From: brewnoser2@gmail.com   
      
   I sure do miss this man's pragmatism and courage. Let him lead the NDP again   
   and the NDP could win the next federal election.   
   __________________________________   
   By Tom Mulcair February 3, 2021 - Macleans   
      
   The hits and misses of Canada's pandemic response   
      
   Tom Mulcair: There have been moments of brilliance in handling this crisis.   
   But too often bad leadership and sniping have got in the way of good common   
   sense.   
      
   Competence, ability, experience, expertise, know-how…   
      
   When all is said and done, when the last arm has received a vaccination, when   
   we’ve finally had a budget and a federal election, there will come a time of   
   reckoning.   
      
   The inevitable commissions of inquiry will wring their hands and offer up   
   lengthy reports years later. Several things that should be dissected will   
   probably be glossed over: our tendency to grow our governments bigger instead   
   of smarter; our chronic    
   failure to enforce; and the need to develop a culture of respectful   
   multi-level governance in Canada.   
      
   COVID-19 has presented Canadians with a complex intergovernmental problem the   
   likes of which we’ve never seen. Health care being primarily the   
   jurisdiction of provinces under our system, they have borne the brunt of   
   direct responsibility for handling    
   the crisis. The feds main roles were to keep us safe at the borders, help   
   families with direct aid and ensure actual delivery of vaccines to Canada.   
   Cities have been pushed to the frontlines in the battle and their deeper   
   knowledge of their communities’   
    needs has been essential in dealing with the health crisis.   
      
   With the tragic results in extended care facilities and seniors residences   
   across the country, it’s clear that there has been a failure to enact and   
   enforce standards of practice that protect these most vulnerable clienteles.   
   That is a systemic    
   provincial failure.   
      
   Justin Trudeau is right to insist that provinces include those areas in our   
   medicare system with agreed upon norms, if the federal government is going to   
   increase its percentage of health-care spending. It’s been a national   
   tragedy that now requires a    
   national response.   
      
   The provinces are already signalling that Ottawa should open its wallet more   
   but won’t accept “interference” in the delivery of health care. National   
   standards are the backbone of our free, universal, public Medicare system. The   
   discussion about    
   extending those to seniors and long term care has to take place. There is no   
   alternative.   
      
   There have been moments of brilliance in handling this unprecedented crisis.   
   Trudeau resolved to act quickly to help families that suddenly found   
   themselves in dire straits. He unblinkingly pushed aside the nervous   
   bureaucrats who’d designed a first    
   version of emergency aid that was full of hoops and obstacles. He wanted the   
   money to flow rapidly so that those millions who’d lost their jobs overnight   
   in the first wave could put food on the table. It worked and Trudeau will   
   always deserve credit    
   for it.   
      
   Therein lies a lesson that shouldn’t be lost when we do the post-mortem of   
   the crisis: our bureaucracies have reflexes and set-in ways of doing things   
   that simply aren’t adaptable. Sometimes they have to be rethought   
   completely. That requires    
   leadership and in his handling of this part of the file, Trudeau was   
   exceptional. (ᵔᴥᵔ)   
      
   At our borders, on the other hand, Canadians have not been protected. Trudeau   
   has finally accepted to do the obvious right thing and shut the border to most   
   non-essential air travel. It took forever as every argument, plausible or not,   
   was put forward to    
   block the idea. Intergovernmental affairs minister Dominic Leblanc went so far   
   as to say that leaving and entering the country is a Charter right. (Mobility   
   is a Charter right, subject to reasonable limits such as keeping people safe   
   during a health    
   crisis!).   
      
   If assistance to families was the brightest moment in the Federal performance,   
   its handling of our borders has been a pratfall. The senseless stubborn   
   refusal to acknowledge that flights from China had to be cancelled without   
   delay produced tragic    
   results. There was so little protection at airports, that Montréal Mayor   
   Valerie Plante took it upon herself to send her own public health officials to   
   meet passengers and tell them to self-isolate because the feds weren’t doing   
   a thing.   
      
   Once again, implausible arguments got in the way of good common sense. It was   
   said that banning flights from China would be racist!   
   China has unbelievably strict rules about foreigners entering its country.   
   It’s not racist, it’s public health.   
      
   One of my sisters is a University professor in China. When the pandemic hit,   
   like many westerners, Deb found her way back home. She called me when she   
   returned to Vancouver shocked at the total lack of controls at the airport.   
   “People aren’t even    
   wearing masks!” I repeated what I’d heard our health “experts” say:   
   The mask protects others not the one wearing it. My sister chuckled, “but   
   Tommy, that doesn’t make any sense, if everyone’s wearing a mask,   
   everyone’s protected.” (It    
   would be several more months before those same experts told everyone that   
   wearing masks was essential.)   
      
   While everyone appeared able to put water in their wine during the first few   
   months of the pandemic in order to serve the higher cause, COVID fatigue is   
   starting to show in the halls of governments at all levels.   
      
   Since the beginning of the new year, the sniping between the orders of   
   government has grown into a firefight. Trudeau has taken potshots at Quebec   
   and Ontario’s ability to administer vaccines, the provinces have shot back   
   that the Fed’s haven’t    
   been able to deliver them.   
      
   The pandemic has changed the normal rules and there is an opportunity to   
   rethink our approach to problem solving in our federation. If it were not for   
   the insistence of premiers like François Legault and Doug Ford, Trudeau would   
   never have shut down    
   vacation flights. Airports and air travel are pure federal jurisdiction but   
   the feds had no choice but to finally act. Those same premiers now have to   
   accept that the dire results in their area of responsibility requires a   
   willingness to discuss change,    
   in the interest of all of Canada’s citizens.   
      
   Some provinces have done better than others. British Columbia’s handling of   
   the pandemic remains the gold standard among the largest provinces. (ᵔᴥᵔ)   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)