Ontario Premier Doug Ford has opted to keep up his little pissing match with the federal government over the border and what he claims are insufficient measures or testing, in spite of all evidence to the contrary – or of the fact that using rapid antigen tests at the border wouldn’t necessarily give proper results because they don’t work as well when someone is pre-symptomatic, meaning they would be just as likely to give a false sense of security with arrivals that may very well be unwarranted. And to top of all off, Ford is using this exercise in blame-shifting in order to send out fundraising appeals to his part’s donors – but remember, he’s “not playing politics.”

Speaking of Ford “not playing politics,” he tried to clap back at Ottawa’s mayor over concerns that the city wasn’t consulted before the mockdown was announced, and the fact that we are in the twenty-eight-day zone rather than the fourteen-day zone despite having the lowest positivity rate in the province and zero cases in ICU. Ford’s response – that he’s trying to save lives, and the mayor must not care about body bags piling up on his doorstep. Excuse me? Ford sat on federal money that should have gone to increasing testing and tracing capacity, and dollars for making schools safer, and for long-term care facilities – which he promised he’d put an “iron ring” around and then did nothing about it, and who has hesitated for month before doing a necessary lockdown – and even then didn’t do a proper lockdown, opting instead for a half-measure mockdown that does nothing about workplace infections – and he’s lecturing others about body bags? Sorry, no. He’s the one going to be held to account for the thousands of death on his watch, not the mayor of Ottawa.

Uh, the premier who failed to deliver his "iron ring" (or anything) around long-term care should not be accusing others of tolerating body bags. Gross, all of it. https://t.co/rvNygQVTG3

— Robyn Urback (@RobynUrback) December 22, 2020

#onpoli #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/pGdUNXxXi7

— Alheli Picazo (@a_picazo) December 22, 2020

Good reads:

• Dr. Theresa Tam says that no cases of the new coronavirus variant have been identified in Canada yet.
• Canada and the UK have signed a memorandum of understanding that will ensure trade continuity on January 1^st, as neither country has legislated the new trade deal.
• Word has it that the government is looking at second-hand replacements for the military transport and VIP planes. Because that’s worked out well so far.
• The Financial Post looked through CEO dividend payouts for companies that availed themselves of the wage subsidy.
• The federal government did launch a searchable database of which companies applied for and received said wage subsidy, but doesn’t say how much they got.
• The Liberal Party has put out a call for candidates for the next election.
• Bloc MP Simon Marcil hasn’t been seen in Parliament for over a year, and offered no explanation until the story came out – he’s being treated for bipolar disorder.
• The NDP say the clean fuel standard isn’t good enough because it will disproportionately impact lower-income Canadians.
• My column looks at how Erin O’Toole has chosen to debase himself with his residential school comments because he’s too interested in scoring points.

Odds and ends:

Here’s a look at how the National Gallery has been dealing with the pandemic.

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