Hugh Mackenzie
One thing I am pretty certain of is that Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath, Liberal leader Steven Del Duca, and perhaps even former premier Kathleen Wynne, went to bed this last week thanking God, or maybe just their lucky stars, that they were not currently premier of Ontario. Much better to have a heyday throwing the snowballs than have them smash you in the face!
They also know in their heart of hearts that if they were premier today, the third wave would still be upon us as it is in much of the world, the variants would still be a real problem, there would still be pandemic deniers messing things up, and that they, too, would have made mistakes along the way. Maybe not the same mistakes, but mistakes all the same.
The irony is, when it comes to actually controlling the virus, doing everything that needs to be done to wipe it out, none of these people, had they been premier, would have been primarily to blame for where we are today.
The same can be said for Premier Ford. Don’t blow a gasket yet. I’ll get to that.
There can be no doubt that Doug Ford and his cabinet screwed up big time in the manner in which they imposed this latest pandemic lockdown. There is also no doubt that a whole bunch of people are angry. As well, the mainstream media are having a field day and there is also no doubt that Doug Ford handed them the opportunity.
I must admit confusion about the swing between people lambasting the Ford Government for not taking strict enough measures to control the COVID-19 curve and then landing on him because he is too stringent. As political columnist Brian Lilley said (as summarized by fellow columnist Lorrie Goldstein), “…while Ford flip-flopped on his over-the-top lockdown measures, many of the people who had been demanding them for months freaked out when he imposed them.”
However, it really doesn’t matter anymore. The rollout was terrible, and Doug Ford has become like flypaper. Anything sticks. It doesn’t matter whose fault it is.
Polls show that the Ford Government’s biggest mistakes, as far as the public was concerned, were allowing police to stop people randomly to determine what they were up to (nothing less than carding), prohibiting children to go to playgrounds, and forbidding people to be outside in small groups with anybody but members of their immediate household. These are all legitimate concerns that affected people’s civil rights and their mental health.
Ford was right to reverse some of these decisions. They never should have been imposed in the first place. His reversal and his subsequent apology were something that very few politicians would have had the courage to do. He should not be mocked or criticized for that.
But in the days ahead, there are more things that Doug Ford needs to do.
He needs to ease up on restricting outdoor activities that do not involve crowding and would still include social distancing and masks outside of your bubble, such as golf, tennis, and outdoor walking tracks. This is an acceptable risk and an imperative to people’s mental health.
He needs to be more effective in hitting the hotspots in the province where vaccines (when they are made available by the federal government), are most needed.
He must insist on rigorous enforcement of the Reopening Ontario Act when people flaunt the pandemic rules and become a principal cause of spreading the virus. They need to be heavily fined.
And because he needs better advice, Ford should look hard at strengthening his cabinet, which would include bringing back Rod Phillips, who has paid his penance for his mistake at Christmas and is one of the brighter lights of the Conservative caucus in Ontario.
The hard reality, however, is that with the possible exception of cracking down on pandemic deniers, whatever Doug Ford does, whatever other provincial and territorial premiers do, they cannot primarily change where we are in relation to the current pandemic. Only the federal government can do that.
In a recent article, I mentioned that there was only one thing I was critical of the Trudeau Government for in relation to the pandemic and that was their poor performance, compared to many other countries, in actually getting vaccines here to put in people’s arms. It is the vaccines that will eventually stop this virus and it is the inexcusable slowness by the federal government in providing them that has contributed to its spread.
Now, however, I have a second criticism, perhaps as serious as the first, and that is the Trudeau Government’s failure to sufficiently control our borders. Some steps have been taken, but not enough. One of the most serious pandemic issues today is the coronavirus variants that are quickly surpassing the original virus. It has been no secret for more than a year that variants were likely.
Now we have them in Canada and in Ontario. To the best of my knowledge, there are no known variants of the virus that originated in Canada. So how did they get here? As Premier Doug Ford said recently, they didn’t swim.
Bill Blair, the federal Minister of Public Safety, claims that non-essential travel in Canada has been banned for more than a year. He knows that this is either not true, greatly exaggerated, or not enforced.
