In Praise Of Canadians!

CANADA

A Quick Study

Zookeepers in Calgary recently returned two pandas to China after flights, canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, led to shortages in bamboo, a staple of the fuzzy creatures’ diets. The pandas were supposed to stay in Canada for four more years, the BBC reported.

The move illustrated the mix of pragmatism and compassion that Canadian leaders have brought to the crisis.

Canada’s response to the pandemic has arguably been generous, with months of stimulus payments, subsidies to industries and other measures. But Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has emphasized that those measures weren’t designed to let Canadians live in denial of the after-effects of the public health emergency.

“We have to recognize that things will change in this world, even after the end of this pandemic, even after a vaccine,” he said. “COVID-19 will be one of the things that create changes in our society. There will be adjustments.”

In addition to ladling out money on infrastructure projects, Trudeau is seeking to expand childcare, something he sees as key to an economic recovery: Women have disproportionally lost their jobs compared to men during the crisis, and traditionally bear a greater share of the burden of raising kids, Politico reported.

“It was the world’s first she-cession and it was not unique to Canada or the US,” said Armine Yalnizyan, a fellow with the Atkinson Foundation, who Trudeau has sought out for advice. “No recovery without childcare. If 50 percent of your employed workforce is female, they can’t go back to work without childcare.”

Despite these generous measures, Canada is far from perfect.

Critics charged that local authorities, for example, moved slowly to protect seniors in long-term care facilities where the vast majority of Canadian deaths from the virus occurred, wrote the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Trudeau has said he wants reforms in that sector. Questions over government payments to seniors have also raised questions about whether they were helping affluent people rather than the needy, reported the Winnipeg Free Press.

Canadian researchers are also working hard on a vaccine but the country lacks the means to achieve a miracle drug anytime soon, the New York Times noted. In fact, Canadian’s healthcare system is facing drug shortages because shipments of raw materials used to make them from China and India have been curtailed. Meanwhile, manufacturers were more interested in producing expensive drugs than less profitable generic medicines, wrote University of Calgary’s Reed Beall and Lorian Hardcastle in the Conversation.

Still, better run and better-funded hospitals and less partisan politics have made Canada’s response to the coronavirus effective, concluded Business Insider. That story cited this Vox piece as evidence: The virus arrived in Canada and the US at the same time, yet the latter has 30 percent more deaths per capita than the former.

The US faces different and arguably more complicated challenges than its neighbor to the north. Regardless, Canadians proved to be a quick study.

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