There has been a concerted effort to try and make the shortage of over-the-counter children’s cold and fever medication the federal government’s problem, even though they have precious few levers at their disposal. The Conservatives are trying to demand that Health Canada lift restrictions on imports that aren’t labelled in English and French, though I’m not sure that would really help if these shortages (which are due to high demand because COVID isn’t over!) are more widespread, and even there, that would require a lot of provincial coordination because pharmacies are also under provincial jurisdiction. But apparently the minister can’t just say that people need to talk to the provinces—that simply won’t do.
I had a bit of a debate over Twitter about this last night, and I will concede that part of this is a problem with the government’s inability to message and get ahead of these kinds of issues, or leverage some righteous anger and direct it to the provinces to do their gods damned jobs for once—but this government doesn’t like to do anger, and it really doesn’t like to blame the provinces for the things that the provinces aren’t doing when they should be, because they want to be “nice,” and “cooperative,” and “not divisive.” But that’s not helping anybody, and so we get more platitudes and feel-good pabulum that doesn’t actually make anyone feel good. I do have real problems with everyone—particularly media—trying to make every problem the federal government’s, but the government need to get better at messaging around this tendency, which they steadfastly refuse to do.
2/2 so they can either continue to get beaten over the head by provinces & CPC being dishonest in ascribing blame to them on issues that aren’t really theirs (like covid restrictions) or they can get better at getting out in front of issues
— Supriya Dwivedi (@supriyadwivedi) October 5, 2022
'twas ever thus with this crowd.
— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) October 5, 2022
Ukraine Dispatch, Day 224:
As Russia’s president signed papers that purport to annex territory in Ukraine, Ukrainian forces continue to press ahead in their counter-offensive in both the east and the south, collapsing Russian lines even further. And those new troops Russia has been conscripting to send to Ukraine? Much of them come from the country’s ethnic minorities, which is a calculated move. Ukraine, meanwhile, is making a bid for the 2030 FIFA World Cup as a way of survivors of the invasion healing from the war.
Our Lyman after the occupier… All basics of life have been destroyed here. They are doing so everywhere in the territories they seize. This can be stopped in 1 way only: liberate Ukraine, life, humanity, law and truth as soon as possible. pic.twitter.com/WInSrmQxsA
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) October 5, 2022
Southern Axis Update:#Ukrainian troops likely consolidated positions and regrouped in northern #Kherson Oblast after making major gains in the last 48 hours. /1https://t.co/KBHCXtN1Qd pic.twitter.com/N6OXHqcFoF
— Institute for the Study of War (@TheStudyofWar) October 6, 2022
We’re working with international partners to detect, correct, and call out the Kremlin’s state-sponsored disinformation about Ukraine.
Read the latest information based on Canadian Forces Intelligence Command analysis. 1/7 pic.twitter.com/K2arSsbSZh
— Canadian Armed Forces (@CanadianForces) October 5, 2022