, 02.12.2021 11:24 AM

My latest: five solutions to Trudeau’s vaccine problem

If you have a problem and you have a solution, you don’t have a problem anymore.

If you have a problem and you don’t have a solution, you have a way of life.

Barbers and cab drivers being the source of all known wisdom, a long-ago Ottawa barber was the source of the truism found above. It came to mind when this writer was considering the deep hole Justin Trudeau has dug for himself.

He — and we — need solutions. Fast.

During the pandemic, all of us have had too many statistics thrown at us every day. It gets a bit overwhelming, at times.

But consider these four statistical facts. They underline how much trouble Canada’s prime minister is in. They underline how much trouble we Canadians are in, as a result.

Fact one: On Sunday, Joe Biden’s America vaccinated 1.5 million citizens. On some previous days, the Yanks vaccinated in excess of two million Americans.

In Canada, on the same day, we vaccinated around 12,000 people. That’s it.

Fact two: Joe Biden hasn’t been president for three weeks. In the first two weeks or so, his administration oversaw the vaccination of 24 million Americans. That’s what the newly minted president has done so far.

In Canada, that’s around the same number our supposedly experienced prime minister hopes to have vaccinated — by this summer.

Months from now.

Fact three: The United States, the United Kingdom and Israel will achieve vaccinations of 75% of their populations this year. Israel, in fact, will likely do that in the next two weeks or so. That’s what the experts call “herd immunity” — and a return to a normal life.

Canada, Bloomberg reported this week, “may need close to a decade” to reach the same levels.

Close to a decade!

Fact four: Less than one-half of one per cent of Canadians have been fully vaccinated. That’s it.

Less than one-half of one per cent.

We have a problem — a big one. We can complain about that, or we can start finding solutions. Here’s five possible solutions to consider.

One, get out the chequebook. That’s what Israel did. They paid Pfizer three times what we are paying — and they have already vaccinated two-thirds of their people. Drug companies, like ’em or hate ’em, are in business. We need to do better business with the companies making those vaccines.

Two: Do multiple vaccine deals. That’s what other countries have done. Ensure the vaccines are safe, of course. But don’t just bet on one horse. Bet on all of them — that way you ensure you’ve got the supply you need when you need it.

Three: Have a plan to deploy when you get that supply. That’s what the Americans are doing this week. Joe Biden knows that the vast majority of Americans live within 8 km of the nearest pharmacy. So, this week, he’s sending trucks containing vaccines to corner drug stores across America — to ensure even more Americans get the life-saving shot.

Four: Stop the games, Justin Trudeau. Stop the politics. Come together. Convene a war cabinet. Trudeau needs to pick up the phone and get Erin O’Toole and Jagmeet Singh onside. Make them part of a true Team Canada effort — because, make no mistake, we are in a war. No more political games, Trudeau: Bring everyone together in common purpose.

Five, and finally: Stop the BS. Stop the exaggeration. Stop the lies. Start telling the truth, and saying — like Trudeau did on Friday — that everything is going according to plan. Things are not going according to plan! We need to know the truth, Trudeau. Start telling us the truth.

Why? Because we have a big problem — a problem that literally means life or death for many, many Canadians.

We need solutions now, Justin Trudeau. And if you won’t provide them?

Then get the hell out of the way.

— Warren Kinsella was Chief of Staff to a federal Liberal Minister of Health

36 Comments

  1. The Star said a June election was practically in the cards. I’ll believe it, when I see it. Even this PMO aren’t THAT stupid.

    • Robert White says:

      Liberals can call an election anytime they want because O’Toole’s Cons not going to solidify a win, and neither will NDP.

      Conservatives really have nothing going for them policy wise or climate wise. Conservative Party Canada is a one hit wonder nothing more. Even if Doug Ford jumped over to federal level he would still not stand a chance against the Liberal machine.

      RW

      • Phil in London says:

        The real question for me is does the NDP have any chance of winning? (An NPP win is defined by me as more seats than liberals) If not it will be like all other campaigns except the orange wave of Jack Layton. Their campaign will come down to two slogans 1) give us enough seats to be the conscience of parliament. 2) help us stop the evil conservatives from forming government.

