Ontario is going into another lock down with a stay in place order

OP, What is your line of work?

How the fuck is Ford still in power of any sort? He has been a piece of shit for years. He was a piece of shit as a city councillor in Toronto, fortunately failed to become mayor. How the hell did that fat sack of garbage become Premier?

He should be beaten to death with a bicycle.

R2 Because the choice was between a lesbian woman, a single mother, and a fat old rich white guy (and high school drop out) and naturally voters went for the old rich white guy.

[quote]naturally voters went for the old rich white guy

And oddly enough, many of the people who voted for him were not old rich white guys. Just guys who hated the lesbian.

R3 The NDP were within a spits throw of winning the election. They started to surge in the polls and were on the cusp of overtaking the Conservative's lead, but they ran out of money and added to that the Liberals turned their focus away from Ford and went after the NDP because if the NDP took the lead, the Liberals would have one zero seats. Sadly Ford's popularity has actually gone up since the start of the pandemic.

[quote] How the hell did that fat sack of garbage become Premier?

Isn't he the same guy with well-documented drug and rage problems?

Why are they doing this?

because they can't vaccinate to get ahead of the new variants fast enough

because many people are ignoring best practices - congregating with others indoors

because ICU beds are trending to non-availability

because people are dying as result of other people's selfish behavior

because none of the above will make sense to a shocking number of people until they themselves are turned away from ICU's or have a ventilator rammed down their throats

because common sense

because a lot of people are straight up assholes

Coved.

R8 Also basically everything the Ford government has done since last summer has been half-assed and not what actually needs to be done because he refuses to spend the money the federal government gave him for things like mass testing, increased contact tracing etc.

If Canada had done like other countries and closed the airports we'd be better off.

"How the hell did that fat sack of garbage become Premier? "

Because the right wing media (CTV) conspired to make him the candidate by manufacturing a story about his closest rival for the PC Party leadership.

Also if he had spent less time trying appease his voting base and more time actually formulating a vaccination plan that targeted people who actually need them regardless of age group -we wouldn't be in this situation. It's another case of Gen X gets fucked while the boomers win.

I thought all this was going away after the US presidential election?

It appears to be the same restrictions we had in Janaury, the only difference this time is big box stores are only allowed to sell groceries for in person shopping everything else is curbside pickup..

While watching Green Acres this morning, there was an alert telling people to stay home unless it's for food or medical reasons. Or exercise.

How embarrassing, even Mexico with tons of Americans travelers hasn’t shutdown like this.

r17, I suppose it could be the value placed on a human life

R6, I believe you are thinking of his brother, Rob Ford, who was Mayor of Toronto and a forerunner of Trump Populism. This is his equally evil but somewhat less openly stupid brother, Doug.

Of course, I'm American, so maybe Doug has rage and drug issues too.

Who cares as long as we can fuck.

I haven't watched CITY-TV News in a while (a couple of weeks maybe) and saw Ford last night sitting like stooped on his chair, looking absolutely defeated. He looked flushed, and this odd kind of guilty look on his face. Maybe fear, not guilt. Anyway, good on him. Absolute failure not to get this under control. Had a year to do this.

No one is taking this too seriously.

What’s that fat fuck Lisa MacLeod up to these days?

Ontario is on course for 12K new daily cases by the end of the month and upwards of 20K by the end of May. People in Grey-Bruce are being asked not to leave their house for 48 hours because the community spread is so significant they cannot keep up with testing. ICUs in Ontario are effectively going to have to start rationing beds to those with the highest probable survival chances. The Associate Chief Medical Officer of Ontario today described the provinces situation a "dire." Meanwhile, Ford government is doing nothing.

I always found Canadians about smug about how superior their health care system is to the US. I guess those days are over.

I blame Michigan!

I blame Canada.

Canada is fucked! Serves it right for being so smug and condescending.

I blame Trump!

R25 It's about the health care system. Ontario has a far right (Trump-Lite) government in power that doesn't believe in science.

Why are things so fucking bad in Ontario? Is it the variations, or mutations? Young people picking it from each other and infecting older people? People ignoring safety protocols?

R31 D - all of the above. The Ontario Government (run by Doug Ford the brother of the infamous Rob Ford the late mayor of Toronto) has led a half-assed response, ignoring the science and warnings of medical professionals and make nonsensical decisions e.g. forcing ma & pa stores to close for in person shopping but keeping big box stores like Wal-Mart fully opened), gyms and theatres must close but churches can accept 50% capacity, malls are open but don't leave your house, you can't meet with people you don't live with, but you can go to malls, church, stores, and other indoor spaces with total strangers....stupid shit like that.

