Hit the nail on the head, Jen. I honestly don't know how we would ever change this.
Years ago, I worked for Petro-Canada when it was still a crown corporation. I thought our motto should be "We can't do it." Middling mediocrity appears to be our national characteristic.
Agree that we could not take the early, harsh medicine that Australia and New Zealand took for all the reasons that you articulate. The litmus test would be if something similar happened in 5 years time - a decent gap to rethink this but still in painful living memory of most of us. Would we, as a social collective, choose to "stay in place" without needing to be policed. I think not, because the political blame game will obfuscate the lessons learned from this. Corporate culture has largely embraced the value of failure as an opportunity to do a root cause analysis, really understand the whole system that enabled the failure and then to set about changing process, culture, the reward system. Our "gotcha" style of politics does not allow for any admission of failure, which is critical for learning anything useful from said failure.
Usually a big fan. But really, does every journalist and columnist have to write their own version on the same topic? There needs to be a serious review of this whole thing in due course done by a variety of experts. To be scrutinized by everyone. But the review of all the screw ups and what we should have done right now is just tiresome. Sorry. But have a great Easter!
Personally I'm not sure our response to Covid tells us that Canada's governments are ineffective. France and Germany have effective governments, but they're also struggling.
To generalize a bit, (a) Canadians are risk-averse, and (b) we dislike change. (For example, no matter what the question is, referendums always fail.) This has advantages as well as disadvantages, but in dealing with Covid, it seems to have been a major handicap. If you're reluctant to act without full information, you're always going to be acting too slowly. And I'm surprised by the number of people (including provincial cabinet ministers!) who have been unwilling to suspend their usual routines, like travel and holiday get-togethers, in the middle of an emergency.
I think it's fair to say that we need to lean more towards rapid action. But there's something of a tradeoff here. If you lean more towards acting rapidly based on partial information ("fail fast") rather than full information ("measure twice, cut once"), you're going to make more mistakes; but the trend is towards less tolerance for mistakes, not more. (See: the ever-changing Covid restrictions that Jen criticizes.)
An interesting example: an April 1, 2020 memo from the deputy minister of Public Services and Procurement (PSPC) to the minister, Anita Anand, recommending an aggressive strategy for buying PPE at a time when there was intense global competition. Among other things, the strategy includes sole-sourcing contracts of up to $500 million. In normal times, the limit is $15 milion. https://globalnews.ca/news/7494262/coronavirus-ottawa-procurement-strategy-memo/
Another example: Matthew Yglesias suggests that experts like Fauci were hesitant to raise the alarm early because at that point it was more likely than not that Covid *wouldn't* turn into a crisis, and then they'd be perceived as the boy who cried wolf. https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1360991451262369796?s=20
Of course, all of what we should have done wasn't unknowable a year ago, because it was known, and there were lots of people who were insisting that we should have done all of it. In particular, clamping down on all travel beyond local, closing all but the most essential services, and closing all provincial and international borders to everyone but those involved in the transport of the most critical goods. And they were completely ignored by our incompetent political leaders.
We should be doing all of those things right now, to stop the third wave pretty much in its tracks But the complacency is predominant in the Premiers west of the Maritimes. They aren't willing to do what they know must be done, because they just don't care. Which is just one of the plethora of reasons why all of our political leadership class in Canada is largely unqualified for public office.
brilliant! your best so far. you might have added, we've put a narcissist drama teacher in charge of the whole gong show because his last name sounds familiar.
If I had any faith, I would hope that this year would spell the end of populist pandering. DoFo and the rest of them want to pretend that running a country is Really Easy and only requires "gumption" and "common sense". That nonsense only works when things are easy and comfortable. Canada's issue is that we don't have enough actual adults with humility - not in the electorate or the candidates, not on either side of the left/right thing. My two cents. Great article - I laughed out loud at "Fuck you, that's what it is." Gerson rules.
Everything you write in this article rings true to me. Yet at the end of the day, if you take our ranking in deaths per capita, its not the worst place nor is it anywhere near the top. How much of that is blind luck, how much of that is "well the government muddled through the best they could given the population's appetite or tolerance level for actual harsh / draconian measures, its hard to say. Part of me reverts to an HL Mencken POV in that the people have spoken as to who they want as leaders and policies and now they will get it good and hard...
And another thinks a little more charitably that this is no different than half the population in Ontario yelling at their TV on how they know how to fix the Leafs....
Maybe we need to just fess up and admit that as a nation, we are just not as nice and caring as we like to think of ourselves. Here in Ontario I cant believe the incredulity of all 3 parties talking about the Long Term care mess that was caused by everyone else. Seriously, I have been hearing that since the 80s when I voted for the first time. Maybe we just need to come to terms with the fact that this is the state of affairs we are OK with and what we deserve based on the effort / expense we put in.
My goodness, you summed it up for me. I have been saying it for months to my poor friends and family, but the B, if not C, team is at work in Canada.
The very frustrating part is , we knew weeks before the government, federal or provincial did anything, wear a mask, and close the borders. Have the borders been closed, check the arrivals at any of the major Canadian airports. This seems to be a generation of entitlement, so they ask, why do the rules apply to me.
How on earth do you get a reaction? In this day and age, how the communication piece could be so badly handled...beats me.
At the end of the day, the fact that there seems to be little public will to end this saga, it’s depressing.
Our technocrats in Canada do not deserve the benefit of the doubt. They just aren't good enough as a class of people at the mission they are entrusted with.
Why? Canada is cursed with French bureaucracy and English levels of brilliance instead of the other way around.
Hit the nail on the head, Jen. I honestly don't know how we would ever change this.
Years ago, I worked for Petro-Canada when it was still a crown corporation. I thought our motto should be "We can't do it." Middling mediocrity appears to be our national characteristic.
