, 02.23.2021 09:38 AM

My latest: the anger grows

More than 70% — that’s the percentage of Israelis, give or take, who have now received a life-saving Covid-19 vaccine.

Ironically enough, 70% also represents the number of Canadians who are angry — and, in some cases, really angry — at Justin Trudeau’s government. They’re mad because only about 3% of us have been vaccinated.

Ipsos released a poll about it on Friday.

Said the respected pollsters: “Amid news reports that the U.K., U.S. and other non G-7 countries are further along in their vaccination efforts than Canada is, a new Ipsos poll has found that seven in ten (71%) Canadians agree (30% strongly/41% somewhat) that it makes them angry that Canada is falling behind other countries in its vaccination rates.”

It pretty hard to win re-election when more than 70% of voters are angry with you, isn’t it? It’s even harder to win a majority government when seven in ten voters want to punch you in the nose.

So what could Justin Trudeau have done differently? Those other countries Ipsos refers to, above, give us some guidance.

Britain, for example, did a lousy job containing the virus at the start of the pandemic. But then they got their act together, PDQ.

The Brits were the first Western country to start mass-vaccinations back in December. They were able to do so because British drug regulators are lightning-fast — unlike the glacial drug approval process we have had in Canada.

Centralization of decision-making helped, too. In the European Union, drug approvals need to be vetted by representatives of no less than 27 member states. Britain, having exited the E.U., didn’t need to do that.

That’s not all. The British rapidly set up more than a thousand vaccination centres around the country, and had a process in place to deliver shots in arms well before the vaccines had been approved.

Trudeau’s Canada simply hasn’t done that. Instead, the Liberal Prime Minister still takes petty pot-shots at the provincial governments he needs to deliver vaccines to Canadians.

The Americans got many things wrong, too, at the start. Donald Trump famously declared the virus a “hoax” — and, when it became apparent it wasn’t, he suggested people should inject themselves with bleach.

But Trump — however lousy he was a president — actually did better on vaccines than Justin Trudeau. In comparative terms, Trump’s Operation Warp Speed was just that: a pretty speedy effort to acquire and deploy vaccines.

Operation Warp Speed delivered millions of vaccine shots before Trump was obliged to hand over the keys to the White House. It was successful because it was a true public-private partnership — unlike the situation we have in Canada, where Trudeau’s soaring rhetoric has effectively driven out the very pharmaceutical companies capable of developing vaccines.

Operation Warp Speed was created way back in April of last year — right around the time that Trudeau was still covering up the fact our CanSino vaccine deal with China had fallen apart. By moving at, ahem, warp speed, the Americans — Donald Trump, no less! — did far better than we did.

As of this writing, the Americans have vaccinated nearly 60 million of their people. Some days, they vaccinate more than two million of their citizens. Two million a day! Up here, we haven’t been able to vaccinate that many people in more than two months of trying.

We could go on, but you get the point. Countries that were doing a crummy job at the start of the pandemic — countries like the U.K. and the U.S. — learned from their mistakes.

Justin Trudeau, meanwhile, hasn’t.

He’s preoccupied himself with trying to distract Canadians with gun control measures (which everyone agrees won’t work), pious sermons about organized hate (which has exploded on his watch), and huffy denunciations of Julie Payette (who, um, he personally appointed).

Justin Trudeau doesn’t want us to think about the vaccine fiasco. But his change-the-channel strategy hasn’t worked, and it won’t. We’re really, really angry with him.

More than 70% of Canadians say so.

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

40 Comments

  1. joe long says:

    I would argue that his change the channel strategy is working. True that Trudeau is diverting, deflecting, and out right lying. But if there was an election today who are people going to vote for? Who would realistically form the next government?

    Trudeau is preparing the heavy artillery for the next election:

    a) once vaccines are delivered, he’ll blame the provinces for poor implementation. Why do you think Trudeau’s doesn’t provide detailed, timely delivery schedules?

    b) the old Liberal standby: abortion, abortion, abortion. Trudeau knows the media will play this one prominently.

    c) massive government spending announcements.

    Election in June?

