appointment – mackaycartoons

Thursday February 25, 2021

March 4, 2021 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday February 25, 2021

Ontario reveals more details on COVID-19 vaccination plan, but most won’t get a reservation for months

January 28, 2021

An online portal for booking appointments for COVID-19 vaccines in Ontario is set to launch on March 15, the head of the province’s immunization task force said Wednesday, but it will likely be months longer before many people are able to get a reservation.

The announcement from retired general Rick Hillier comes as members of the general public in both Alberta and Quebec will be able to start booking appointments this week.

Hillier said the delay in launching Ontario’s version is because the focus until that point will be on populations that don’t require an appointment, such as patient-facing health-care workers and essential caregivers for long-term care residents.

“I would have liked to have it earlier, quite frankly,” Hillier told reporters, adding that health authorities are working “furiously” to test the system.

When the online portal, along with a telephone booking system, launch in March, Ontarians aged 80 and over will be the next priority. Hillier cautioned that anyone who is not in that age group, or who is not trying to make a reservation for a person in the 80-plus age group, will not be able to book an appointment in the weeks that follow.

Officials expect to begin vaccinating people 80 years and over by the third week of March.

The proposed schedule in the following weeks, Hillier said, will look something like this as long as supplies of vaccine stay steady:

• April 15: vaccinations begin for people 75 years old and over.

• May 1: vaccinations begin for people 70 years old and over.

• June 1: vaccinations begin for people 65 years and over.

• July 1: vaccinations begin for people 60 years and over.

May 31, 2016

Essential workers, meanwhile, should begin getting their shots the first week in May, Hillier said, with the final decision about who qualifies in that category still to come from cabinet. The task force has already submitted its recommendations, he added.

Hillier wouldn’t say when those 60 years old and under who are not essential workers should expect to start getting shots.

“A great question, we don’t need to answer it right now. Early summer is when we might be able to discuss that issue,” Hillier said. (CBC)

Friday January 5, 2007

January 5, 2007 by Graeme MacKay

Friday, January 5, 2007 By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday January 5, 2007

John Baird set to be Tories’ ‘green guy’

Canada’s latest environmental steward is a man with a reputation that is equal parts aggressive policy maker and partisan brawler.

John Baird, 37, was handed the Conservative government’s hottest potato on Thursday when he moved from his post at Treasury Board to the head of Environment Canada. He replaces the demure Rona Ambrose, and the contrast in political styles could not be sharper.

Baird was given the job of shepherding the massive Federal Accountability Act into law as the government’s first priority after winning last January’s election.

What Baird, a lifelong conservative political activist from Ottawa, does not have is any environmental track record to speak of.

The closest Baird came to an environmental portfolio was his stint as Ontario energy minister, when he was responsible for managing the troubled deregulation of the provincial electricity grid.

(Source: Business Edge)

Thursday August 5, 1999

August 5, 1999 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday August 5, 1999

Governor-General Bob Rae?

Former Ontario premier Bob Rae is the latest, and hottest, rumour in the governor general sweepstakes.

The Toronto Star Wednesday reported Rae, 51, may leave his law practice to become Canada’s next governor general, replacing Romeo LeBlanc.

By Graeme MacKay Hamilton, Ontario, Canada Illustrated between 1994-1997

Romeo LeBlanc

LeBlanc has been governor general since 1995. Earlier this year he asked Prime Minister Jean Chretien to replace him by the end of the year so he could end his term early.

Rae, a former federal NDP MP, and Ontario’s former NDP premier, works as a lawyer for Goodman Phillips Vineberg of Toronto.

The newspaper reports that Rae recently deregistered from the lobbyists’ registry, usually a sign that someone is preparing to accept a public appointment. (Source: CBC News)