Opposing lockdowns shouldn't be a partisan affair
Episode Stats
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183.58395
Summary
In this episode, I talk about the disconnect between what's happening in the United States and Canada on the issue of lockdowns, and what's going on in Ontario and Michigan on the other side of the border. I also talk about how politicians in the U.S. are doing a better job advocating for reopenings than those in Canada.
Transcript
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One really interesting phenomenon that's been going on recently is how Democratic politicians
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in the United States are doing a better job advocating for reopenings than conservative
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politicians here in Canada. You know, it was a bit of a cliche early on that reopening,
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not supporting widespread lockdowns, well, that was a conservative, a right-wing, a Republican,
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a Trump position to do. And therefore, the left-wing position, the progressive position,
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that had to be to support lockdowns. But that's not the case anymore. All you have to do is look
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around North America and read the stories happening in major cities and major states to realize,
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no, that is just not playing out, at least not in the United States. You've got Democratic politicians,
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sometimes very left-leaning ones, who are championing reopenings and really fighting for
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their state or their city. I mean, yes, there's examples of Texas and Florida, obviously led by
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Republican politicians who are doing very aggressive reopenings, and in Florida saying no mask mandate,
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of course. But you've also got examples like the Democratic left-wing mayor of Chicago,
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Lori Lightfoot, who's been really fighting for her city to be able to reopen, see the restaurants get
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rid of some of their capacity limits and, you know, further liberalize those rules and so forth. And
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she's been really standing up for small businesses. So you go, clearly, this is not a political issue,
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or at least doesn't need to be. And it's been very interesting and dismaying to watch how I think
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Canadian politicians are still just so much further behind the very balanced approach that pretty much
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all politicians both sides of the aisle are managing to take in the United States. And I think
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one example that illustrates it the best is what's going on right now in the part of Ontario that
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borders the Michigan border, the United States border with Michigan, and what Michigan is doing.
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So on Monday, Doug Ford said the Sarnia region, Lambton County, had to go into lockdown again,
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lock her down, shut her down. A lot of people really upset about it, and some businesses were defiant.
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We had gyms and others that said, no, we don't want to shut down at least one video of the cops coming in
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and trying to bust up one of those gyms that said we are not going to be shut down.
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But what's going on on the other side of the border? In Michigan, they are just further reopening.
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You look at stories about Michigan's reopening, and they started a while ago, and the latest
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developments are just that, okay, capacity limits have been eased further at this locale and that
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locale, and they're loosening this and that restriction. They are making progress. They are
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moving forward right on the other side of the border. Ontario moving backwards. And who is the
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Republican governor in Michigan who's doing all of this? Well, it's none other than Democratic
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left-leaning governor Gretchen Whitmer, who's actually quite close to Joe Biden. So there you
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go. Another example of how you have these more left-leaning politicians in the U.S. who are able
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to do more pro-business positions and just more pro-society positions and politicians like Doug Ford
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here in Ontario who are just stuck in a rut. And anytime anyone proposes, well, we got to lock down
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this jurisdiction, they seem to go for it. Very little pushback. And boy, is it very frustrating.