  2. Now that this Prime Minister, to no one’s surprise, and Katie and Company have reverted to the mean, watch for a flash push of the panic button: Broadhurst will suddenly leave Freeland in the lurch and go full-time in the PMO. Yes, they are THAT desperate. It’s coming mighty soon. Should, at the very least, put a long absent big smile on Butts’ face! Now, he won’t have to die on his sword in the next campaign.

    • dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack says:

      Deck chairs…. Titanic. Freeland needs to be permanently booted from caucus the moment Justin quits.

    • Douglas W says:

      The American-style attack ad against Erin O’Toole is highly effective: creating doubts about his healthcare position, and pushing people back towards the Libs.

      Conservatives need to effectively respond now, or else they’re sunk.

      • Douglas,

        This ad, which I’ve not seen but look forward to the link being posted on this website, takes on the CPC healthcare plan????

        Liberals talking about healthcare, I mean, vaccines??? You know vaccines, the thing these same Liberals have bungled better than anything else before it. Ever. The thing that has finally cuttingly personally defined Justin Trudeau and that sticks to him like the water bacterium Caulobacter crescentus?? Now, that’s a riot. Liberals must be insane. They’re way beyond delusional if they think this type of attack ad will get them re-elected.

        • dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack says:

          LPC National Executive should take action to prevent Liberal Party funds from being used in the campaign. No Liberal money should be spent on re-electing Justin. Not. One. Dime.

          • Ronald O'Dowd says:

            DSAUPH,

            During my ten-year Liberal interregnum, I was more than pleased to donate the maximum possible to get Michael into office as PM. I was a Laurier for several years. Many others, including some fellow ex-PCs were equally enthusiastic. I’d almost kill to find out how many Laurier Club members have quite deliberately chosen to turn off the spigot. I’ll bet it’s probably most of them by now.

  3. Richard Davies says:

    The real hoax imposed on us is Justin Trudeau

  4. dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack says:

    Biden’s first and perhaps most shameful public disgrace as President was lowering himself to appearing with the likes of Justin Trudeau at a press conference.

  5. Nick M. says:

    This excerpt from Canadian Press got me angry.

    “A number of Canada’s explicit priorities, however — including access to COVID-19 vaccines, freeing Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig from China or securing an exemption to Buy American — were conspicuously absent.”

    You know it wouldn’t hurt to ask to get a couple million doses from the US vaccine stockpile. Could have saved many Canadian lives with one sentence.

  6. Gilbert says:

    Justin Trudeau’s incompetence is showing. It’s clear now that he’s a man of empty words. He can try to distract us with announcements about bilingualism, gun control, climate change and coronavirus relief, but the fact is more Canadians view him as a weak leader who is dishonest, corrupt and unqualified. He’s in trouble, and he knows it.

  7. joe long says:

    In 2015 Justin proudly participated in the Armenian Genocide Centennial Committee’s march for genocide prevention.

    https://mobile.twitter.com/JustinTrudeau/status/595234632225857537

    This week he abstained.

    Perhaps he believes the CCP treatment of Uyghurs is just a cultural norm?

  8. William R Morrison says:

    But, as someone commented in a press column, this is the way the Canadian government has worked for a long time: empty rhetoric, committee after committee, political considerations (how much can we spend in Quebec?) and on and on. This is Canada. If we’d run World War II like this, we’d all be speaking German in the eastern half of the country, and Japanese in the western. This wasn’t invented by Trudeau….

    • Phil in London says:

      Yes it has been the case for a long time rhetoric has been king. Our leader Twit-do had a great teacher. Daddy mocked Stanfield all the way to a majority government with “zap your frozen” about how stupid he felt the PC policy for containing inflation would be. Low and behold those same wage and price controls were in fact implemented shortly after the results were in. It has been the same often hypocritical attacks that have kept this party going for a very long time (the others are not immune to the criticism) Chrétien was certain to “scrap” the GST before he was elected and embraced it after. He frequently campaigned from the left and governed from the right.
      By comparison Harper campaigned from the right and did a pretty good job of governing as though he was a centrist and let down his base in many ways by not pushing more change.
      Gun control, abortion and values are nice talking points and never lead to results unless you were a liberal running in Toronto for re-election then the results were great.
      The question is will we as a nation continue to be too stupid to see past failures when promises sound really good?
      We have done it before. The only thing different this time, a Liberal win under Justie will be evidence of our collective national brainscrub. We should all look forward to eating grass to survive and referring to him as dear leader for many years if we are that stupid. I am just not sure – we could be.
      I for one will very likely be first to the gulag as I have too long a record of criticism for this child prince. (I think I the company will be worth it)

  9. Gordo says:

    To me the slow rate of vaccinations is tragedy. Trudeau’s comments have been comedy. Remember the G20 conference in late 2020? Trudeau was bragging about he was going to make sure the poorer countries got their share of vaccinations and would not be left behind. Remember in December when there were suggestions Canada’s vaccine procurement contracts had us near the back of the line? Trudeau promised we are front of the line.

