Ontario – mackaycartoons

Saturday January 16, 2021

January 23, 2021 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday January 16, 2021

Why Doug Ford probably won’t regret expelling this rogue MPP

December 1, 2020

The forces looking to make martyrs out of every single person who faces consequences for foolishness are probably already at work trying to make Roman Baber, the now-independent, formerly Tory MPP for York Centre, into the next saint of free speech. Baber was defenestrated from the Progressive Conservative caucus Friday morning after having released a letter, addressed to the premier, calling for an end to lockdowns — so he’ll undoubtedly be lauded by the conspiracist set. This would be a mistake on their part, but, then, if these people had any ability to navigate the world without making obvious errors, Baber would still be in the PC caucus.

Baber, a lawyer who won the York Centre seat from the Liberals in the 2018 election, had not particularly distinguished himself as an MPP and had a habit of getting attention for the wrong reasons. There was his heckling of former premier Kathleen Wynne, which was so egregious that even the Tory leadership tried to disavow it. Earlier in the pandemic, he advised a constituent that that he could “see [his] parents,” despite the risks to the elderly from COVID-19.

June 15, 2018

The first time Baber appeared on my radar was probably during the ill-fated select committee the Tories convened at Queen’s Park to try to throw a show trial for former Liberal ministers — but especially Wynne. The day Wynne testified at the committee was only ever going to be antagonistic, but Baber’s performance was something else — as I noted at the time, he was so over the top that the chair of the committee (PC MPP Prabmeet Sarkaria) repeatedly told him to knock it off.

June 21, 2019

The select-committee episode wasn’t the PC party’s finest hour in government, but Sarkaria handled the dubious job of chairing that committee well, and now he’s a cabinet minister. Several other MPPs who at least took their jobs seriously that day are either in cabinet or have other substantial positions in the government. Wynne comported herself well, and, years later, even Doug Ford has respectful and kind words to say about the former premier — they are, after all, both members of what’s still a small political club.

Baber chose a different path: he played stupid games and won stupid prizes. And so his career in high-level politics is almost certainly over, at least for a while. Don’t feel too bad for him, though: he’ll get to collect a six-figure paycheque as an MPP until the next election, and, after that, there are always city councils and school boards (where, alas, the profoundly unserious can continue to have long careers further away from the media spotlight). And, if none of that pans out, he’s still a lawyer, though having seen the quality of his arguments, I would suggest that anyone looking for counsel shop around a bit more.

While he probably has friends in caucus who’ll regret his absence at the next meeting, at the higher levels of the Tory leadership, it’s hard to believe he’ll be missed: his primary skill seemed to be grabbing headlines the government came to regret, and his expulsion gives the Tories the opportunity to find someone better able to defend a seat the Liberals could mount a very serious challenge for in 2022. (Continued: John Michael McGrath , TVO)

Wednesday January 13, 2021

January 21, 2021 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday January 13, 2021

With new stay-at-home order, Ontario admits previous COVID-19 lockdown was too weak

The Ontario government is ordering everyone in the province to stay at home except for essential reasons, while also allowing non-essential businesses to keep operating.

2020 Gallery – Ontario

For anyone struggling to reconcile this, Premier Doug Ford has a blunt message.

“There’s no confusion. It’s very simple,” Ford said Wednesday. “Stay. Home. Stay home. If you’re questioning, ‘Should I go out,’ you got the answer: stay home.”

And then, in case Ontario’s hundreds of thousands of francophones failed to comprehend, Ford glanced down at his notes and said: “Restez à la maison.”

Since the second wave of COVID-19 began building in Ontario in September, this is the clearest Ford has been in telling people what they must do to rein in the pandemic.

It makes you wonder: if he’d said this a month or more ago and imposed a stay-at-home order and new state of emergency then, how different would things be now?

November 12, 2020

The wording of the order was published Wednesday evening, more than five days after the news conference in which Ford promised that new restrictions were on the way.

During that news conference last Friday, Ford said the latest modelling for the pandemic was so grim “you’ll fall off your chair.”

Many health experts are questioning why Ford needed that modelling to see the tsunami of COVID-19 cases hitting Ontario, threatening to fill intensive care units beyond capacity.

The government can’t say it wasn’t warned — repeatedly — about what was coming unless tougher restrictions kicked in.

Modelling in late November from the province’s COVID-19 science advisory table projected the province would see an average of 2,000 cases per day sometime in December. Ontario crossed that threshold Dec. 17.

November 5, 2020

Modelling made public on Dec. 10 warned the province would surpass 300 COVID-19 patients in intensive care later in the month and approach 400 in early January. ICU occupancy passed the 300 mark just after Christmas and hit 400 on Jan. 9, according to the official daily reports by Critical Care Services Ontario.

The real kick-in-the-teeth modelling was published on Dec. 19. It presented evidence that “soft lockdowns” were failing to slow the pandemic in many jurisdictions, including Ontario.

The government’s own scientific advisers said by imposing what they called a “hard lockdown” immediately, Ontario could start to bend the pandemic curve within a week and prevent many thousands of new cases.

At the same time, Ontario’s hospitals were calling for stronger lockdowns in all public health units with high rates of transmissions.

October 3, 2020

Instead, even as the province was reporting more than 2,000 new cases of COVID-19 every day, the Ford government delayed imposing any new measures until Boxing Day.

