Was thinking about coronavirus and the relatively slow rollout of vaccinations. I do not see the vaccine as the panacea it is presented as in the media, but it is an accomplishment to produce an mRNA vaccine and we may have learned some useful lessons. It will provide many with peace of mind. But perhaps 25-40% of Canucks don’t want it (!), no one knows how long it will be effective, and future mutations might be significant.
Trudeau has let us know that, he too, is frustrated. In retrospect, making vaccines in Canada would have been better, which is a function of licensing and support. The US has had some success with “Operation Warp Speed” but there is not an equivalent in Canada. The military does have experience with cold chains and logistics. Some ice cream companies are helping out, too.
Any comments on the performance of Trudeau or provincial premiers? BC has been most impressive, even managing to run and win an election while having good policy.
Horgan is doing quite well, actually…and not just the Covid 19 response. I work for the provincial government and while his 1st term in a weird Green/NDP coalition minority government was rocky, he managed it surprisingly well, although in an extremely cautious manner (it felt like working for a place-holding government for 4 years). Horgan is actually more of a centrist than people give him credit for and he’s been able to restrain some of the more radical aspects of his caucus. This, plus working hard to dispel old-school myths about NDP financial management has pulled some folks over who were hesitant to vote NDP in 2016 (I admit, I was one of them). The NDP arguably took the mushy middle in 2020.
He still has a massive rural-urban divide to worry about (I live in Northern BC). While he says a lot of the right things about this divide, coming up with implementation strategies to bridge this gap will remain a huge challenge.
Based on some of the stuff I’ve seen through work, they are going to be super bold with their majority. I see some big, big infrastructure spending coming up, especially in the Lower Mainland.
I think Trudeau wisely took the path of diversifying vaccine purchases in lieu of domestic production, hopefully that will be a historical mistake that we correct.
Doug Ford was a freight train headed for derailment in early March. He skillfully applied the brakes and kept the train on the track until he ran the train into an unexpected swamp that was clearly marked on the map. His “leadership” is sorely lacking.
Ford has a lot of issues but has done okay on Covid. Showing a degree of empathy I did not think he possessed. Far from perfect, but some of the problems he needs to fix are decades old. I like him more than I did.
BC resident here. I think Horgan is doing as good of a job as anyone has ever done with that office, which tends to ruin those who hold it. Horgan actually seems to be good at the job so props to him for that. I like some of the things he has done such as changing ICBC out of “fight every claim” mode and getting rid of interest on Provincial student loans.
(Anyone remember Dan Miller? Of course you don’t because he was Premier for about six months and all he did was keep the seat warm after someone else’s political career imploded. My favorite Premier before Horgan due to the zero-drama, zero-impact style)
As for Doug Ford, a conspiracy theory acquaintance of mine that I keep on my Facebook feed for amusement value called him a goddamn communist for how he’s been handling COVID so I guess that means he’s doing something right.
Alberta is a mess. Not sure who is responsible for that but the province reminds me of a casino gambler who hit the jackpot and then kept playing and ended up giving it all back. Now they just need a few more dollars because they just know they’ll hit that jackpot again and this time it’s going to be different!
Many of these problems come from Mike Harris, his spiritual father. Ford only has a reasonable chance for reelection because his opponents are Steven Del Duca and Andrea Horwath.
I went from dislike, to tolerate, to despair with Ford.
Horwath is in the news a lot criticizing the government - sometimes with reason. Del Duca is not often in the news and has not particularly stood out. I follow politics but still don’t know that much about him - his biggest plus in the eyes of many may be that he is not Ford or Wynne - that’s probably not enough.
Alberta is certainly a mess.