    Although maybe we are just experiencing what it means to be front of the line differently.

  10. Brine says:

    This is a great column and should be required reading:

    https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/how-ottawas-mistakes-ensured-youll-likely-be-vaccinated-six-months-later-than-everyone-else

    Don’t expect to see anything like this on CBC or in The Star, of course!

  11. Chris Scott says:

    It’s as unscientific a piece of data that anybody could offer but I will say, as a resident of Toronto-Centre, that the mood on the ground towards Trudeau and the Liberals is about as sour as I’ve ever seen it here. In my imprisonment this past weekend I reached out to 8 Liberal friends in the riding. Not one was willing to commit to voting Liberal, at least as of now. Again, very unscientific, and likely meaningless but at least for me it said a lot. At least I found out that I’m not the only person feeling this way. It was therapeutic to say the least.

    carpe diem my conservative, green and NDP friends! Now is your time to shine.

    Cheers,
    Chris Scott

    • Peter says:

      Colour me skeptical. The Cons are uninspiring, are not speaking from the same playbook and are tainted by some of the madness down south, and also are too worried about their beloved “base”, of whom the less we hear about the better. O’Toole has yet to say anything that moves me, except that Trudeau is awful, which I already knew. The Dippers will dance happily in their woke/activist righteousness bubble without caring what the general public (who they think are pretty dumb) thinks, and are on track to come in with the same 17-19% they have scored pretty much all my life. And the Greens? Pass the doobie, man, let’s listen to Ste Greta’s latest speech. At this time, I think JT is looking good, partly because the others aren’t able to mount a good challenge, but also because a depressingly large number of voters (hey, Millennials, I’m looking at you!) like his soothing rhetoric whatever he actually does or doesn’t do.

      • Peter says:

        To which, I must add, the Cons are doing absolutely nothing that I can see to attract the support of non-white Canadians. These are turbulent times for racial and ethnic issues. One doesn’t have to sign on to everything BLM or the latest Diversity bureaucrat to be interviewed by the media says to know there are real issues in play involving the lives and fidelity of real Canadians that must be addressed. This is no longer our grandfathers’ Canada, and anyone who doesn’t see that might just as well be calling for a reinstatement of feudalism.

        The Dippers are much better on this, but their problem is that they think it is the only thing that matters and that most of the country should be in a state of perpetual atonement .

  12. joe long says:

    Today Catherine McKenna tweeted, “This is appalling. It is unacceptable that we continue to hear about attacks targeting Muslim women. We will stand against Islamophobia, discrimination, and hatred of all kinds.”

    …but yesterday she and the rest of Trudeau’s cabinet were silent.

    • Yet Another Calgarian says:

      After Trudeau & Co’s abstention on the Uyghur genocide resolution they have zero rights to use the word Islamaphobia ever again.

      Contemptible even by their normal standards.

  13. Gilbert says:

    Can anyone explain why PM Trudeau and his cabinet abstained from the vote regarding genocide in China? Was it to avoid upsetting the Chinese? Was it to ensure Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig are released soon? Was it because the PM doesn’t believe China is committing genocide? Erin O’Toole looks like the real prime minister now.

    • dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack says:

      Do you think the cabmins even know why? I don’t. The reason is because some faceless slime ball in the PMO who will never have the courage to put their name on a ballot decided for them.

    • Yet Another Calgarian says:

      File it under not upsetting the Chinese. They probably didn’t want to get the Huawei research deal that they just signed with China cancelled.

      https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-ottawa-funds-cutting-edge-huawei-research-at-canadian-universities

    • Derek Pearce says:

      It undoubtedly has to do with ensuring the Michaels are freed in a timely manner once the Meng Wanzhou case finally comes to a close. Which sucks because it shows China that hostage-taking is effective. But I feel for their families. Once the Michaels are back I expect cabinet to be more direct in its criticism of China.