Back in January we had a major shut down that appeared to be working the numbers were falling but then the UK variant began to spread. Ford was warned in February not to re-open the economy fully until the daily count was around 500 for at least 7 days, he began reopening when the numbers were roughly 1200 to 1500 a day. Medical experts warned if he did so the UK variant would become the dominate strain in Ontario by the end of March (it did), that we would out scale the US infection rate by mid-April (we have), we are now on course for a health care system collapse within a week and over 12K new daily cases by end of April.

The UK variant which is far more contagious is the dominate strain in Ontario now. People are also pandemic fatigued due to the constant half-assed measures (stuff opens that a few weeks later has to close again). Young people are the highest group infected now but that could be because they work in areas (e.g. retail, factories, construction) where the major source of transmission is now. Ford refuses to close those sectors or provide sick days so people who get sick can stay home. The major sources of transmission now are large open concept workplaces, and people gathering indoors with people they don't live with (also it's believed the Ford government has been under reporting tramission in schools).

Well, Ontario? Are you all still so smug? I'll never listen to another word about Toronto the great from any of you.

In the US, when our states were bad, we understood that Trump was to blame.

Is Trudeau powerless here? Or, like Trump, is he just not giving a fuck?

And another record set today with 4700+ new cases today. 701 in ICU (vs them freaking about 500 earlier in the week).

Ford is an idiot and Turdeau isn't far behind. If we'd stopped ALL international traffic coming into Canada a year ago, we wouldn't be in the mess we're in. But no, pushover Canada doesn't want to upset the Indians or Chinese - or anyone else.

Meanwhile, while friends in Oz are going to restaurants, bars, clubs - the Ford Cabinet is weighing what to do next. Except a curfew is apparently not being considered...... it's seen as an admission that they've lost control. Which of course, they have.

Moving all vaccination manufacturing out of the country a few years sure worked out well for Canadians, didn't it?

Moderna delays. Lack of trust in the AZ jab.

It's been a colossal fuck up since day 1.

R34 Trudeau is effectively powerless. Canadian is a federation and therefore there are jurisdictional differences in government: the federal government (Trudeau) and the Provincial Governments. The federal government is responsible for a lot of the "big stuff" international relations, military, trade etc. But provinces are responsible for health care and education. How to respond to the pandemic (e.g. what measures to put into place) are within the purview of Provincial governments which is why there have been different responses across the country. Trudeau can give more money, and order more vaccines but it's up the provinces how to spend that money and how to distribute the vaccines. While Trudeau is no great saviour, what's happening in Ontario is down to Ford.

R35 here. Sorry, should have mentioned that I live in Ontario, and those figures are just for this province.

R35 You are 100% right that the biggest Trudeau fuck up was allowing the boarder to remain open without strict quarantine protocol in place.

I thought this was about Ontario Ca.

Global News is reporting that Ford made a plea for extra health care workers from other provinces (those run by conservatives) and they all said no. That was his solution to this.

This does not apply of course to politicians who want to take government planes on holidays to foreign countries.

[quote] allowing the boarder to remain open

I have a boarder and he's always open.

So basically: everything that needs to close remains open and stuff that can remain open is closing. Stay at home order extended until May 21. Police can now ask why you're out of the house. All parks, golf courses, playgrounds and other outdoor recreation areas must close (where there is limited spread) but all factories, constructions, non-essential retails stores remain open despite that being were most of the spread is happening.

What could possible go wrong?!!?

All Doug Ford did today was piss off everyone on every side of the political divide (for different reasons). It's starting to [finally] feel like he won't survive this politically.

Cops have already said they won't enforce most of the new rules. I seriously doubt we'll get out of this as good as we were before.

Doug Ford is a piece of shit and his party is a mess. Not granting sick days being one of the many things he has done wrong.

Having said that, there's a time when people have to take personal responsibility and Ontario has failed. So many entitled people who are flagrantly disregarding the rules. Please don't tell me it's a tiny group of people; it's not. Yes, there are a lot of people who are adhering to the rules. But every time there is a new order in place, I see more and more people in Toronto disregarding them.

Ford has failed but so have many people in this province.

R47 68% of the spread in Ontario is taking place in workplaces (factories, food processing plants, and retail workers) all lower-income workers who typically live in multi-generational homes. Yes there are people who are flouting the rules, but the real issue now is a socioeconomic in which people who work in low wage jobs that cannot be performed at home cannot take time off if they are sick, and are working in places where physical distancing, and masking are being enforced...particularly since the Ontario government does not monitor covid standards in these workplaces and because Ford stripped away the rights of employees to sue if they get covid at work.

R48

and are working in places where physical distancing, and masking are NOT being enforced...

Fixed that for you. ;-)

Earlier this year there was an outbreak at the Mississauga Canada Post sorting station.

It was one guy who was sick but kept coming into work until he could get tested. Close to 300 people were infected and he ended up dying.

Has anyone been seeing the anti lockdown protests around the province?