        In this shit show that is how our campaigns go, the smaller parties create the concept of liberal coalition. It really is the A-team of liberal liberals, a farm team of liberal-NDP and a bit of green liberal noise on one side and on the other is the conservative and Bloc teams. Bigger than the conservative inability to stay united, the Bloc has no desire to cooperate and wishes to form a third team.

        If this happens like it often does, The only way the conservative team wins is if they can broaden their tent. Very hard to do when you don’t reach out to others. The big blue tent is the healthiest rebuttal of liberal reign because it’s close to the middle. Very hard to do when your appeal is to the furthest right. This faction needs to be read the riot act and offered a choice to find the door or stand in the corner.
        The other thing they can do to win is attack liberals only. I would not even acknowledge any of the other parties in my rhetoric and not play up to the coalition fears. I’d have a lot of answers about how I’d do things different. An idiot can identify the liberal weaknesses, if enough people don’t care about or don’t feel those weaknesses your campaign has to be more than Justin Trudeau is an incompetent narcissist. There has to be some coherent policy options that are appealing and workable.

        Another party can win if the liberals appear too rotten to support. I’d rather see a healthy robust liberal centrist party against a revived and vigorous Conservative centrist party with a well fought respectful campaign and a decisive winner who governs as they campaign.

        That doesn’t look likely so you’ll probably see a protest vote.

        In that scenario sadly those who elect an alternative will only be happy he’s gone till they see something they don’t like.

        Because not one of them on team blue is capable of serving coffee to a Harper, Dief, or Mulroney, the sentiment of RW is likely right. It is the conservative party’s election to lose and history suggests they will. The only suspense is how they’ll lose, and how fast they turn on the leader.

        • Ronald O'Dowd says:

          Phil,

          Sorry, but No. Warren got it exactly right: governments, in the end, defeat themselves. Of course, this Prime Minister’s virtual incompetence helps things along nicely but it’s far from being the clincher for O’Toole and the CPC. The clincher is called unnecessary and preventable COVID-19 mortality rates that can be directly linked to Canada’s abysmal vaccine performance. Trudeau will try to blame the Blue-headed provinces but that can’t and won’t wash. Relatives don’t take too kindly when their nearest and dearest drop dead due to this PMO bungling vaccine procurement. That’s what loses Trudeau the next election. Not anything O’Toole and his party do or don’t do.

          As long as O’Toole is benign and non-threatening, he’s almost already got it in the bag.

          • Ronald O'Dowd says:

            By the by, will this PM get his election in before June 30th? You know June 30th: that’s the date that The Fed is forced by law to release publicly the upcoming round of stress tests of the largest money-center banks. You know how that will go what with a 55% stock market drop already factored into the stress tests. It’s insolvent American banks all over again, just like in 2008 and then there she goes, The Bond Market, which will… So nice of Trump to get The Fed to abolish the concept of fractional-reserves, almost one year ago!

          • Phil in London says:

            I’m not so sure, I think the landscape is a lot more fractured federally. Bloc, NDP and Green factions can make for many a hung parliament. The two mainstream parties have regional bases that they can’t seem to expand. And, a lot of people are still buying the bogey man scare tactics. Trudeau is the devil they know. I’m just saying his downfall is not yet automatic

        • Ronald O'Dowd says:

          This thread makes me think back to Joe Clark’s assertion about the devil you know. Put in proper context, the former PM was either dead wrong or exactly on target — depends if he said it about Martin in 2004 or 2006.

          (Full disclosure: I was a very insignificant Clark loyalist when he got beat by Mulroney in the leadership race.)

        • Pedant says:

          Phil,

          “Another party can win if the liberals appear too rotten to support. I’d rather see a healthy robust liberal centrist party against a revived and vigorous Conservative centrist party with a well fought respectful campaign and a decisive winner who governs as they campaign.”

          Sounds like you want two main parties that are exactly the same. In which case, what’s the point?

