…“We can’t have our U.S. neighbours down in the states and everywhere else getting vaccines and Canada’s waiting two or three months,” Ford said, “as their economy starts taking off when they have the vaccine and we’re sitting back twiddling our thumbs, wondering when we’re going to get it.”
The federal government announced on Thursday it would now be holding weekly briefings on the progress of getting vaccines to Canada. One assumes that this is at least in part some damage control — or anticipatory damage control — to head off the vaccine angst that has reared its head in Canada this week.
That angst will not be magically dispelled either when vaccines start arriving on Canadian soil. As politicians and public health officials have been gingerly trying to explain, Canadians are going to get sorted into priority groups.
If we thought that Canadians were grumpy about seeing Americans and others getting ahead in line, wait until we see how they feel when they have to start standing behind their own fellow citizens in the queue. This will be a monumental exercise in managing public expectations and demands.
I don’t mind waiting for the vaccine if it is first allocated to the most vulnerable and frontline workers. I also have concern about potential hazards arising from their rushed development and for that reason will happily wait my turn for a jab.
But this is Justin Trudeau’s Canada so I won’t be at all surprised when our political class jumps the queue.