These don't just look like irate citizens; they're too well organized and funded complete with professionally made signs.

So who's behind them and where's the money coming from?

[quote]It was one guy who was sick but kept coming into work until he could get tested. Close to 300 people were infected and he ended up dying.

What an asshole.

Toronto and Mississauga health units are (finally) closing workplaces with confirmed COVID cases. Half the Tim Horton's and Starbucks here in midtown have been forced to close because of confirmed covid cases at various locations.

Last night, I got my first AZ shot. There were about 5-6 people in line behind me. This was the most optimistic sign I have seen since the pandemic started.

I have spoken to at least 8 university educated people (who have kids and spouses) who are refusing to get vaccinated. One is a dentist (still working). Another works with the homeless in London, England, and is supporting their (schizophrenic) rights not to get vaccinated since it is “personal choice”. Another works in Amazon HQ in Seattle.

There is apparently now an AZ shortage in ON. The Ford Government was told on April 1 there would be a delay in more AZ vaccines arriving until May, but Ford lowered the age requirement anyways partly because there was a lot of supply in the freezer but also he needed a PR boost as his numbers tank.

I registered for an AZ shot from Shoppers and I doubt I'll be contacted anytime soon.

Was out in Toronto today.

What stay-at-home order? People on the subway/streetcars not wearing a mask. People in large groups. Some wearing masks, some not. Grocery stores with way too many people.

My business has had two confirmed cases of COVID and... we still have to come in.

This is why Toronto is going to take forever to get out of this mess. The blame goes all around.

What a mess.

This seems so strange, R57. NYC is very mask-compliant from what I've seen. Ditto Boston. I would have expected Toronto to be 100% masked.

R58 In Canada (or at least in Ontario), masks or only mandated in indoors spaces, so people are still walking the streets or going to parks without masks or social distancing despite the fact that while outdoor transmission is lower, you can still get infected outdoors. We have a terrible right-wing government in power in Ontario that only listens to its wealthy donors and since the fall has basically been ignoring science. Also 70% of outbreaks in Ontario are now tied directly to lower waged working environments (factories, warehouses, retail etc.) who have no sickdays, and employers who continually violate health regulations and a government that turns a blind eye to it.

You Canadians are all gonna die, can US citizens have all your stuff?

WTF, Ontario. when i lived in WNY in the 90's they seemed to progressive in terms of health care. i had a boyfriend in Toronto who had a son with Cerebral Palsy who received the best and most timely of care no matter what the situation. i can't believe you all are in this state of affairs...and people not wearing masks in public places. So strange!

Canada still has better health care than we do all 'round...but the behavior about masks is really a surprise.

Less so in Quebec, where they tend to flout rules.

There are a number of Torontonians wearing masks. But there are quite a few who don't.

On Saturday, it looked like a few businesses were disregarding the rules. One place on King Street West, looked like they were serving alcohol as people were gathered around their front patio - not seated but standing.

I'm from Ontario originally now living in Nova Scotia (so I can complain freely lol....).

I remember way back when this pandemic started, I was keeping an eye on the news from Ontario (CITY TV news mainly) and I remember one press conference where Rob Ford was **freaking out** over the numbers. In particular, he was absolutely freaked out over impact of non payment of rent to landlords - calculating on the air that day - that one building would put a landlord behind by $xxx amount and multiply that by xxx buildings and then you have "billions" he said, owing. Ford, I think, always had his eye on the "bottom line" - and not so much health and safety.

From this vantage point, in NS, we've been the safest part of Canada (almost) since this pandemic started. We're just now hovering around over 200 cases now (incl. 66 new cases today). In response: All Nova Scotians are now being asked to avoid travel outside their immediate communities unless it's for essential reasons, like work or medical appointments. People were already asked not to travel in and out of the Halifax area as of Friday morning, when the region was placed under a four-week lockdown.

Because of the small population here in NS, I've felt pretty safe the whole time. I noticed people adhere to distancing in public areas, masks are worn in public areas - they have shut down some schools now due to this new lockdown. Everybody pretty much respects all rules - as they morph and adapt to new statistics - without complaint. And I think that is why we've been seen such low numbers in NS, PEI and New Brunswick (sort of, they have their own issues, lately).

As of yesterday, folks coming into Nova Scotia are now checked and questioned at the border. When I look at Ontario, I can't say I am all that surprised. But having huge population numbers is no excuse for such an abysmal failure at keeping the Covid numbers down. I know most of here are grateful at the strict stance authorities have taken (Premier, health, etc) and as a result of this "team work" between citizens of Nova Scotia and Government, I believe we are in a very good place comparatively speaking.

But there is just no excuse for Ontario.

R61 since that time Ontario has cut 13,000 hospital beds to save money. We are where we are today because of people like Mike Harris and the Fords cutting health care.