Agree that we could not take the early, harsh medicine that Australia and New Zealand took for all the reasons that you articulate. The litmus test would be if something similar happened in 5 years time - a decent gap to rethink this but still in painful living memory of most of us. Would we, as a social collective, choose to "stay in place" without needing to be policed. I think not, because the political blame game will obfuscate the lessons learned from this. Corporate culture has largely embraced the value of failure as an opportunity to do a root cause analysis, really understand the whole system that enabled the failure and then to set about changing process, culture, the reward system. Our "gotcha" style of politics does not allow for any admission of failure, which is critical for learning anything useful from said failure.
Usually a big fan. But really, does every journalist and columnist have to write their own version on the same topic? There needs to be a serious review of this whole thing in due course done by a variety of experts. To be scrutinized by everyone. But the review of all the screw ups and what we should have done right now is just tiresome. Sorry. But have a great Easter!
Canada: A nation not built for crisis
Happy Easter!
Personally I'm not sure our response to Covid tells us that Canada's governments are ineffective. France and Germany have effective governments, but they're also struggling.
To generalize a bit, (a) Canadians are risk-averse, and (b) we dislike change. (For example, no matter what the question is, referendums always fail.) This has advantages as well as disadvantages, but in dealing with Covid, it seems to have been a major handicap. If you're reluctant to act without full information, you're always going to be acting too slowly. And I'm surprised by the number of people (including provincial cabinet ministers!) who have been unwilling to suspend their usual routines, like travel and holiday get-togethers, in the middle of an emergency.
I think it's fair to say that we need to lean more towards rapid action. But there's something of a tradeoff here. If you lean more towards acting rapidly based on partial information ("fail fast") rather than full information ("measure twice, cut once"), you're going to make more mistakes; but the trend is towards less tolerance for mistakes, not more. (See: the ever-changing Covid restrictions that Jen criticizes.)
An interesting example: an April 1, 2020 memo from the deputy minister of Public Services and Procurement (PSPC) to the minister, Anita Anand, recommending an aggressive strategy for buying PPE at a time when there was intense global competition. Among other things, the strategy includes sole-sourcing contracts of up to $500 million. In normal times, the limit is $15 milion. https://globalnews.ca/news/7494262/coronavirus-ottawa-procurement-strategy-memo/
Another example: Matthew Yglesias suggests that experts like Fauci were hesitant to raise the alarm early because at that point it was more likely than not that Covid *wouldn't* turn into a crisis, and then they'd be perceived as the boy who cried wolf. https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1360991451262369796?s=20
I swear Jen is spying on my dinner time rants.... Thank God everyone hasn't lost the plot.
This article really summarizes what a lot of us have been thinking. Thanks.
Of course, all of what we should have done wasn't unknowable a year ago, because it was known, and there were lots of people who were insisting that we should have done all of it. In particular, clamping down on all travel beyond local, closing all but the most essential services, and closing all provincial and international borders to everyone but those involved in the transport of the most critical goods. And they were completely ignored by our incompetent political leaders.
We should be doing all of those things right now, to stop the third wave pretty much in its tracks But the complacency is predominant in the Premiers west of the Maritimes. They aren't willing to do what they know must be done, because they just don't care. Which is just one of the plethora of reasons why all of our political leadership class in Canada is largely unqualified for public office.
I live in Germany and as sad as it makes me, my only consolation is that Canada is worse than here!
BTW the LTC home link, utter insanity the inmates need to break out
brilliant! your best so far. you might have added, we've put a narcissist drama teacher in charge of the whole gong show because his last name sounds familiar.
If I had any faith, I would hope that this year would spell the end of populist pandering. DoFo and the rest of them want to pretend that running a country is Really Easy and only requires "gumption" and "common sense". That nonsense only works when things are easy and comfortable. Canada's issue is that we don't have enough actual adults with humility - not in the electorate or the candidates, not on either side of the left/right thing. My two cents. Great article - I laughed out loud at "Fuck you, that's what it is." Gerson rules.
Everything you write in this article rings true to me. Yet at the end of the day, if you take our ranking in deaths per capita, its not the worst place nor is it anywhere near the top. How much of that is blind luck, how much of that is "well the government muddled through the best they could given the population's appetite or tolerance level for actual harsh / draconian measures, its hard to say. Part of me reverts to an HL Mencken POV in that the people have spoken as to who they want as leaders and policies and now they will get it good and hard...
And another thinks a little more charitably that this is no different than half the population in Ontario yelling at their TV on how they know how to fix the Leafs....
Maybe we need to just fess up and admit that as a nation, we are just not as nice and caring as we like to think of ourselves. Here in Ontario I cant believe the incredulity of all 3 parties talking about the Long Term care mess that was caused by everyone else. Seriously, I have been hearing that since the 80s when I voted for the first time. Maybe we just need to come to terms with the fact that this is the state of affairs we are OK with and what we deserve based on the effort / expense we put in.
My goodness, you summed it up for me. I have been saying it for months to my poor friends and family, but the B, if not C, team is at work in Canada.
The very frustrating part is , we knew weeks before the government, federal or provincial did anything, wear a mask, and close the borders. Have the borders been closed, check the arrivals at any of the major Canadian airports. This seems to be a generation of entitlement, so they ask, why do the rules apply to me.
How on earth do you get a reaction? In this day and age, how the communication piece could be so badly handled...beats me.
At the end of the day, the fact that there seems to be little public will to end this saga, it’s depressing.
Our technocrats in Canada do not deserve the benefit of the doubt. They just aren't good enough as a class of people at the mission they are entrusted with.
Why? Canada is cursed with French bureaucracy and English levels of brilliance instead of the other way around.