Flights to Canada from hotspots around the world— from Brazil, India, China, Pakistan, and other places— have not (until a few days ago for India and Pakistan) been stopped. Pearson International Airport in Peel, which has the highest COVID instance rate in Canada, should have been closed months ago to all but necessary domestic travel and fully vaccinated Canadians returning from abroad. That it was not is the sole responsibility of the federal government.
Land borders, also the domain of the federal government, have also been an issue. Of course, it is impossible to completely close them but there could have been some innovative measures taken to control to a much greater extent the possibility of the coronavirus and its variants from coming into Canada from the United States or Mexico.
For example, long-haul truck drivers, who carry much-needed supplies of every nature, have been exempted from border closings. A much more effective way of controlling the virus spread might have been to exchange these payloads at the border so that inventory coming to Canada from the United States or Mexico was loaded on to Canadian trucks at the border and vice versa, preventing drivers from having to enter the country.
The bottom line here is that there are three main components, now that we have vaccines, to controlling and hopefully eradicating COVID-19 in Canada.
The first is the speedy availability of vaccines. The second is the effective control of the coronavirus and its variants coming into Canada from foreign sources. The third, of course, is controlling the pandemic deniers. Of these three, two are the sole responsibility of the federal government.
I would much prefer that we are not well into the blame game when it comes to the COVID-19 pandemic. But we are. It does surprise me, however, that the premiers, especially Premier Ford, for all their imperfections and mistakes, bear the brunt of public dissatisfaction in relation to the pandemic when primary responsibility for controlling it, getting vaccines here on a timely basis, and controlling infections coming from outside of Canada lies with the federal government.
I am sure some of you will enlighten me!
Hugh Mackenzie has held elected office as a trustee on the Muskoka Board of Education, a Huntsville councillor, a District councillor, and mayor of Huntsville. He has also served as chairman of the District Muskoka and as chief of staff to former premier of Ontario, Frank Miller.
Hugh has served on a number of provincial, federal and local boards, including chair of the Ontario Health Disciplines Board, vice-chair of the Ontario Family Health Network, vice-chair of the Ontario Election Finance Commission, and board member of Roy Thomson Hall, the National Theatre School of Canada, and the Anglican Church of Canada. Locally, he has served as president of the Huntsville Rotary Club, chair of Huntsville District Memorial Hospital, chair of the Huntsville Hospital Foundation, president of Huntsville Festival of the Arts, and board member of Community Living Huntsville.
In business, Hugh Mackenzie has a background in radio and newspaper publishing. He was also a founding partner and CEO of Enterprise Canada, a national public affairs and strategic communications firm established in 1986.
Currently Hugh is president of C3 Digital Media Inc. and enjoys writing commentary for Huntsville Doppler.
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Mr. Logagianes; thank you for your recent comments in response to my own.
What is not clear from your comments is the distinction between provincial mandates and responsibilities and federal. They seem to be lumped together, from my first read.
Where was the stocking up of PPE supplies for LTC in Ontario. Workers fled the LTC centers, many abandoning their residents for fear – without the proper PPE supplies at hand, they feared for their lives and that of their families. Where were the for-profits and the provincial procurements of PPE in this situation? LTC, Ontario was also to prepare for pandemics, with policy, planning, and adequate supplies.
Paying more for vaccines – just one question, how much per capita did Israel pay for their vaccines and roll out? The elephant in the room on this one is the loss of an established, fully operational vaccine production facility (e.g. Connaught). This continues to haunt Canada.
Otherwise, I appreciate your comments on these issues. I certainly agree on health and healthcare being a priority provincially and nationally.
Good afternoon Hugh Holland. In relation to your second comment to me above, you are dead right on the matters yoou raise.. Exchanging long-haul truck loads at the Border so that drivers do not have to come in to the country is not impossible, although you clearly said it was in your original comment. You are also entirely correct about the timing. It could and should have been done six months or a year ago. Probably too late now.
Ross Maund – Regardless who made the suggestion to go after the diversified portfolio of vaccines, it was a good suggestion. At the time, no-one was sure of how well each individual vaccine would work in the real world. Its generall a good thing to not put all your eggs in one basket. I would be interested in hearing what VIABLE alternative you would suggest under the circumstances.