How’s that Ford Hope ‘n Change working out for ya Conservatards?

But how is this possible when every Canadian has told me for years about what a perfect utopia Canada is in comparison to the fiery hellhole of the US?!

there is no excuse

Doug's a big fan of India and he wants to be just like them

R21 Having lived in both the US and Canada, Canada is a "kinder, gentler" country than the US for sure. Despite it's flaws, health care is universal, the education system is better, social infrastructure (unemployment, pension, and disability) is way better, far less open racism and homophobia, gun control (in Canada there have been 3 mass shootings in the last forty years). Canada is, however, far more boring culturally, cities are kind of meh, and the people while polite are more reserved.

Correction: 323 Active Cases in Nova Scotia right now.

Part of the reason for the surge now is tha we were so good with the initial lockdown that not many people developed any sort of immunity and those who were most affected just died. Also the cases now are 70% variant related, highly contagious and more deadly. Had the vaccine roll out been better targeted (i.e. most affected, younger people who actually have to work versus boomers who could stay the fuck home)we might not be in this situation. Also Ford seemed more concerned with appeasing his donors and base than saving lives (i.e. declaring conservative strongholds high risk area when in fact they weren't)

I feel when politicians play power games with peoples lives, they should be given the death penalty -he was basically committing murder.

Off-topic but I gather Western Australia has gone into a lockdown for a few days. My family who live there are going wild posting mask selfies and complaining of boredom. To those of us in a state like in California where we’ve been locked down for over a year, it’s kind of cute. Australians are cute in general.

You misspelled "cunts" R73.

When I read about how other countries have done so well vaccinating the population and look at us I really have to wonder who was in charge and why are we so fucking behind with vaccinations.

R75 We have no domestic vaccine production (thank you Mulroney government and then the Chretien, Martin, and Harper (and Trudeau until after COVID) governments for never restoring funding). Complicated to that the vaccine roll out in many provinces is a fucking joke. In Ontario, health units were supposed to do all the vaccinating 24/7 but Ford didn't want to fund that (this is the same asshole who cut public heath by $30 million dollars in 2019 and has refused to restore funding during a pandemic) so he passed part of the buck to pharmacies and then allowed them to lower the eligibility age to 40 as a PR stunt knowing there was not yet enough supply. The pharmacy roll out has been a disaster they put you on a wait list that they don't have the man power to patrol so now they're just doing walk ins almost everywhere.

[quote]The pharmacy roll out has been a disaster they put you on a wait list that they don't have the man power to patrol so now they're just doing walk ins almost everywhere.

I've been on a Shoppers wait list since last week. Maybe I'll try a walk-in and see if I can get a shot.

R77 Yeah I've had friends get their shot via walk in at Shoppers who were on the wait list. Apparently, Shoppers doesn't yet have the resources in place to actually go through the wait list. It's so stupid. Try Vaccine Hunters on Twitter, they more organized than the Ontario government.

R76, you're almost right, but to Trudeau's credit (and I'm not his biggest fan), he did restore funding in 2018. 5 billion or so. So, the lack of vaccine production isn't really on him. Not closing the borders is, but not the vaccine production issue.

Is the order being extended past next week?

Yes it is to be extended through June 2. There was rumour flew around they were going to announce return to schools in June but it didn't happen. They'll be at 65% with one dose by end of May. Talk everybody could be booked for second dose by end of July. It may be we're on the cusp of being like the US and the UK, with cases on the run. Still no talk about reopening the border though. Not even meetings on it. Trudeau make some weird choices. I don't say rush to reopen - though arguably the US needs protection from us, these days - but at least get something in motion.

[quote]They'll be at 65% with one dose by end of May.

I registered for my fist shot when they lowered the age to 40 and have still not been contacted. I"m at my wit's end and don't know what to do. It really pisses me off. My aunt works at Zehrs and she's seen customers coming in to buy groceries and asking the pharmacist for a shot and they get one. I tried that and she ignored me and pointed at the sign saying to register online. I think they're giving preferential treatment to pharmacy clients.

[quote]I registered for my fist shot

Bonus points for DLers registering for this!

R82 - where are you?

Waterloo R84

I recognise Zehr's... Laurier grad. Are there any mass clinics organised by public health? Apparently if you get there fifteen minutes before close you may get access to a based on open vials... they do not want to waste the stuff. Also, register with every chain you can (you probably are) and target a few pharmacies... go in and ask... how is it best? They may take pity. Also, VaccineHuntersCanada may have local leads.

The lockdown officially ends on June 2 but there's going to be a staggered three tier opening taking 21 days between openings and based on percentage of the population being vaccinated.

[R87] Are there any CBC or related-links for this? Can't find any hard news sources on your update near me--Trump supporters own most of local media outlets.

CTV News R88: