Farewell, Atlantic Bubble – we hardly knew you. With growing spread in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, both PEI and Newfoundland and Labrador decided to pull out of the Bubble, and impose quarantines for any arrivals on their respective islands, effectively bursting it (despite some saying that this is only “temporary.” There can be little doubt that much like every other province, even those within the Bubble started to get cocky, and some of the spread can be traced back to restaurants, which remain open in the region. It nevertheless demands that even with border measures, you can’t let your guard down when it comes to taking measures to stop the spread of the virus.
Further west, Alberta premier Jason Kenney remains MIA as the province posts higher raw numbers than Ontario, but a Cabinet meeting was being held yesterday afternoon that is supposed to result in new measures being announced this morning – but we’ll see if a real lockdown gets proposed, because given the math, they are now far beyond what a two-week “circuit-breaker” lockdown could achieve. Saskatchewan premier Scott Moe is now self-isolating after a close contact, while Manitoba premier Brian Pallister insists he didn’t wait too long to take increased measures, and yet also insists that his province doesn’t have a backlog in contact tracing when facts show otherwise. So there’s that.
In absolute numbers (i.e. *not* adjusted for population), Alberta now has the most active COVID-19 cases of all provinces and territories: pic.twitter.com/JaPzUL5S7y
— Robson Fletcher (@CBCFletch) November 23, 2020
“Both Gibney and Saxinger believe it’s now too late for a two-week circuit-breaker to have any meaningful effect.”
This is what happens when you ignore advice, guys. You get uncontrolled spread and the need for a complete lockdown. https://t.co/CHf7zlCnET— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) November 23, 2020
Meanwhile, we’re getting more MPs who can’t seem to grasp jurisdictional issues. The Conservatives are blaming the federal government for not doing things that were clearly the responsibility of premiers to do, while the NDP are demanding that Trudeau reach down into provincial jurisdiction and do something when premiers don’t, which isn’t how it works. It’s all becoming very tiresome, and exasperating, because there are things that they can legitimately criticize this government for, rather than flailing about and trying to blame him for things that he has no control over. But the current political reality is that truth and jurisdiction don’t matter in the face of the narrative they’re trying to spin.
Everybody complaining that the first lockdown was supposed to let us get ready for the fall neglects to mention that it was the *premiers* who pissed away the time they needed to make preparations because they wanted to pad their bottom lines with federal cash. #PnPCBC
— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) November 24, 2020
When is the federal government going to reach down into provincial jurisdiction?
Seriously, Justin Trudeau is not the premiers’ father. There is a constitutional DIVISION of powers, not a delegation. Albertans need to put pressure on Kenney, not Trudeau. https://t.co/dTZoekFeli— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) November 24, 2020
We already have a national strategy that respects the different realities in every province. It's called federalism. https://t.co/kLRaO4HgWd
— Chris Selley (@cselley) November 23, 2020