Senate The Canadian Politics Thread

Just hit a lockdown here in Hamilton Ontario and I'm fine with it, think it should have happened earlier, we're basically averaging about 150 cases a day. Even though it could have been better, it certainly isn't as much chaos as it is in the US. I think the monthly border closure extensions to the US need to stop being only 30 days, they need to just say "April! Maybe!" and put a stamp on it if you ask me.

 

Late response here since I've been offline and spending less time on the forums.

Regarding Legault and the CAQ, yes I agree that at the beginning of this pandemic they've done a good job at communicating and reassuring the population. But when we scratch a bit more, it is being revealed that most of the people in the government, when we were having our first case of coronavirus at the end of the February, they didn't really take it seriously and then, when the numbers exploded exponentially when more and more people were coming back from abroad, everyone started to panick and realized that we already had shortages of masks and PPE. And the government is also facing many criticisms regarding the way they've given the order to close small businesses and restaurants, putting entrepreneurs and small owners in bankruptcy.

Then recently, it has been revealed that, despite the crisis we are living in for 10 months, it didn't stop the CAQ to try to collect money for the promotion of its party's political program. Both ministers of work and tourism participated, at the beginning of this month, on a video-meeting with important businessmen in order to discuss about how to revitalize the economy of the province of Quebec after this crisis. So far it seems normal since both ministers represent strategic departments and ministries if we want to put the economy back on its tracks. However, the problem was that, in order to take part in this virtual meeting, each guest had to pay 100$ which will go directly to the safes of the CAQ (100$ is the limit that each individual can give as a private donation to a political party according to the law). So in a sense, the CAQ is still trying monetize the political power during the crisis, while in the past, when the Quebec's Liberal party was in power from 2003 to 2018 (with a hiatus between 2012 and 2014), the CAQ kept criticizing the Liberals for the very same things they were trying to do in this meeting.

 

Explosion in a steel factory today in Hamilton

seems to be an industrial accident but thought it was a strange coincidence with Nashville

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.5855111

 

Happy New Years everyone, hope 2021 isn't as much of a ****show as 2020 was.

As we leave 2020, here's a list of recent COVIDIOT politicians:

-Rod Phillips, Ontario Finance Minister. Just returned from a Caribeans vacation, was vacationing in Switzerland earlier in the y ear. Posted a pre-registered video of him wishing Merry Christmas to his constituents on Twitter to fake being in Canada. After pretending to be shocked about it and committing to have a "tough conversation", Ford admitted having prior knowledge. Phillips just resigned from his post but remains a MPP.

-Former Québec interim Liberal leader and current MNA Pierre Arcand is vacationing in Barbados.

-CAQ MNA Youri Chassin is vacationing in Peru to "see husband".

-Sask Party MLA Joe Hargrave just came back from a California trip where he claimed to have finalized the sale of his home.

-UCP minister of municipal affairs Tracy Allard vacationed in Hawaii in December.

-But what really takes the cake for me is the MP for Calgary-Oklahoma, Michelle Rempel. Whining-crying on Facebook Live that thanks to Rod Phillips resigning and "CBC vultures" she won't get to travel to the States without getting blasted for it, so she's not going. Never mind the regular Canadians who didn't get to say goodbye to terminally ill loved ones and who still "sucked it up" to do what is right in COVID times...

Something to keep in mind if any of you have the misfortune of having one of these politicians representing you.

 

Definitely in my neck of the woods but I was alseep when it happened so I guess I missed the opportunity to have several panic attacks while I figured out what was going on.

 

Add Nikki Ashton to your list @Empress Shatterpoint, she got booted by the NDP from her shadow critic roles for a trip to Greece.

I'm sorry her relative was I'll. Early in 2020 had a relative die in the same ****in' town I live in and I couldn't see anyone, but I guess that's cuz I'm not part of the ruling class.