Today I heard the craziest thing yet. I phoned the Simcoe Muskoka Health Unit to find out why Paul and I , who had our 1st vaccine shot on March 1st, had not heard when our 2nd
shot could be booked. I was told that anyone who booked before March 15th did not receive a date for the 2nd shot, but anyone who booked after March 15th did receive a date.
I asked WHY! The answer was that the Ont. Government had changed the rules!!!
They then said, we would PROBABLY hear within the next two weeks.
I had phoned them because Paul received an email from the Algonquin Health Team today to check that Paul had had his first shot.
Beryl Clayson
Hugh Mackenzie
Of course its not impossible. Timing is the issue. The need for the facility would likely be over before it could be created. Then what? Thinking outside the box is good. But criticizing any government becasue they didn’t take an unreasable action is not helpful.
Dear Ms Kear
It’s astounding what people grasp to when you are trying to shed the light on a failure by all levels
of government to address this pandemic. Was it not the federal governments responsibility to maintain PPE stocks? And was it not that same government who took PPE stocks to landfills instead of recirculating needed PPE to hospitals around the country all dealing with budget restraints. How hard is it to circulate stocks before their best before dates? We do it in our pantries all the time. But of course because we paid for it with our own money we try not to let it all go to waste. This is hard earned tax payer money being squandered needlessly. Purchasing millions of dollars worth of supplies as per previous recommendations due to our experience with Sars and H1N1. And then this same government never replaced the discarded stock which was purchased for pandemic emergencies. And then in a feeble attempt to appease China at the beginning of the pandemic we sent needed supplies to them instead of our own front line workers. And then they put Teresa Tam in charge and never allowed her to implement any of the recommendations in the 2006 Pandemic report she co authored. (astoundingly none of the 48 recommendations we’re implemented, surprise surprise) I tend to judge people by what they do and not by what they say.
And now we have paid more for vaccines than any other country in the industrialized world and we still do not have and adequate supply to innoculate the nation.
We need to all stand together as a nation and insist on making the health of our great nation a priority again. Leaving it to elected officials is what got us into this mess in the first place. We need a true leader who finally help us revolutionize health care all across Canadia.
If we had proper diagnostic equipment so people would not be forced to travel outside their communities for testing that would be a good start. If every hospital in Canada had up to date diagnostic equipment would that not provide better health care for all. Put that in the federal budget it’s one of several priorities you conveniently overlooked planning your election strategy for two years.
I am wondering if Hugh has an opinion on Ivermectin?
Mr. Jim L; your comments may show a short memory. Trump did not close down all the borders at first, just the select countries he didn’t like. Please do not forget his denials and downplay of the virus spread, with I think a recent estimate of at least 100, 000 lives which could have been saved had he acted. He is a poor example in governance for any comparison. You imply that closing borders was the only answer, it was and is not.
Premiers were offered declaration of the Canada Emergencies Act (1988) by the PM, they declined the offer.
“Liberals lavish spending” kept some people afloat, ramped up PPE supplies, and ventilator manufacturing- these are the things I can first recall. Most of us have been acutely aware of the gigantic economic hit this will have now and in generations to follow.
Finally, day care- why? – well essential and frontline workers have children and need day care in order to work, for example, nurses and health care workers! Not everyone has a live-in nanny or available grandparent to care for their children. Just some thoughts.
Hugh Holland – your comments are focused on Canada’s loss of domestic manufacturing which I did
not refer to in my comments. Interesting that you judge people as “right” or “wrong”. My comments
are based on factual information albeit having domestic vaccine production capabilities would have been beneficial.
Reality is that the lack of domestic manufacturing capability has been in place going back to the Mulroney leadership days when Ronald Began put enormous pressure on Canada’s generic drug manufacturing industry and the U.S. pressure to move Canada to support patent drug manufacturers.
Fact is that Procurement Canada has been scrambling for vaccine supply post to the Cansino cancellation of Canada’s enormous order of vaccines in August of 2020. I get that even many in the broader population often weigh in on a partisan bases, but no matter what your political preference the “portfolio of vaccines” was likely a creation from Gerald Butts (an advisor to the PM) to pacify Canadians.
