Canadian Politics: The Surreality of Life under King Corona

[JGP]

1 hour ago, Aemon Stark said:

I think proposing an "anti-corruption" committee was fairly ridiculous, but it was hardly a true "confidence" measure. It's time we removed the ability of PMs (and premiers) to make arbitrary declarations about what is and what is not a confidence vote, let alone control the timing of elections. But it's the job of Parliament to investigate and hold the government to account. That includes having access to information about the COVID-19 response and innumerable issues that the government is quite literally stonewalling and filibustering to prevent release of. 

Between loaded rhetoric and committee, O'Toole, Poilievre, Singh, Angus... [the list is long] have been beating on Trudeau and his family for nearly a year on WE. I would've taken those four fools, and many others, out to the woodshed long before Trudeau did.

The Liberals are finally nearing their breaking point, I don't blame them.

Are the Liberals perfect? No. Are they great, even good? No. But between Conservative stupidity, and NDP inexperience, I shudder to think what shape the country would be in now if any of those dressed up shits were calling the shots.

I voted NDP both provincially and federally in the last elections, but so what. Fuck it. Let's have an election and flush em. I'm done.

[TrueMetis]

The biggest mistake the Liberals make has been playing nice with the opposition parties, all the way back to election reform when they should have just said "fuck it we won we get to decide what form it will take."

So call their bluffs, and while their trying to find their balls for another bullshit attempt to stir trouble, get things done.

[Aemon Stark]

18 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

On a totally different matter, could you take a look at the picture Kalbear (now Killjoybear, lol) posted of Mitch McConnell’s hands on page 13 of the US Politics thread and tell us what causes something like that? Can that completely be bruising from blood thinners?

That's some major bruising. He's got bandaids on both hands too. He does not look like a well man - I've usually only seen bruising like that on people with conditions requiring anticoagulation and/or antiplatelets. Given that he had a CABG in 2003, he'd be at risk for recurrence disease or further complications. But that much bruising is usually something I see in the frail elderly, admittedly a term that could be applied to a lot of senior US politicians. Say what you want about our Supreme Court or Senate; at least they have mandatory retirement at 75!

Link for reference:

https://twitter.com/MeidasTouch/status/1318954641552334849/photo/1 

[Fragile Bird]

59 minutes ago, Aemon Stark said:

That's some major bruising. He's got bandaids on both hands too. He does not look like a well man - I've usually only seen bruising like that on people with conditions requiring anticoagulation and/or antiplatelets. Given that he had a CABG in 2003, he'd be at risk for recurrence disease or further complications. But that much bruising is usually something I see in the frail elderly, admittedly a term that could be applied to a lot of senior US politicians. Say what you want about our Supreme Court or Senate; at least they have mandatory retirement at 75!

Link for reference:

https://twitter.com/MeidasTouch/status/1318954641552334849/photo/1 

My reaction was that is one sick person. No wonder he hasn’t gone to the WH in months.

eta: CNN showed more pictures today, and it really looks awful.

[Aemon Stark]

If I were to speculate, he needed a stent for an occluded graft or artery, which means he’d be on “dual anti-platelet therapy”. And he could be on something else too. Either way, lots of potential for easy bruising, especially in the “frail elderly”. 

[TrueMetis]

BCNDP is looking like it'll form a majority. As of this post they're at 43 seats, needing 44, and leading in 12 ridings.

[Fragile Bird]

7 hours ago, TrueMetis said:

BCNDP is looking like it'll form a majority. As of this post they're at 43 seats, needing 44, and leading in 12 ridings.

Too bad, I hoped that smug bastard would get punished for calling an early election. He knew that he had to call it while times are good. If he called it now it might be different.

[JGP]

The BC Liberals are... Not Liberals. And some pretty shitty Liberal MLAs lost their seats, so covid-election or no, I'm kind of glad they'll be the government. We're moving to the Island by summer, so I'd call it a positive. 

[Fragile Bird]

2 minutes ago, JEORDHl said:

The BC Liberals are... Not Liberals. And some pretty shitty Liberal MLAs lost their seats, so covid-election or no, I'm kind of glad they'll be the government. We're moving to the Island by summer, so I'd call it a positive. 

Yes, I agree, probably a positive. I don't follow BC politics closely, but I do know the Conservatives took over the Liberal party years ago. I just get very cynical about these snap elections. I'm sure Trudeau and company are very, very tempted, which is why when I heard about O'Toole's blathering on about "lost-confidence" but "not really lost-confidence" I laughed out loud.

[JGP]

1 hour ago, Fragile Bird said:

Yes, I agree, probably a positive. I don't follow BC politics closely, but I do know the Conservatives took over the Liberal party years ago. I just get very cynical about these snap elections. I'm sure Trudeau and company are very, very tempted, which is why when I heard about O'Toole's blathering on about "lost-confidence" but "not really lost-confidence" I laughed out loud.