 

Such a good start of 2021 that 3 other COVIDIOTS have revealed their covidiocy not long after I've posted. I'm genuinely shocked about Ashton though; I've never thought much of her but honestly thought she'd at least follow the high morals she purported to have. How quickly these morals fall out of the window when politicians are themselves personally tested...

"Restrictions only for thee, not for me" is the attitude that too many politicians have brought with them during this pandemic. Out of our countrywide 1046 elected officials, I'd be interested to know what percentage of them went abroad. I expect it would be a high number.

Anyway, apart from the addition of Niki Ashton, our latest COVIDIOTS:

-UCP MLA for Calgary-Peigan, Tanya Fir, visited her sister in the States. Also pre-registered a Christmas message, faking her presence in Calgary.

-UCP MLA for Calgary-Klein, Jeremy Nixon, also went to Hawaii.

Thomas Lukaszuk, former Progressive Conservative Deputy Premier of Alberta, is saying on Twitter that he has sources inside the UCP claiming that about a third of UCP ministers & plenty staffers & MLAs have gone abroad during the holidays and if Kenney went the "firing route" he'd therefore lose a significant chunk of his party...Jesus Christ, what a clown show.

 

It's one thing to say that someone is "personally tested" to respect morals, but I'm not sure if it's convenient to say that, especially when someone is worried for his relatives: I live near downtown Montreal and I even restrict myself to see my parents who are in their 60s and 70s and live in the west Island of Montreal, and my grandfather who is almost 90 years old and living in Victoriaville, 2 hours of road away from Montreal. I don't see them because of all the restrictions and also because I know they are well.

But if something were to happen to them, I would be devastated not to be allowed to see them and help them, and even not to assist to my grand-father's funeral for example. This would be the ultimate cruelty to me if something like this would to happen in the middle of this pandemic, especially when I couldn't see the rest of my family living abroad and my GF, and while I was living in isolation in my small apartment for 10 months.

So, who are you to say that? Or what kind of moral authority do you have to judge someone, who was worried for its relative? I think a bit of empathy and nuance would help here, instead of judging someone so harshly. Because it's different to travel abroad to have some vacation (these people are real covidiots), and to travel to see a close relative who's sick, or near a death situation.

 

Loads of Canadians are worried about their terminally ill relatives. Many weren't allowed to see them as their relatives died in long-term care homes or in hospitals, inside and outside the country. Because of the risks of transmitting the virus to vulnerable residents and of catching it and unknowingly transmitting it upon return. Every movement is an exposure risk. All have been told by politicians to stay put, to make hard sacrifices for the overall population.

Why aren't these politicians doing the same, making the same sacrifice that they're requiring of the population? Are they above the rest of us? It's the hypocrisy that rankles. If they're allowed to see sick relatives, then WE should be allowed to see sick relatives. And they should stop campaigning for us to stay where we are, at least they'd be consistent.

When people set standards for others, I expect them to at minimum set the same standards for themselves. Especially coming from politicians, as they legislate and set the tone for the population. Otherwise it's rightly seen as having double standards. And as we've seen, when some individuals are put in difficult situations - or tested if you will - they suddenly do what they've berated others for doing/wanting to do. So maybe they shouldn't be in any position to decide our politics. Leadership means leading by example.

Now you're putting words in my mouth. I've never judged Ahston for worrying over her relative. We're all worried for at-risks and sick people in our lives, especially during the heightened tensions of this pandemic. I'm empathetic about Ashton's family situation.

But that doesn't detract from the fact that she should have stayed in Manitoba. For that action, my judgement remains harsh. The not-yet infected people of Canada don't deserve to have increased COVID risks that come with returning travellers. Other people's loved ones are dying because Canadians keep unknowingly bringing the virus back to our communities, and into the communities abroad where they go.

