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Process.

That’s what lawyers always say to judges: The solution to process, Your Honour, is even more process.

Now, Justin Trudeau is no lawyer, as everyone knows. His mauling of the Rule of Law during the SNC-Lavalin scandal — his obstruction of justice therein — made that pretty crystal-clear. But he sure has a lawyer’s enthusiasm for process, doesn’t he?

Actual results? Nope. Not his thing. Trudeau prefers to over-promise and under-deliver. Always. It’s stamped on his DNA.

Proof of this is found in Canada’s blossoming vaccination fiasco. At every turn, on every day, the Liberal leader’s response to the growing vaccination crisis has been to offer up sunny bromides about things that don’t matter. Process stuff.

So, Trudeau wheezes we don’t have a domestic vaccine manufacturing capacity (false). He shrugs, and says we should be comforted by the fact that we’ve purchased — but not actually received — lots of vaccine doses (also false). He says the big problem is the provinces being slow on coronavirus testing (false, false).

The actual problem is really simple: we don’t have vaccines, and the rest of the developed (and undeveloped) world mostly do. Canadians have noticed, too.

An Angus Reid survey released Friday said this: “Fifty-seven per cent of Canadians now say the government has done a poor job of securing COVID-19 doses for the population. This represents a near tripling from the number who said the same thing in early December (23 per cent).”

Among other things, that means we aren’t going to have a Spring election in the country. Good. But it also raises a rather important question: with his approval numbers in a free-fall, why does Justin Trudeau insist on prattling on about process, instead of actual results?

The New York Times, of all newspapers, came up with an answer last week. Self-appointed progressives, the Times wrote, always prefer process. It’s their emotional support animal.

Here’s what the Times wrote. It’s worth quoting.

“Early in the pandemic, countries with populist, right-wing governments were suffering some of the worst outbreaks. Their problems all stemmed partly from leaders who rejected scientific expertise. More progressive and technocratic countries (like Canada) were doing a better job containing the pandemic. Politicians who believed in the ability of bureaucracies to accomplish complex jobs were succeeding at precisely that.”

Then something weird happened, noted the Times.

“But over the last few weeks, as vaccination has become a top priority, the pattern has changed. Progressive leaders in much of the world are now struggling to distribute coronavirus vaccines quickly and efficiently.”

The European Union vaccination effort has “descended into chaos,” said the Times. Democratic states “are below the national average.” And Justin Trudeau’s Canada is “far behind” the United States, the Times stated.

“Far behind” is right: the National Post published an extraordinary front page this week, listing the number of countries ahead of us on vaccines, in headline-sized fonts: 37 of them. THIRTY-SEVEN.

The reason, suggested the previously-Trudeau-fans at the New York Times? Process.

“Why?” queried the Times. “A common problem seems to be a focus on process rather than on getting shots into arms. Some progressive leaders are effectively sacrificing efficiency for what they consider to be equity.”

And therein lies the best explanation of all: Justin Trudeau is just being who he is. He prefers process over results. Talking over doing. Sizzle over steak. Always.

Missing from The New York Times‘ sober assessment of our vaccination failure? A pithy summary of Canada’s situation. So here it is, gratis.

We are so, so screwed.

[Warren Kinsella is a lawyer and a former Chief of Staff to a federal Liberal Minister of Health.]

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Twenty-five years ago today! Can you remember where you were when this happened?

I sure do! I was listening to Team Martin spox Susan Delacourt announce on TV that this was the end of Jean Chretien.

Right.

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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

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I’ve kind of had it.

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It pains me to agree, but I’m not alone. This report is by the New York Times.

“Early in the pandemic, countries with populist, right-wing governments were suffering some of the worst outbreaks. These countries had big differences from one another — the list included Brazil, Britain, Russia and the U.S. — but their problems all stemmed partly from leaders who rejected scientific expertise.

More progressive and technocratic countries — with both center-left and center-right leaders, like Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea — were doing a better job containing the pandemic. The pattern seemed to make sense: Politicians who believed in the ability of bureaucracies to accomplish complex jobs were succeeding at precisely that.

But over the last few weeks, as vaccination has become a top priority, the pattern has changed. Progressive leaders in much of the world are now struggling to distribute coronavirus vaccines quickly and efficiently:

• Europe’s vaccination rollout “has descended into chaos,” as Sylvie Kauffmann of Le Monde, the French newspaper, has written. One of the worst performers is the Netherlands, which has given a shot to less than 2 percent of residents.
• Canada (at less than 3 percent) is far behind the U.S. (about 8.4 percent).
• Within the U.S., many Democratic states — like California, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York and tiny Rhode Island — are below the national average. “The parts of the country that pride themselves on taking Covid seriously and believing in government are not covering themselves in glory,” The Times’s Ezra Klein has written.

At the same time, there are clear success stories in places that few people would describe as progressive.

Alaska and West Virginia and have the two highest vaccination rates among U.S. states, with Oklahoma and the Dakotas also above average. Globally, Israel and the United Arab Emirates have the highest rates. Britain — run by Boris Johnson, a populist Conservative — has vaccinated more than 15 percent of residents.

International patterns are rarely perfect, and this one has plenty of exceptions (like Iowa and Idaho, two red-state laggards, or New Mexico, a blue state that’s above average). So far, though, it’s hard to find many progressive governments that are vaccination role models.

Why? A common problem seems to be a focus on process rather than on getting shots into arms. Some progressive leaders are effectively sacrificing efficiency for what they consider to be equity.

The European Union has taken a ponderous, risk-averse approach that tries to avoid upsetting its member countries, Kauffmann points out. Similarly, many U.S. states have delegated decisions to local health officials and have suffered from “confusion and competition among localities,” William Galston of the Brookings Institution has written. State leaders in Alaska and West Virginia have taken a more top-down approach, Elaine Povich of Stateline has reported.

Some blue states have also created intricate rules about who qualifies for a vaccine and then made a big effort to keep anybody else from getting a shot. These complicated rules have slowed vaccination in both Californiaand New York.

“Across New York State,” my colleague Dana Rubinstein has written, medical providers have had “to throw out precious vaccine doses because of difficulties finding patients who matched precisely with the state’s strict vaccination guidelines — and the steep penalties they would face had they made a mistake.”

The world has one new, and very high-profile, progressive government with a chance to show it can do better: the Biden administration.

The Trump administration fell far short of its own goal for vaccination speed, but by its final days it did get the country close to President Biden’s stated goal of 1 million shots per day. Biden has since suggested his new goal is 1.5 million per day.

To make this happen, the administration is pushing Moderna and Pfizer to accelerate production, as well as helping states open mass-vaccination clinics and expand drugstore programs, according to The Times’s Sheryl Gay Stolberg. If the government gives Johnson & Johnson permission to begin distributing its vaccine this month, as appears likely, that will help, too.

The trade-offs between equity and efficiency are real: Rapid vaccination programs will first reach many relatively privileged people. But the trade-offs may be smaller than that sentence suggests. Covid has exacted a terribly unequal toll partly because people in vulnerable groups have suffered more severe versions of the disease, as a result of underlying health conditions.

The most effective way to save lives is probably to vaccinate people as quickly as possible.”

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