And would Canadians respond with more seriousness to edicts from the federal    
   government than we have to provincial ones?   
      
   Sounds like we just might.  Instead of bylaw officers, health officers and   
   local police doing the enforcing, it might just be military alongside RCMP.   
      
   Here's an article that is suggesting that's the way to go - even with some   
   provinces who will want to go rogue and defy a federal response.  Then there   
   are the successful examples of New Zealand and Australia and South Korea . . .   
   .   
   ______________________________   
      
   Enough is enough—time for a national response to COVID   
      
   Trudeau must stop scolding premiers from the sidelines. He’s the fire chief,   
   and it's time to put out the fire.   
      
      
   The COVID vaccine is here, we’re all saved. Except, not yet. And not all of   
   us.   
      
   The drug companies need to complete their trials. Then billions of doses need   
   to be manufactured, and then the general public will only get vaccinated after   
   front line workers are taken care of. According to informed commentators, if   
   we are lucky, we    
   will get access to it in “late 2021.”   
      
   If that means September, that is another 10 months to manage through the   
   pandemic. And, at the current rates of infection, that means another 12   
   million Canadians will get the disease, and 13,500 more of us will die.   
      
   But, it will quite likely be even worse than that. Canada’s infection rates   
   are hitting all-time highs. Forty-five Canadians were killed by the   
   coronavirus yesterday. Tomorrow it will be more. And there is no sign that we   
   are “bending the curve.”   
      
   In one important way, pandemics are unlike any other policy challenge that a   
   government might face. The measurement of success is very stark and obvious.   
   Either the number of infected and dead goes up, or it goes down. If you are   
   the leader in charge you    
   can’t say, “Sure, more people are dying now than when I implemented our   
   policies, but it’s a different type of death.”   
      
   In that regard, Canadian leaders have completely failed us. We now have over   
   10,600 dead. Germany has suffered half the number of deaths per capita as we   
   have. We have eight times more dead per capita than Australia; 28 times more   
   than South Korea; 50    
   times more than New Zealand.   
      
   Why are we doing so badly? You don’t need a room full of epidemiologists to   
   puzzle this out. Our Prime Minister mostly side-stepped responsibility and   
   decided 10 different provincial premiers should manage a national pandemic.   
   They in turn passed on    
   responsibility to mayors and local health authorities. The result has been   
   incompetence, chaos and death, with a Prime Minister who has decided it’s   
   all someone else’s problem.   
      
   Imagine an apartment building is on fire, and the fire chief pulls up on his   
   red truck, gets out, and with a megaphone encourages everyone inside to take   
   the fire seriously and quickly put it out. He even offers them money to buy   
   hoses, and all the water    
   they need from the hydrant.   
      
   That has been Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s strategy from the beginning.   
   And now that the entire apartment is ablaze, he is decided more needs to be   
   done. So today our national leader “implored” mayors and premiers to “do   
   the right thing—act    
   now to protect public health.” He helpfully added, “If you think something   
   is missing in the support we’re offering for your citizens, tell   
   us”—looking up to the people in the burning building, pointing to all the   
   hoses on the back of his truck.   
      
   First, Prime Minister, these are your citizens too. And another 13,000 of your   
   citizens are likely to die if you don’t step up and act like a national   
   leader. Public health is under provincial jurisdiction, but in the midst of   
   the biggest national    
   crisis we’ve faced in 80 years, our federal government has a forceful   
   argument that it needs to take control and implement a national response.   
      
   First, immediately and quickly convene the nation’s health ministers (not   
   the premiers), and agree on a unified response. This is a national crisis, not   
   a series of provincial pandemics. The mix-and-match policies being implemented   
   across the country,    
   triggered at different levels, applied in different ways, and communicated (or   
   not) in different terms is failing. One thing Germany, South Korea and New   
   Zealand have in common is that these nations responded with a unified national   
   response. And, if a    
   premier (looking at you Jason Kenney) won’t cooperate, then put up a   
   provincial quarantine and offer to throw them as many fire hoses as they need.   
      
   Second, prioritize testing and tracing. It’s absurd that we are eight months   
   in and still don’t have this worked out. We have millions of newly   
   unemployed Canadians, and we have a desperate need for manpower to help track   
   down infections. Why have we    
   not hired, trained and mobilized some of them into a response corps?   
      
   Third, acknowledge that there is a trade-off between saving lives and saving   
   the economy. Right now provincial governments are bungling the pandemic   
   response in order to keep as many small businesses open as possible.   
   Ironically, this is making the    
   medium-term prospects for these companies even bleaker. But, it doesn’t have   
   to be one or the other. There are smart ways to allow businesses to stay open   
   while also keeping them safe. We can look to Germany, New York, and even to   
   some parts of Canada    
   to find examples and best practices.   
      
   Finally, a national response needs to be actually understood by Canadians.   
   Right now the messaging from premiers, mayors and health officials is never on   
   the same page, if it is being communicated at all. I live in Ottawa. I read   
   the local paper and    
   listen to the local radio station. I am paying attention. And I can honestly   
   tell you I have no idea what our current response is supposed to be.   
      
   If I look online I need to start at the City of Ottawa website, which tells me   
   the current status is orange. It then takes me to a provincial portal, which   
   instructs me to download a 19 page PDF. I spent 10 minutes with it and while I   
   learned that strip    
   clubs are now closed and bingo parlours cannot serve alcohol after 10 pm, I am   
   still not sure if I am supposed to wear a mask when entering a business. (Is   
   that an indoor public space? I assume so. I don’t know.)   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)