On The Ledge - your Ontario politics podcast

Doug Ford's approval ratings are dipping according to the latest numbers from Maru/Blue, but he's still 8 points better than he was when he won a majority at Queen's Park in 2018. Will the "COVID glow" last long enough to get Ford Nation re-elected next spring? Ontario announces plans to sunset 1500 fax machines. Yup. We're still using fax machines. And Keith Leslie is hearing that online re-sellers are booking provincial campsites!

There may be a glow of optimism on the horizon; there are more biceps being penetrated by needles; there are more vaccine doses "on the way". But we all have to be careful not to be doing a victory lap. As my dad would say, "Run through the tape". He was a sprinter in the day. You don't run to the finish line. You run through the finish line, through the tape. This week, we dive in on racism accusations in the ledge, a budget date, and TIm Hudak's task to breath life back into tourism.

The latest numbers from MaruBlue suggest the Trudeau government is getting a failing grade for it's handling of the COVID vaccine rollout. A majority of Canadians (57%) believe the Trudeau government has done a bad job in delivering vaccines to their province. Similarly, more than half of Ontarians believe the Ford government has done a bad job managing the vaccine rollout. These numbers come on the heels of scathing criticism of Ontario's Chief Medical Officer of Health, David Williams, Health Minister, Christine Elliott, and Minister of Long Term Care, Dr. Merrillee Fullerton after their testimony before the Long Term Care Commission was made public.

As we were recording this episode, details of Dr. David Williams' testimony before the Long Term Care Commission were released to the media. Among other things, the transcripts indicate Ontario's Chief Medical Officer of Health said he saw no evidence that some PSWs were working in several homes or whether that could have contributed to outbreaks in phase one. There's also research suggesting case numbers and fatalities in for-profit homes were higher in phase two than in phase one. Oh ya,,,and Ontario's vaccine rollout lags behind jurisdictions across the country.

In this Back to the Ledge episode of On The Ledge, John Wright, Keith Leslie and Dave Trafford dive in on the latest COVID-19 developments at Queen's Park, the Ford government's Greenbelt expansion plan (that includes the construction of Highway 413??). We also note that Official Opposition Leader Andrea Horwath has the distinction of being the longest serving leader of a major political party in Canada. But a year from the next provincial campaign, it appears she and the NDP are on track to slide back to third party status.

The accepted wisdom suggests long term care residents and healthcare workers should be at the front of the line when we finally get a COVID-19 vaccine approved. The logic is the elderly and frail are the most vulnerable and our healthcare workers punch the clock day in and day out in a petri dish that cultivates the virus. On the surface, this makes some sense. But, I only wonder whether we're looking down the wrong end of the telescope on this. The LTC residents aren't contracting COVID-19 simply because they're elderly and frail. They're contracting because an infected person is entering the home. So, shouldn't we be giving the vaccine to those who are most likely to spread COVID-19 rather than those most likely to get sick and die? Eliminate the spread and we eliminate illnesses, we reduce pressures on hospitals and public health resources. We discuss that and more in this week's edition of On The Ledge.

One month before Christmas 2020 and Ontario's Auditor General dropped a lump of coal in Doug Ford's and David Williams' stockings. Bonnie Lysyk issued a scathing report on the provincial response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Lysyk says the province was not only ill prepared, it failed to learn important lessons from the SARS crisis in 2003. And the AG said, in no uncertain terms, criticized Dr. Williams as the Chief Medical Officer of Health for not leading Ontario's response to COVID-19.

Every day, the province of Ontario is setting new records for COVID cases, hospitalizations or deaths. The pandemic is raging out of control and the lack of an action plan is obvious. Media questions are met by questions from public health authorities and playback responses from politicians promising to do everything, at all cost to tackle the spread of the coronavirus. Yet, neither mental health nor long term care received any new funding in the November 5th budget. Yet, both files are a top priority, according to Premier Ford. #onpoli

There are very few places on the planet where the number of COVID-19 cases isn't surging. Ontario is no exception. More than a month after moving the "hot spot" regions of Toronto, Peel, York and Ottawa into a modified stage 2, the seven day average of daily cases has nearly doubled. As we mark the 8th month since the pandemic was declared, the question is: Who is in control of controlling COVID-19?

In keeping with the coming holiday season, Ontario's government has adopted a festive colour code to determine which municipalities get to open for business and which ones get coal in their stocking. The Ford government has presented yet another plan to tackle the spread of the coronavirus at time when the province is reporting record increases and a 7 day rolling average of 950 new cases per day. It means Ottawa, Peel and York will be able to return to what was Stage 3, allowing for indoor restaurant dining, and gyms and theatres to reopen as of November 7. Toronto will have to wait another week before the restrictions are lifted. In the meantime, the Premier is taking criticism for driving his political agenda under the cover of COVID.