusses the issue of the CERB, cheques, and magic databases.

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One thought on “Roundup: Playing gotcha with the leaders”

  1. Tabloid royal-watcher junk and cognitive dissonance. Nothing to write about, but they have to keep the ink flowing because they’re bored and have designated themselves “essential workers.” Maybe some intrepid muckraker can find out if doughnuts were delivered to Harrington Lake or PMJT wore Easter egg socks. Scandal of the century right there. But what more could anyone expect? Postmedia is owned by the same company as the National Enquirer, and the rest of Canadian “journalism” seeks to compete with the lowest common denominator. Let’s see if a certain past-his-best-before-date Ottawa bureau chief decides to camp outside the “cottage” with binoculars and hallucinates Idris Elba coming and going, or the press gallery asks the prime minister about his “ankle monitor” and whether Tom Hanks was at Hillary’s underground pizza club. TMZ meets Q-Anon, that’s the sorry state of Canada’s fourth estate. Low-energy dopey fake news, sad.

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