Short of a non-essential worker travel ban or a New Zealand style forced hotel quarantine (which we should we if we're serious about the pandemic) all we can do is to tell people not to travel and hope that they don't. We have at least one more year of this to endure, so let's do our part and clamp down on the virus. We've already surpassed Canada's 12 000 deaths worst case scenario model.

 

It wasn't my intention to put words in your mouth. I agree that politicians should have shown the example here, especially in this critical time period. But the way I've interpreted the fact that you called her out to be a "Covidiot" earlier is that it was stripped of any grey zone or nuance over here: nobody is an idiot for caring for his/her family members, even if Ahston shouldn't have travelled in the first place.

One thing I've noticed, as time passes by and we can't see any ending to this crisis very soon, we're becoming more and more societies of mass hysteria, especially if we begin to call out any people "covidiot" without any nuances. And this adds to all the other issues some people are experiencing psychologically: about three weeks ago, I've even exploded and finally had a fight over a phone conversation, wanting to throw my cellphone on the wall. Maybe this pandemic will not affect everyone's physical health, but it is certainly having a toll on people's mental health, this is the other invisible pandemic we are not seeing, while we are being too busy with Covid-19.

 

If Niki Ashton's grandma isn't sick with Covid or for sure dying, than yeah, Niki Ashton is an idiot for travelling on multiple planes through multiple airports during a pandemic to see her. Because that's how you spread Covid.

If her Grandma is sick with Covid, Niki Ashton flew to Greece to get exposed to Covid, pretty dumb. If her grandma is dying than Niki Ashton is getting to spend some time with her before she goes, something politicians of all stripes have asked us to sacrifice during this pandemic. I understand why she'd go, certainly, but I don't like it, or respect it, really.

 

Well, at the end of the day, she's a human like all of us. And humans are idiots and suck in general...

Meanwhile, on other news, it seems likely that the lockdown period in Quebec will go beyond the 11th of January deadline since we still can't manage to bring the number of cases down. Instead, the number of cases keeps increasing each day, it seems that we are getting closer to 3000 new daily cases (on Saturday, it has been reported 2869 new cases, while in Montreal, we had 1300 new cases). Hospitals are on the breaking point in many parts of Quebec. Some experts fear that hospitals will soon have to make sacrifies: if the situation doesn't improve, medical personnel might soon have to sort people who are sick. In other words, we'll have to let people, who are too sick, to die, and try to save those who can still be saved...

 

It's not just the politicians who are being idiots about traveling during the holidays. I have been seeing way, way too many Québec license plates in South Florida the past two weeks, four parked side-by-side in front of the only decent place I know of to get poutine down here, and a couple from Ontario as well.

It is not safe to travel, period, but this is arguably the least safe place to travel to. Florida added over 11,250 new cases yesterday. DeSantis makes Kenney and Ford look like intelligent, empathetic men. Please do not come here. I do not want to be here, but I am staying put, because it's the right thing to do for now. I haven't seen any of my relatives in Montréal or Toronto for over a year, nor have I been able to travel to Ontario to deal with family matters that have been standing for several months. It can wait.

 

I think you're talking about the "snowbirds", people from Canada who decide to spend the winter season in the south, in the U.S., instead of Canada. I saw an article earlier saying that many of those snowbirds, instead of waiting to be vaccinated in Canada, are going to get vaccinated in Florida: https://globalnews.ca/news/7553974/canada-snowbirds-seniors-coronavirus-vaccine-florida/

 

Lol, I know what snowbirds are. I'm Canadian, my Québécois family are snowbirds, and it's a pretty well-known term down here that's inclusive of northerners from New York/Jersey/England as well. It's common to see an influx during this time of the year, my confusion and frustration is in the stubborn insistence to still do it this year in spite of... everything. It's not like it'll be easy to get back home; apart from declaring your 14-day quarantine plan upon arriving, you now have to present a negative test before boarding, and it can still take hours of sitting in line to get one in the states. It's not worth it.