The advance notice of the lockdown softened the sense of urgency, undermined the government’s message that things were getting serious, and implicitly told Ontarians it was perfectly okay to go finish their Christmas shopping. Little wonder that Google data showed a sharp spike in movement by Ontarians in the pre-Christmas week. (CBC)

Thursday January 14, 2021

January 21, 2021 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday January 14, 2021

Based on new lockdown measures, Doug Ford isn’t getting it

The latest version of Ontario’s quasi-sort-of-not-quite lockdown will be remembered more for what it does not do than what it does do.

January 13, 2021

First, the usual disclaimer: Few people would disagree that the Ford government is working feverishly at changing trajectory of this pandemic. Whatever it is doing wrong, it’s not for lack of effort.

But the latest measures really amount to a little of this and a little of that.

Ontario is in a state of emergency, which demonstrates that the government fully appreciates the seriousness of the situation, but does little else. The government has issued a “stay-at-home” order which certainly sounds serious but really amounts to what most of us are already doing: locking down, not having people into our houses and venturing out only for essential reasons like food and exercise.

It gave police the authority to oversee that order, but has not made details clear.

It is telling employers that anyone who can work from home must do so, which is the status quo for the most part. And it is requiring masks in workplaces that do remain open, which again is largely the status quo.But let’s consider what the province is not doing.

It is not ordering non-essential retailers to close their doors, as was the case at the outset of the first wave. Instead they must close for curbside shopping by 8 p.m. Non-essential manufacturing businesses can stay open.

It is not directing the closure of things like libraries, playgrounds and skating rinks as was the case in the first lockdown.

And critically, it is not mandating paid sick leave to vulnerable workers in sectors like manufacturing, transportation and warehousing.

June 9, 2020

We know that many people in these sectors, who are working in low-paying, low security jobs, with few or no benefits, are either working poor or close to it. It’s easy for Ford to say that when they feel sick they should stay home. He is fond of pointing to his government’s policy that prohibits employers from terminating employees who are absent for reasons to do with the pandemic. He also likes to refer to the federal program that can provide paid leave, but he doesn’t mention that public health experts and advocates alike acknowledge that is not adequate.

We know that neighbourhoods where these workers live have been hit disproportionately hard by the pandemic. But in many cases, if they don’t go to work, they don’t get paid. And they cannot afford to not get paid, so they work even when they should be staying at home.

Public health experts including epidemiologists agree this is a major factor behind COVID-19’s continuing spread. And yet the Ford government will not budge.

This is a prime example of an increasingly troubling reality. Ford, who is the face of the government, talks an increasingly urgent and desperate game, but his government’s actions say something else.

The government is continuing to seek a balance between fully cracking down on the pandemic and preserving what little economic redemption is left at this point. It is now clear that balance does not exist.

Here is one thing we know for sure. At the outset of the pandemic, a hard lockdown — which has become known as a circuit-breaker — succeeded in flattening the curve, which has become a terrifying spike at this point in the second wave. While it is understandable that the government is so reluctant to shut down the economy entirely, there is nothing to suggest more half-measures will help. Which means we could be back here in two weeks or a month contemplating a circuit-breaker and why we didn’t do it sooner. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial)

Thursday January 7, 2021

January 14, 2021 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday January 7, 2021

Canada’s vaccine rollout is slower than other countries

Canada is falling behind in its initial rollout of COVID-19 vaccines at a critical time in the pandemic, and experts say our most vulnerable populations are being left at risk.

December 15, 2020

Despite having months to prepare for the deployment of the initial shipment of vaccines to those most threatened by COVID-19 in long-term care facilities, a consistent rollout plan has yet to fully materialize on the ground.

“It just seems to be chaos right now,” said Alyson Kelvin, an assistant professor at Dalhousie University and a virologist at the Canadian Centre for Vaccinology evaluating Canadian vaccines with the VIDO-InterVac lab in Saskatoon.

“We know who is a vulnerable population, so we need a strategy of actually vaccinating them.”

Long-term care residents were largely left out of Canada’s initial rollout of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which requires storage temperatures of –80 to –60 C, in favour of waiting for the more easily transportable Moderna vaccine and vaccinating health-care workers first.

But once thawed, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine can be used for up to five days at basic refrigeration temperatures — meaning it could be taken out of distribution hubs across the country and brought into long-term care facilities directly during that window of time.

December 11, 2020

“We treated the Pfizer vaccine with as much care and respect as possible and that really created all these hub sites,” said Dr. Zain Chagla, an infectious diseases physician at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton and an associate professor at McMaster University. “And I think that did hinder some of the innovation and the ability to do things elsewhere.”

The federal government has deployed almost 500,000 doses of both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines to distribution sites across the country since mid-December, but the actual rollout of vaccinations is up to the individual provinces and territories.

Quebec took the bold step of actually putting its vaccine distribution centres inside long-term care facilities, making it easier to inoculate residents as quickly as possible.

While British Columbia made the decision to move the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine from its distribution sites almost immediately into long-term care homes to inoculate residents and staff upon receiving its first doses.

Yet Ontario decided against bringing the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine directly into long-term care homes initially, despite other provinces doing so, and is only now doing so more than three weeks after receiving its first shipment.

Dr. Vera Etches, Ottawa’s medical officer of health, announced Tuesday the city would be transporting the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine out of its distribution hub at the Ottawa Hospital and directly into long-term care residences, after vaccine-handling criteria from Pfizer were changed.

Despite receiving 53,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine last week, which is much easier to bring into long-term care residences, only 3,000 doses have actually been administered in Ontario as of Tuesday. (CBC)