          I like having two parties with different philosophical outlooks. And with the Liberals currently occupying ideological space typical of marxist-leninist student orgs at 3rd tier universities, it makes it easier for the Conservatives to gobble up rational voters, particularly those of the “classical liberal” bent.

          • Phil in London says:

            To clarify Centre left and centre right is my preference I believe both can offer something if they stay closer to (not exclusively) in the middle. Both with a focus on serving all Canadians – That make any sense? I think it used to be more that way.

      • Pedant says:

        If that were true, Robert, then Conservatives wouldn’t have won the popular vote in 2019 and they wouldn’t currently be within 5 points of the Liberals nationally despite having an unknown as leader and after the Liberals helicoptered $400 billion of “money for nothing” across the land.

  2. Rainclouds says:

    6: Liberals Take the knives out and get rid of this useless preening dilettante before he completely destroys this county economically and medically.

    Liberals, Get Back to the center left, not some Butts /Telford inspired whack job progressive nonsense, cancel culture that NO ONE voted for or wants.

    Personally I had hopes he would become a great leader after the authoritarian Harper. Reality has shown the opposite. Off goes the radio or tv when Groundhog Boy emerges from his Cottage Cave to spew his scripted prattle. “errr ummmm, In 2026 money for transit” WTF?

    Cant stand him, The obvious intellectual deficits are tiresome enough. The pompous sanctimony is very very grating.

  3. faithless elector says:

    Wrong. In the Canadian political system Gerald and Katie overrule 30 million people’s best interests. No one but Justin is ever allowed to lead the Liberal Party from now until the end of time no matter what happens.

  4. Thomas Hahn says:

    A honest and fair article.

  5. Martin says:

    I am watching his presser as I type this. He said we will have enough vaccines DELIVERED by the end of September to vaccinate everyone who wants to be vaccinated by the end of September. He also is saying everyone who wants to be vaccinated by the end of September will be vaccinated. One statement does not follow from the other given how slowly we are administering the few we do have. Waiting for the drilling now by the press.

  6. La, la, la, la, la, [singing with an incredible voice, but he digresses] please, pretty please, kind sir, bring on the election.

  7. Nick M. says:

    Headline from CNN…

    “Canada’s vaccine rollout stalls, confining seniors to their homes for months to come”

    Trudeau’s failure is getting international attention.
    Yikes!

  8. joe long says:

    Unfortunately, things ARE going according to Trudeau’s plan. The plan:

    – frequent public appearances by Trudeau.
    – a litany of deflection events to take the heat off team Trudeau
    – frequent suggestions to the press core and in social media that critics of Trudeau are just right wingers, or even alt-right members whining.

    • Full Retired Rambo says:

      I used some of your points and idea stealing from Its Always Sunny. Let’s call it the J.U.S.T.I.N system.

      J: Just make as many public appearances as possible
      U: Use a litany of deflections to avoid responsibility
      S: Suggest to the press and in social media that critics of Trudeau are right wing nuts
      T: Trips from the cottage to the microphone with plentiful promises
      I: Inspire hope through a new reimagining campaign of hairstyle, wardrobe and buzzwords slogans.
      N: Neglect the current situation while keeping Canadians focused on trivial matters they have no control over.

  9. While the data in your facts are cherry picked, it is true that Canada is currently well behind the US on vaccinations.

    As for your solutions:

    1) Spending more is unlikely to improve things in the short term, since all capacity has already been brought up.

    2) Canada has made multiple vaccine deals. All this is needed for a few more the get approval.

    3) This is primarily a provincial responsibility.

    4) A war cabinet would be very effective at blunting opposition critiques, it probably wouldn’t do much to bring in vaccines faster.

    5) Predicting how the vaccine is going to roll out is almost impossible, anyway.

    Here is an article the provides actual details on how we got into this situation. It would be nice if this was the norm for journalism rather repeating talking points.
    https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/joanne-langley-task-force-covid-coronavirus-vaccine-1.5910452

    • Brine says:

      Ah, a completely unbiased article from the CBC, propaganda organ of the LPC.

