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The COVID-19 pandemic will delay voting in Newfoundland and Labrador’s election this weekend.
Although some provinces and the United States held votes last year, Newfoundland’s elections authority says it cannot manage the logistics of the vote in all ridings this weekend because of a shortage of staff.
“Many election workers have resigned out of fear of interacting with the public on election day,” the province’s chief electoral officer, Bruce Chaulk, said in a statement.
In-person voting has been suspended in 18 of the province’s 40 ridings. Mr. Chaulk said voting would continue in other districts, but no results would be announced until all residents have a chance to vote.
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TODAY’S HEADLINES
British Columbia is seeking an exemption from the federal government that would allow it to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of drugs, as part of a bid to bring down the province’s spike in overdose deaths.
The Business Council of Canada says businesses are ready to help execute a mass vaccination campaign. And pharmacies, which have experience delivering annual flu shots, say they could ramp up within days to deliver COVID-19 vaccines if they get more details from the government.
Provinces appear to be sitting on millions of unused COVID-19 rapid tests, despite criticizing the government for how it supplied the tests.
Vaccination campaigns have varied wildly across the United States, with – perhaps surprisingly – West Virginia and Alaska leading the pack.
Dominic Barton, Canada’s ambassador to China, said he was not aware of McKinsey’s role in boosting OxyContin sales while he was managing director of the firm and regrets the deaths caused by the opioid crisis.
The Supreme Court of Canada has dismissed a bid from Mike Duffy to appeal a lower court ruling that barred him from suing the Senate over the expenses scandal. Mr. Duffy’s legal proceedings against the RCMP, however, continue.
Complaints of workplace abuse have shot up at federal departments in recent years, new data show, though it’s not clear if it’s because of a rise in complaints or better reporting procedures.
Green Party Leader Annamie Paul says she will run again in the Liberal stronghold of Toronto Centre in the next federal election.
And Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said he will allow two MLAs to remain in the United Conservative Party caucus after they joined a national anti-lockdown group of politicians that, for the most part, have quit or been kicked out of other conservative caucuses, such as Derek Sloan, Randy Hillier and Maxime Bernier.
Doug Saunders (The Globe and Mail) on vaccine nationalism: “Domestic production capacity should not become a determinant of a country’s ability to vaccinate its population. So far, it is not one. Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands – home to major vaccine factories – are having political crises because their people have had to wait months to receive vaccines manufactured within their own borders.”
Rupa Subramanya (National Post) on Canada obtaining vaccines from COVAX: “Canada has every right to secure vaccine in the pursuit of a “Canada first” policy. Indeed, failing to do so out of a misplaced moral conviction that this would hurt the world’s poor would be doing a great disservice to Canadians, whose interests always have to come first.”
Nazeem Muhajarine (Regina Leader-Post) on the need to keep up public-health restrictions: “Other provinces are now starting to relax their restrictions because of how well they have worked, while our Premier seems to take pride in the fact that he has allowed bars to remain open and in-person restaurant dining to continue in spite of the viral spread that’s happened in such locations.”
David Parkinson (The Globe and Mail) on Newfoundland and Labrador’s election and provincial finances: “There’s certainly no disputing, even among the parties competing in this election campaign, that Newfoundland and Labrador has to do something to reverse a government finance situation that is unsustainable, and hurtling toward all-out crisis. The province with a population of just 520,000 is carrying roughly $16-billion in net government debt, giving it the highest debt per capita and debt-to-GDP ratio in the country. Even in the current low-interest-rate environment, the government is spending 15 cents out of every dollar it brings in just to pay the interest on its debt.”
Konrad Yakabuski (The Globe and Mail) on calls to cancel government debt: “In theory, these central bank bond-buying programs are supposed to be only temporary. Bank of Canada officials have insisted that the federal government must reimburse it when the bonds it holds come due. The dollars created out of thin air would then be cancelled, preventing a permanent increase in the money supply that could lead to higher inflation. In reality, it may not work that way.”
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