      • Joseph says:

        Judging from the past behaviour of the communist government of China what would bring someone to believe they will act in good faith if Meng was released?
        Their actions to date suggest that as far as they are concerned the horse left the corral the day she was detained.
        They don’t bargain, that’s just what communists do, no matter if a PM admires them or not.

      • Gloriousus et Liber says:

        The Liberals in general and the corporate community in particular have been Sinophiles for a very long time. I remember when Harper first became PM and he wanted to put some distance between us and Beijing and institute a more realistic policy towards a country that has posed a national security threat for a long time. The howls of indignation from the Liberals and groups like the Canada China business council were deafening! I had never seen Minister Samsonite Eyes, John McCallum so animated before!

        In the end, Harper caved to pressure from the corporate community and kowtowed to Beijing, like all our other PM’s since PET.

      • Ronald O'Dowd says:

        Derek,

        We can’t release Meng under the extradition treaty because the American request is entirely lawful and according to form. And even if we could, the Chinese would still hold on to their two bargaining chips. That’s called leverage and it’s the only leverage they have to keep this Prime Minister in line so that he does what suits their political, geopolitical and economic purposes. They’ve got him by the balls and they’re continually squeezing ’em.

  14. Joseph says:

    You must be mistaken.
    Just the other day Biden claimed that there was no vaccine prior to him taking office.
    Care to comment?

  15. Derek Pearce says:

    A lot will depend on how the upcoming Conservative policy conference goes. If it’s hijacked by socons and they get some crazy resolutions passed, voters will hold their noses and overlook Justin’s vaccine failures. Conservatives beware.

    • Ronald O'Dowd says:

      Derek,

      I can tell you that the fix is in so that doesn’t happen. And it won’t but a good part of the membership are likely to decamp to the PPC. That’s the inevitable downside but O’Toole has no choice if he wants the CPC to appear as somewhat moderate and right of centre going into the next campaign. Erin has to take this gamble otherwise it’s a default win for Trudeau and the Liberals.

      • dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack says:

        I can’t figure out why anyone cares about so called “Policy Conferences” anymore. They are peculiar events which feed an eccentric belief that party members actually have an impact.

        • Ronald O'Dowd says:

          DSAUPH,

          That’s your problem. You’re all about political reality. But leaders of any party prefer to be disingenuous and phoney showboaters when it comes to the membership. So, they let some members drone on and then go out of their way, on most issues, to ignore the resolutions that they so preciously incubated and voted on. Again, your trouble is that you’re all about being real, man. LOL.

        • So the illusory party democracy should be eliminated to focus more on democratic centralism?

        • Derek Pearce says:

          dsauph– if at this conference items pass like “no laws against conversion therapy allowed” or “all abortion services to be (somehow) denied funding in federal health transfers”, even the National Post would be reporting on it, and it will turn voters away from the CPC. Already yesterday Campaign Life Coalition was bragging about how it’s blocked Onatrio govt cabinet ministers from being delegates from their own ridings and have have snapped up the majority of delegate slots to the convention. That internal party stuff doesn’t matter to the public but the official party position on issues sure does.

          • Ronald O'Dowd says:

            Derek,

            I’m one of the most fervent against so-called conversion therapy. In 2021, people as adults shouldn’t be living a double life with a wife/husband and kids on one side and the boyfriend/girlfriend on the other. I can’t tell you how many men I know who have wifey on one side and the boyfriend somewhere else.

            In life, job one is to be your true authentic self, not what your family or anyone else expect you to be. Identifying your sexual identity can come very early or exceptionally late. In a couple of cases I know, Mr. has a longstanding drinking and drug problem because he just can’t give up the boyfriend. And why? Because that’s his true sexual identity forcing him finally to be honest, at least with himself, but definitely not with others.

      • Ronald O'Dowd says:

        If anyone thinks I’m full of shit, remember this: Montreal, 2004 — Reid vs. MacKay and guess which one organizers and members ended up siding with? And after the convention, Harper ever so quietly did nothing about how the convention went. That said it all then. Didn’t it?

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