75% of cases in Ontario are B.1.1.7 variants that originated in the UK . A good commander in chief would have secured our borders when confronted with and invisible enemy. Some people dislike Trump because of what he says at times. But as we all know now Trump realized the imminent threat facing the world population. And the damage a pandemic could inflict on a nation. He closed the borders immediately and he provided the necessary funding to start project warp speed. And now the results speak for themselves. The only thing the Federal Liberals did right was spend lavish amounts of money without any tangible results. Where is all the money going to come from in the future to pay for all the years of neglect to our health care system and our long term care system. Their failures are what allowed the virus and all the mutant variants to spread throughout the population. And sadly without a reliable vaccine supply chain locking down the economy only prolonged the inevitable . All that time wasted and all those innocent lives lost. This could have been minimized by simply closing our borders. The only viable option without a vaccine supply was ignored by all these people responsible for this fiasco. Government inaction at every level allowed the virus to spread. Forcing us into lockdown while allowing in excess of 70,000 flights per day from around the world. What could possibly go wrong? Destroying our economy with lockdowns and gross over spending accompanied with a budget that drives our debt into the stratosphere. Servicing a massive federal deficit will limit our ability to pay for services we depend on as a nation.
Now miraculously subsidized Daycare is the biggest issue currently facing the nation according to the Feds recent budget two years in the making. How many lives were lost in daycare centres in Canada?
Hugh H., There is nothing that is impossible during a crisis , of which this pandemic is one, or a time when thinking outside the box is more important. My comment about long- haul trucks exchanging loads at the Border was not tongue in cheek and there are people more wise than I, that have recommended it. There are really only five major Border crossings in Ontario; Windsor, Niagara, Sarnia, Cornwall and Sault Ste Marie. Almost all long haul- trucks come in to the Province from one of these sites. Exchanging loads at these Borders, while presenting a number of challenges, and while not perfect, and yes probably expensive, is possible and would prevent thousands of drivers from outside the country, from coming into Ontario and risking the spread of COVID-19 and its varients. The current system is a loophole in effectively controlling our borders,. Is the solution here challenging Yes.? Is it perfect? NO.. Would it potentially make Ontario safer? Yes. Is it impossible to accomplish No.. It would be difficult to achieve but that’s what you do during times of crisis.. There may indeed be roadblocks to not implementing this particular strategy. But people should not be put down for thinking outside of the box. That is where most good solutions are found.
Anna-Lise Kear, excellent analysis of the situation. I love also Ralph Cliffe’s and Nancy Long’s contributions.
Yes, hindsight is almost always 20/20. In short: the Feds screwed up on the protection of the borders and on procurement of the vaccines. Provinces have been pussyfooting around with the shutdowns and enforcement of the same. In many cases, they also mismanaged the vaccination programmes.
Hindsight clearly shows that a complete closure of the borders, smart contracting with vaccines manufacturers, inoculation of front line workers, health workers, and LTC workers before anybody else, complete shut down of all unessential activity in the country and stay at home order for 4 months from April 2020, would have starved the virus out by the end of last year. There would not even be any variants. In the long run, it would have been less expensive and more efficient than the shut & reopen confusion schedule the country has been enduring so far. We can only hope that our leaders, now armed with a wealth of experience, will know how to react to similar pandemics in the future.
Of course, there are Leaders, and there are politicians. Leaders, with the capital L, listen to specialists in certain fields, in these case epidemiologists and health workers, while politicians listen to their masters, in this case, the money and the pollsters.
Hugh, I’m sure your suggestion of exchanging truck payloads at the border was made with tongue in cheek because surely you know that would be entirely impossible. There are 119 Canada-US border crossings. Every day, 8,000 trucks cross at the Ambassador Bridge alone. Most are loaded both ways. Transport companies would never agree to just exchanging trailers because they could never be sure of getting their own expensive equipment back. A 3-shift cross-dock operation to unload and reload would require a massive 15-acre building, 30 acres of truck marshalling space, 333 lift trucks and 999 lift truck drivers. No such facilities exist, and it would take at least 2 years to assemble the land, get permits and infrastructure, build the facility, buy and install the equipment, and train the people. By then the pandemic will be over, not to mention the enormous cost and what to do with it after. Where would you find 45 acres of land within 30 kilometers of either side of the border?
