Roundup: The desperate flailing of provincial governments

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We are at a stage of the pandemic when we are seeing a number of provincial governments reach the stage of just flailing. Saskatchewan is a basket case where the premier, who has COVID (and found this out after giving a maskless press conference) refuses to institute lockdown measures so that businesses forced to close because their staff are all sick can’t access federal benefits. In Quebec, that’s François Legault spit-balling major policy with no clue about implementation, and trying to distract from the fact that his polling numbers are plummeting as a result of the latest round of curfews that have been ineffective at curbing spread, as the province’s death rate continues to be the highest in the country (in part because of the horrific first wave continues to skew numbers)—and it’s an election year. It’s also an election year in Ontario, much sooner than in Quebec, and lo, we’ve seen a spate of resignations, many of the MPPs not even bothering to wait for the spring election. Case in point was Doug Ford’s long-term care minister, who resigned abruptly, and plans to resign his seat next month. And because Ford is flailing (on top of being an incompetent murderclown), the portfolio has been handed to Paul Calandra. No, seriously. Paul gods damned Calandra, who was the clownish apologist for Stephen Harper’s government, whose job was to stand up and obfuscate. And he’s now in charge of reforming Ontario’s long-term care system.

Meanwhile, Ford has sent his MPPs to use misleading charts to “prove” that Ontario is doing pretty well, which it’s not. But lying to cover up their incompetence is how his government operates, and they’re only going to get worse, the more desperate they get as the election looms ever closer.

https://twitter.com/HNHughson/status/1482041262639353859

https://twitter.com/HNHughson/status/1482053619700666370

Good reads:

  • Federal public health modelling shows that new cases could peak at 170,000 cases per day, and that even if we are at the peak, it’s a lot of cases on the way down.
  • The government is looking for a researcher to determine the extent of sexual assaults within federal prisons as a way to combat it.
  • The head of the RCMP union says that the government needs to review how best to “serve communities.” Like, say, ending contract policing to kickstart reform?
  • The Canadian Forces have launched proceedings against more than 900 members who have refused to get vaccinated.
  • The Canadian Federation of Nurses says that there are still nurses around the country who haven’t been given proper PPE. Still?
  • Justin Ling gives a lengthy condemnation of how the bulk of premiers failed to act on healthcare capacity, which led us to the state we’re in.
  • Kevin Carmichael walks through the new guidance from the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions on pushing the banks on climate risk.
  • Heather Scoffield calls on the government to provide more clarity as to whether they support expanding nuclear generation, and to do so now.
  • Chantal Hébert suggests that the actual implementation of Legault’s trial balloon on taxing the unvaccinated won’t be feasible, and it likely won’t happen.

Odds and ends:

For Xtra, I look the request by LGBTQ groups for the government to renew their capacity funds before the end of the fiscal year.

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6 thoughts on “Roundup: The desperate flailing of provincial governments”

    • Paul Calandra

      Clearly sending in his strongest minister. I wish I was kidding.

  2. Why is Ontario comparing itself to American States in its graft, it’s another country, not relevant. Use CDN Provinces as a source of comparison.

    • Because Ontario is run by a government of Republican wannabe murderclowns who see the U$A as something to aspire to.

  3. This is deliberate. The long game is to completely collapse the Canadian healthcare system, and open it up to private-sector vultures and a two-tier privileged system, whereby “public” is a coded dogwhistle for “inferior.” We see this already with the countless op-eds opening the door to privatization and then making sure to blame Trudeau or socialism or “Trudeau’s socialism” knowing full well that the provinces are responsible for this. I hope Canadians will not take the poison pill, because this snake oil being marketed as a remedy is NOT “the cure for what ails ya.”

  4. The SK Party just appointed Raynelle Wilson – a long time SK Party operative – to the Saskatchewan Health Authority. Wilson was actively involved with the SK Party’s privatization of the province’s lucrative liquor stores – a move that lost the province more than $10Million per year in revenues. SK Party has dug a deep debt hole for the province’s people and, predictably, claim they MUST cut things like libraries, education budgets, health care, and garage sales of crown land.

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