Roundup: Sitting on money, waiting for ICU to collapse

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In case it had escaped you that the incompetent murderclowns who run Ontario are incompetent, we learned yesterday that Doug Ford and his merry band of murderclowns sat on the entire $2.7 billion additional health transfer from the federal government that was supposed to go toward the COVID response, and, well, didn’t. This was during the second and third waves, which didn’t need to happen, and they were explicitly warned that reopening would mean disaster, and they did it anyway. They had money to help them improve testing, tracing, and doing things like improving ventilation in schools, and they didn’t. They sat on it to pad their bottom line.

Is there a lesson here? Yes – don’t give provinces more money without strings attached. You would think that this should be obvious, given that before Jim Flaherty unilaterally changed the transfer escalator from six percent to a minimum of three or GDP growth, we know that provinces were not spending that health transfer only on health – the growth in health spending was far below the growth in the health transfer. For them to demand yet more money with no strings attached – particularly for outcomes – while we have examples like Ford here, who are using the money to reduce their deficit in spite of all the lives that could have been saved it was actually deployed meaningfully, there should be no argument. If they want the money, they need to have metrics and outcomes to ensure that it’s being spent on what it’s supposed to be.

Meanwhile in Alberta, the COVID situation has been allowed to deteriorate so badly that ICUs could be overrun in ten days, forcing doctors to triage who gets ventilators and who will be allowed to die. With this in mind, Jason Kenney finally relented and started re-imposing public health restrictions, but in a byzantine and complex manner, and has said they will allow vaccine certificates or a “restriction exemption program,” because they can’t actually call it a vaccine passport or certificate. Kenney also both apologised for the situation and then did not apologise for lifting the restrictions when he did, so that clarifies things. I’m curious to see if this ricochets through the federal campaign – some Conservatives seem to think it will. In either case, Jason Kenney, his health minister and chief medical officer of health all should be resigning for letting this foreseeable tragedy happen on their watch, but we all know that they won’t, because what does accountability matter any longer?

On the campaign trail:

  • Justin Trudeau was in Halifax to reiterate his promise for healthcare spending.
  • Erin O’Toole was in Jonquiere, to reiterate his so-called “contract with Quebec.”
  • Later in the evening, O’Toole was joined by Brian Mulroney at a rally, because apparently Mulroney’s ethical breaches are no longer radioactive for the party.
  • Jagmeet Singh was in southern Ontario to repeat his promise to nationalise long-term care homes.
  • Here is the recap of Singh’s Face-to-Face interview on CBC.
  • The inflation data came in, and it reached 4.1%, but is largely due to supply chain issues (most especially semiconductor chips affecting auto production).
  • Here’s a look at the criminal justice issues which have barely merited mention in this election cycle.
  • Xtra assembles the data on LGBTQ+ candidates in this election, and what their priority issues are.
  • The CBC collates what the parties are promising Alberta specifically.
  • Dominic LeBlanc says a majority is still possible with a few seat flips.
  • Conservative incumbent Rosemarie Falk twice “mistakenly” insisted that her party doesn’t support vaccine passports for international travel.
  • Two NDP candidates have now withdrawn from the race after antisemitic comments they made were exposed.
  • Matt Gurney talks to a pollster about survey data on PPC supporters, and there are some eye-opening findings about how far outside of the mainstream they are.
  • Susan Delacourt contemplates the role that anger and disappointment is playing out in the campaigns.

Good reads:

  • The military won’t be charging General Jonathan Vance for inappropriate relationships, citing that it’s “legally impossible” given his high rank. Yikes!
  • New MPs will be required to take new training courses designed to prevent sexual harassment in their offices.
  • Emilie Nicolas puts into context why the framing of the Bill 21 question in the English debate touched off the firestorm it did in Quebec.
  • Jon Kay weighs the differences between vaccine conspiracy theories and 9/11 Truthers, and why that’s creating so much social division.
  • Jason Markusoff details Jason Kenney’s “Mission Accomplished” moment and refusal to take measures as the fourth wave accelerates through Alberta.
  • Sabreena Delhon argues that parties need to take more responsibility for the toxic online behaviours of their proxies if we have any hope of salvaging democracy.
  • Colby Cosh offers his ode to Norm Macdonald.

Odds and ends:

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