Securing the border is much more difficult than it appears. No matter what you do, people always find creative ways to defeat it. Closing Pearson is not the answer. Already hundreds are flying to Buffalo and taking a taxi across the border. And Pearson handles large amounts of critical freight and people.
Ross Maund’s analysis is also inaccurate. Domestic vaccine capacity was sold years ago. Having no choice, the Feds wisely made contracts with every possible source well before August when China backed out. It is inaccurate and misleading to suggest that they made all the other contracts after China cancelled. Some have even suggested the Feds should get a new Canadian vaccine facility up and running in 4 to 6 months. But it takes at least two years to establish such a facility, get all the expensive and scarce high-tech equipment tendered, made, and installed (it isn’t just sitting on a shelf somewhere), and hire and train the staff in how to run the complex equipment and control the quality. If they make one mistake, the critics will be all over them.
Impossible suggestions and inaccurate statements are not helpful. They detract from general confidence in all governments and encourage people to ignore and defy legitimate guidance and direction. We already have more than enough of that. What we need is people working together.
Mr. Maund: your comments are a good read.
A few other summary facts include:
1. the role of individuals taking responsibility for their adequate response is significant
2. for every action, there is a re-action
3. business Conservatives have not displayed knowledge, understanding, and the implications of the science of this pandemic
4. the professional sector of our province have repeatedly cited too little, too late -as a repeated pattern and process from the provincial government
5. the Mulroney government sold Connaught – we lost our vaccine facility, due to short-sightedness
This leads me to surmise that business Conservatives are comfortable in the market place, where they can sell things – such as Ontario hydro, Connaught, sectors of health care (LTC and Home Care to for-profits), land for development (regardless of ecological costs/rationales), highways, CBC – to be sold, etc.
Oh, and DF’s use of hyperbole ie. “best ever” is not helpful. Best Ever something all right..rhymes with full spit.
Hugh, semantics. Your answer to my “question“(I asked it knowing full well the answer) is what infuriates a lot of the voting public. I hope DF remembers that differential when election time comes.
Mr. Mackenzie; Re: DF working from home and being paid.
To follow this line of argument, because essential workers cannot work from home, they should not be paid for sick days. Great invitation for these folks to unionize and instruct their union to negotiate paid sick days.
This logic ignores that essential workers without paid sick days, come into work with symptoms, in order to be paid!
DF’s “best ever” paid sick days plan, sounds like his “best ever” climate change bill (has anyone seen this one yet?).
Canadians generally are frustrated by the lack of normality in their lives that has been disadvantaging them and their moods over these past 14 months. As is often the case, people have a need to lash out and target their anger whether reasoned or not. Hugh I agree with your comments, they are balanced and stand by the facts. Canada early in the pandemic (March ’20) placed an enormous vaccine order with Cansino – a Chinese biomedical entity. In retrospect putting such faith in a Chinese manufacturer given the current strain between our two countries on many issues can only be characterized as naive and uninformed. Bad decision. By the third week in August ’20 Cansino provided Procurement Canada with cancellation of that order leaving Canada 6 months into the pandemic at the back of a global line with vaccine manufacturers. We were now scrambling for availability of vaccine commitments. Trudeau put a spin on the disaster by calling the disorganised and delayed vaccine ordering a “vaccine portfolio” – which it was not. More like a patch work of getting whatever bits and pieces of vaccine wherever they could find it.
Canada’s delay to herd immunity has a direct link to this mishap along with an inability to reliably inform the provinces on how many/when vaccines will be delivered. Immunisation programs need longer term provincial logistical organization which has been imposed by the fed.
Yes, LTC has been an incredibly sad situation and hopefully we have learned the hard way should another health emergency happen. But observationally, some of the spread and worsening of covid in Canada and Ontario has not been aggravated by those who have not appropriately responded to provincial/health authority guidances. We have all witnessed too much disregard no matter the excuses and rationalisations.