I didn't know that some are down here for the vaccine, but I would hazard a guess that most of those I saw are just here to vacation for a few weeks, not stay for several months and vaccinate. I was seeing lots of families with young kids, and not many seniors. Like the conversation of entitlement re: politicians, this doesn't work if some people like our fellow posters in this thread are doing what they're supposed to do and staying put, and others feel entitled to take a vacation to the sunny COVID capital of the world.

 

The snowbirds should take a page from the original snowbird Anne Murray and stay in Canada. Anne will be wintering in beautiful Nova Scotia this year instead of heading south to Florida

 

And on this completely related note:

 

I didn't know you were also Canadian and had family relatives who are on the Québec side. Your location indicated Miami, Florida. Nice to see someone else who's close to the French Canadian side on this forum.

Good! At first, it made me frown to learn that, earlier this week, those who took the risk to go abroad and have vacations on the South would receive a 1000$ check, while the majority of the people were stuck here during the Holidays and tried to restrict themselves, not even having family gatherings during Christmas like myself.

 

Oh, you're all good. I was raised down here after multiple plans to move fell through due to my family's work, and then my grandmother sold our place in Etobicoke in October 2016 in what may have been one of the most shortsighted real estate decisions since the recession. I'm actually on track to relocate to Toronto or Hamilton next year, which has been a long time coming, with my parents tentatively planning to follow after. Anyway, that's off-topic. Sorry for the confusion! Didn't want to seem like I was just pointing fingers while the states were burning. My friends and family up north are all either older or have young children, so I'm also concerned for their well-being.

Yeah, there really shouldn't be any sympathy for stupidity here, nor should they take resources that are meant to benefit those who are ultimately the ones paying the price for their entitled decision making.

 

The Governor General of Canada, Julie Payette, resigns after a report on an investigation over claims of 'toxic' environment and workplace harrasment at Rideau Hall was released today: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/pol...deau-hall-harassment-will-challenge-governor/

 

Good. Glad she resigned, this kind of conduct cannot and should not be tolerated under any circumstances, but the deeper issue of workplace toxicity needs to be addressed, because I highly doubt it was just limited to this one Governor General.

 

I've just read in La Presse newspaper, Canada's delivery of new vaccine doses could be in danger: the EU might impose new restrictions on the export of vaccine doses coming from Europe, since companies as Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna have their factories and laboratories in Europe. Canada doesn't have any laboratory or factory making vaccine doses locally. But still, PM Justin Trudeau says that he remains "optimistic".

As more time passes, the more I have the impression that the federal government is not able to properly manage this crisis, whether it regards travel restrictions (why did it have to wait after Christmas to impose new instructions for travellers, instead of anticipating?), or the delivery of vaccine, forcing the provincial governments to manage by themselves the vaccination campaign.

One thing remains certain, it's always in times of crisis that we can see who are the good leaders and the bad leaders. And the actual PM of Canada will certainly not have my vote in the next federal election once this pandemic is over.

 

This.

Political leaders can be well-intentioned, but if they don't have the competence to match their intentions they're useless. Trudeau has had to be pushed and pushed and pushed just to introduce the bare minimum of measures. In contrast, New Zealand, Australia, and Taiwan, and within Canada, the territories & the Atlantic provinces have acted early and we see the results. Just for that poor pandemic performance, Trudeau doesn't deserve to be reelected.

Out of curiosity, for which party are you leaning towards voting for? I'm hearing from sources than an election may come as early as in March....

 

Kinda sucks I can’t vote in a Canadian election even though I am a citizen. But that’s just the way it is.

Edit: apparently you can vote even if you have lived outside Canada for some time so long as you lived on the country. Hmm will look into it.

I thought you had to have been currently living in Canada or at least that’s what my parents said a few years ago.

 

I'm fine with voting NDP for Federal but basically it steals away the liberal vote and then we have conservatives running the show and as much as the liberals have bungled it the conservatives managing a pandemic would be downright terrifying to contemplate.