      How much is Katie paying these days? Asking for a friend.

    • Peter says:

      Thanks for that, Darwin. She makes some good and important points that we need to hear about vaccine production and developing capacity from scratch, but otherwise I thought she just deflected criticism by dissembling about all the research and consultations her team undertook, how careful they were about everything and how nothing they did can really be criticized. You can sense Wherry’s frustration as he tries repeatedly to pin her down. It’s a very bureaucratic defense. JT should have taken a page from Churchill’s wartime memos to his officials, who would actually tremble if they ended with his trademark “Action This Day” in red.

    • faithless elector says:

      CBC is not a valid news organization anymore. It is a propaganda arm for the Justin cult.

      • The Doctor says:

        I agree that the CBC has its obvious biases, but I’m curious – who or what do you consider to be a valid news organization?

        • faithless elector says:

          G&M
          CTV
          Global
          T. Star
          T. Sun
          NP
          CNN
          NBC
          WAPO
          NYT
          Sportsnet
          TSN

          • Martin says:

            CNN? Hilarious.

          • Peter says:

            Yup, to get the straight goods on vaccines, Trump’s impeachment and everything else, I look to TSN.

            There are very, very few journalists out there who even try to be honest, non-partisan and balanced, and there is certainly no network that can claim to be. Not good for ratings and profits, which is another way of saying most of the public is happier being inflamed than being informed.

        • Ronald O'Dowd says:

          Doc,

          I can reliably tell you that no valid news organizations exist without at least some blemish of bias or subtle political agenda. That’s our reality in North America and its been that way for decades upon decades.

          Regrettably, we’re an incredibly long way from the good old days where Cronkite-cred ruled. How many anchors today go out of their way not to vote in elections to maintain their neutrality and unbiased credibility? Answer: that’s what I thought.

  10. joe long says:

    Justin Trudeau urged the Provinces to do more rapid screening, saying they’ve used on a small fraction of the tests that Trudeau bought for them.

    Alberta’s medical officer of health said that Health Canada has only approved their use for symptomatic individuals.

    https://mobile.twitter.com/CMOH_Alberta/status/1360023821256962060

    Well Justin, what’s your plan for more widespread use? Will your government approve these tests for broader use?

  11. Shawn says:

    Biden vaccinated no one. The state governors(mostly Republican) did and because of the fast tract production of the vaccine under Orange man bad made it possible. Biden did shit.

    • Yet Another Calgarian says:

      This is like Biden’s plan to have 50% of schools open.

      55% are already open so maybe he just means in Democrat run cities like Chicago, New York and San Fancisco.

  12. antipostmedia says:

    Give in to corporate ransoms. Great idea.
    NOT.

  13. Terence says:

    Bad article. Canada does not make its own vaccines. That is the problem. End of story. Israel is basically a military state that has the logistics in place for wartime emergencies and their entire country is a small fraction of the size of our country. We have provincial governments that are failing at different rates and premiers who are pointing fingers like they always do. The area of the country with the highest vaccination rates are the ones where the feds handle distribution such as Yukon. One of the worst performing provinces puts the guy who lost Afghanistan in charge of vaccine distribution. When you have parties in charge that hate public health this is what happens. Tory times are tough times.

    • Ronald O'Dowd says:

      Terence,

      Trudeau times are end times in so many more ways than one. You know, the rule of law, ethics compliance, treating female cabinet ministers just like male cabinet ministers, inadequate national vaccination procurement plans, etc., etc.

      So our on top of things Prime Minister gets to wear it, whether he or any other federal Liberal likes it or not.

  14. Michael says:

    Wow scary as Far as Im concerned Liberials are Evil Socialists still Fake christian stooge Stephen Harper ruined the Tories He took orders from SNC Lavalin like they all do Now Canada will go down the toilet being turned into a dystopian Socialist Nightmare, Even though it says in the national Anthem God keep our land glorious and free except psycho libs dont believe in God They are a threat to Canada’s democracy

  15. James says:

    Spending more is unlikely to improve things in the short term, since all capacity has already been brought up

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