We will triumph over covid ultimately but political opportunism will live on. Partisan rivalry, interest group bickering and payback has been overly present. Unfortunately the biggest target is the premier – sometimes deserved but too often a result of what we used to call “pile on” in the school yard. Ontarians
need to spend less time blaming and more time working individually and collectively on those things that will bring covid 19 to an end.
Thank you for your words Hugh.
Susan: THe answer to your question is that the Premier is likely getting paid while he is self-isolating. However he is not sick. He is simply working full time from home like so many others are in this Province and still getting paid. .
Paid sick days would have had a huge impact in limiting the spread of the virus. Ford’s government is directly responsible for much of the meyham for this negligence alone. It is a political decision that has caused enormous unnecessary suffering and loss.
Let’s forget his bone headed moves when he first took office, like eliminating paid sick leave, and reducing inspections in long term care. Or his cuts to public health. Too hard to calculate how many people died as a result of those decisions.
My main beef with his behaviour is that he made any decisions regarding epidemiology and public health at all. He has zero expertise, and has so little knowledge he doesn’t understand how bad he is at it.
The smart thing for the premier to do (any premier) would be support and implement the plans of the public health system and personnel that were put in place deal with public health issues. The better he did that the better would be the result. Second guessing, over ruling and ignoring trained and working epidemiologists should be immediate grounds for relegation to the back benches where he belongs.
Sorry Hugh. Doug Ford’s only demonstrated skill is the ability to cut costs without a thought as to the consequences.
A better skill would be leadership, ie the ability to get the best results from politicians and public servants who run the services the public needs.
Further to Ms. Kear’s first point: paid essential workers. We all know the issue, and benefits, of keeping sick people home when they can’t afford to stop working when sick. My question: is Doug Ford being paid while he is isolating his two weeks? I rest my case.
Clamp down on interprovincial travel and international travel.
Stop thinking of profit/greed as a guide line for restrictions.
Keep the lockdown/stay at home in effect with enforcement.
Make sure those that received a ticket pay the fine and don’t get of lightly.
Put some backbone into the enforcement. Hurt some feelings and save lives!
Stop thinking about the next election and power. Think live and death and take action.
Do we actually think the politicians are listening?
.
I agree too. Politicians and governments are meant to protect us. Ours has demonstrated weakness and the virus has demonstrated strength. Hindsight is 20/20.
I agree.
There are still many people coming from India and all they have to do is fly into another country then on to Canada no problem. Passenger flights from all other countries will have to stop if they want to control this virus from spreading.
The blame game? All I see is with Trudeau and Ford the ship has been going in circles.
A lot of the public have not been helpful either!
Let’s see if ignorance/profit opens up the May 24th long weekend.
Then we can look forward to the 4th wave starting shortly there after?
It gets a little depressing when one can only hope there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
Mr. Mackenzie; good to keep all these issues front and centre.
After a first read of your column, the DF Conservative government could/should:
1. provide paid sick days to workers in high impact areas (they don’t have to re-invent the wheel, they could draw on Liberal and NDP plans). As noted, this should have been done at the latest in January 2021. Professionals were calling for this last year. DF’s apparent “waking up” to this suggestion is dubious.
2. vaccinate cross-border truckers
3. have and communicate transparently a plan for vaccine roll out, target hot spots
4. take and use direct policy advice from science, medicine, epidemiologists, without the filter through the ideology of profit over health in decision making. Seriously consider a university first year community health and epidemiology course as mandatory training for Conservative MPPs.
5. reign in the COVIDiot Conservative MPPs protesting restrictions. Martyred with imposed fines! They should be required to take a basic course in communicable disease science.
That is with my first read. Finally, of course you will hear from myself and others! Isn’t that the purpose of provocative writing?
Have you noticed that the term “blame game” is the descriptor when the criticism is about the Conservative Provincial government, yet terms such as “accountability” is used as descriptor when it is another political party being questioned/criticized? Just a thought.
One more adage: To those given much in power, wealth, and talent, much is required (St. Luke).