Or Poilievre's, when called on it by Evan Solomon:

Shit made me howl lol

[TrueMetis]

11 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

Too bad, I hoped that smug bastard would get punished for calling an early election. He knew that he had to call it while times are good. If he called it now it might be different.

Screw that, ain't nothing worth putting the BC Liberals back in power.

[Fragile Bird]

2 minutes ago, TrueMetis said:

Screw that, ain't nothing worth putting the BC Liberals back in power.

I have to admit that’s true. 

[Fragile Bird]

Update

Oct.            17      18      19       20       21       22       23                        

BC            172     153    174     167     203     274     223             

AB            311     231    356     323     406     427     432

SK              36       24      66       44       57       60       33     

MB             85       44      80     110     135     147     163

ON            805    658    704     821     790     841     826

PQ           1279  1094  1038     877    1072  1033     905  

Atl-4            10        7        5         1          6        4         2

North             0        0        0         1                               1                                                                             2                                                                 

Total         2698  2211  2425   2344    2669    2786   2588

Well, the virus is relentless. That 826 in Ontario is deceptive, we hit record highs on the weekend here.

Has Kenney admitted yet that Alberta is a second wave?

 

[JGP]

Wildcat strikes at a few hospitals in YEG, and South Health in YYC.

It's begun.

[Paxter]

13 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

Well, the virus is relentless. That 826 in Ontario is deceptive, we hit record highs on the weekend here.

Has Kenney admitted yet that Alberta is a second wave?

Some silver lining in that even with 500-1,000 cases per day over the last month, ON is still keeping fatalities below 10 per day. In the spring, we were regularly between 20 and 50. So either the spring caseload was around 5,000 or we are simply doing a better job now of protecting the vulnerable. 

I still wish that Ford had never gone to Stage 3 over the summer. Asking for trouble. 

Hospitalizations across the country are starting to stabilize a bit, which is a positive. 

[Paxter]

I don't really get Ford. Rolling back his last round of restrictions despite a still-inadequate test/trace system in the province and no real improvement in transmission. Meanwhile, China is testing millions of people in less than a week. 

If his risk appetite is this high, then why introduce the last round of restrictions in the first place?

[Lord of Oop North]

1 hour ago, Paxter said:

I don't really get Ford. Rolling back his last round of restrictions despite a still-inadequate test/trace system in the province and no real improvement in transmission. Meanwhile, China is testing millions of people in less than a week. 

If his risk appetite is this high, then why introduce the last round of restrictions in the first place?

Because now he is getting flack from his party and business interests, and he is caving to them. The guy is an empty suit.

[Paxter]

17 hours ago, Lord of Oop North said:

Because now he is getting flack from his party and business interests, and he is caving to them. The guy is an empty suit.

True. The annoying thing is that if we had invested in test/trace properly over the summer, we wouldn't be in this position and restaurants etc. probably could be open (with appropriate safeguards).

Anecdotal I know but: my family back in Australia have all been tested several times since the start of the pandemic, while many of my friends here in TO have not been tested once. 

[Lord of Oop North]

7 hours ago, Paxter said:

True. The annoying thing is that if we had invested in test/trace properly over the summer, we wouldn't be in this position and restaurants etc. probably could be open (with appropriate safeguards).

Anecdotal I know but: my family back in Australia have all been tested several times since the start of the pandemic, while many of my friends here in TO have not been tested once. 

yes, I was tested right at the start of all his when I came back from Seattle. Also know two people (both Americans) who died because of all this shit. But most people I know have not been tested or had any real interaction in their circle with infection, which is good in the sense that they are healthy but bad because their support for public health measures is now really low.

The feeling that I get now is that the majority of my colleagues, clients, consultants etc that I am interacting with seem to be against any further restrictions (i.E closures, the majority are all wearing masks). Obviously that is just anecdotal but it is a marked shift from the broad support that I used to hear among these same people.

[Paxter]

1 hour ago, Lord of Oop North said:

yes, I was tested right at the start of all his when I came back from Seattle. Also know two people (both Americans) who died because of all this shit. But most people I know have not been tested or had any real interaction in their circle with infection, which is good in the sense that they are healthy but bad because their support for public health measures is now really low.

The feeling that I get now is that the majority of my colleagues, clients, consultants etc that I am interacting with seem to be against any further restrictions (i.E closures, the majority are all wearing masks). Obviously that is just anecdotal but it is a marked shift from the broad support that I used to hear among these same people.

Yeah I get the same feeling.

I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing if you have a world class test and trace system. But we don’t have anything close to that. I’m pretty sure Toronto is not even bothering tracing contacts now - you’re just expected to contact your friends yourself.

A similar thing is happening in Berlin, in a country that has one of the most lauded test/trace systems. Just too many cases for the system to cope. All avoidable with the right investment...