A Reopening Plan Without Reopening
Episode Stats
Words per minute
180.19589
Harmful content
Misogyny
1
sentences flagged
Summary
Andrew Lawton talks quarantine, the Calgary Stampede, the border reopening, and why Canada should get rid of the hotel quarantine program. Plus, a new plan from Ontario to re-open the border.
Transcript
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In the next couple of months, we're going to get a little bit back to sort of normal,
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British Columbia is looking like it is getting on the normal train.
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Alberta is planning to have the Calgary Stampede.
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And I'm trying to get the boss to let me go cover the Calgary Stampede.
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If you want to tell me what the news value is, please do.
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But if you can convince me there's a story, I can convince him there's a story.
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Because I just haven't seen an actual person in two years now, it feels like.
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So the Calgary Stampede would be like a sensory overload.
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I can't remember what it was, which I guess makes it not a great commercial.
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But basically, the premise was that everyone has just come out
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And it's this post-apocalyptic landscape of everyone just seeing people for the first time.
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And that's going to be a sign that Alberta is back in business.
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Ontario, which last week unveiled a three-stage reopening plan.
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But reopening isn't actually in the third and final stage.
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Like they had, at first, it was like phase one.
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And within phase two, stage one, two, and three.
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And, you know, we got to be in yellow for a little while.
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That is not, at the end of which, giving you no restrictions.
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Ontario is not opening in the way that the plan says it's supposed to.
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The first stage of this was supposed to kick in at 60% of the population vaccinated.
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And they're still waiting until well into June to open the province up.
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And, again, I go to Alberta is getting ready to have the Calgary Stampede.
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I won't even be able to get a haircut in Ontario.
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Which, as you may have seen on the show earlier this week,
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Because Ontario has also put these 21-day increments between the stages,
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irrespective of where the province is on these metrics that the province has set out.
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So people are actually doing better right now than Ontario says is necessary
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But they're still not advancing through the stages for completely arbitrary reasons.
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And Ontario, the province that had a premier that put up these open-for-business signs
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at the border, is not actually opening for anyone for the foreseeable future.
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There have been some rumors, and again, I must say it's not substantiated yet,
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that the U.S. is planning to open its land border on June 21st.
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Now, this date is significant because it's when the current border closure is meant to expire.
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And they've been renewing this every time, like clockwork, since last March.
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Now, Canada has given no indication that it's planning to open its border then.
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But it sounds like if these rumors are true, and they are rumors,
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the U.S. is planning to open up, which means Canadians will be allowed to go into the U.S.
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for groceries at Port Huron or Bellingham, Washington or wherever and drive back to Canada.
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But the problem is you'll still have to quarantine in Canada.
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You'll still have to do all of these things unless Canada matches this with its own measure.
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There was a report this week that came out from the expert panel
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that the government appointed to look into quarantine and border restrictions.
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And this report actually suggested that Canada should get rid of this hotel quarantine program
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that you have to pay $2,000 for and get put up at some crappy airport hotel
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that the government has taken over for the purposes of housing people
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And they're saying, listen, we should just discontinue this, end it.
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Now, this has been welcomed by a lot of conservatives.
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But the report also starts talking about a vaccine passport,
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which I know has been a very contentious subject for people.
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And it lays out basically different criteria depending on people's vaccination status.
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And you look at this chart here, figure three in the report,
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it says that people who are fully vaccinated should have to do a test on arrival.
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People that are partially vaccinated should have to do a pre-departure test,
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an arrival test, a quarantine plus an arrival test.
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And then people who are not at all vaccinated should have to do a full quarantine and another test.
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So they're talking about laying out different criteria for people depending on their vaccination status.
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And this is something that provincial governments have not put in.
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They're basically doing, and I think I played a clip from Jason Kenney about this last week.
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They're basically playing the we're all in this together card and talking about it as though
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once we get to 60% vaccinated, 70%, 75%, then these restrictions will be lifted.
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Well, one issue is that a lot of people who were down in the U.S.
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because they were trying to flee all this nonsense in Canada,
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a lot of the snowbirds got vaccinated, have come back.
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Because they didn't get vaccinated here, they are not reflected in the system.
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They're not reflected in the numbers as of how many people in Canada have been vaccinated.
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So the irony is people that decided to get fully vaccinated the way governments were supposed to roll this out
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with a three-week interval or four-week interval between shots rather than a four-month interval
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are, ironically enough, part of the problem or what government says is the problem in not reopening.
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Because they're part of that 20%, 25%, 30%, 35% of people who the government says are not vaccinated
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So if governments are going to lay out these plans and say, we're going to reopen, then just open.
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I've got lots of friends in the U.S. who are telling me their governors are lifting mask mandates,
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We've talked on numerous shows about all these big events that are taking place in the U.K. and the U.S.
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Meanwhile, Canada is in the never-ending lockdown, well into its second year.
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And depending on where in the country you live, no end in sight.
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So I'll just put my hand up right now and say I'm an Ontario refugee.
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If anyone wants to take me in in a more free province, let me know.
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Although I realize it is only incrementally more free if you look at the gestalt of a lot of these measures.
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But the point is, we need to do a heck of a lot better than we are.
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And lay out some transparent frameworks that genuinely have a path to reopening.
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If you liked watching this clip of the Andrew Lawton Show,
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True North has lots more for you all over at www.tnc.news.