[Canada] Canadian Politics Redux

[Jacob]

AstraZeneca vaccine approved in Canada.  Canada has purchased 20 million doses.  Trudeau says 'he believes most of those 20 million doses will be delivered before Canada Day.'

https://globalnews.ca/news/7629162/astrazeneca-covid-vaccine-approval-canada/?fbclid=IwAR3lIg-KgMJYxEdEqG_vh8JjOYzMMs-YSUVzXMorxIZzms66fOEc7GhIVEE

I hope so. My sister and her fiancee have set their wedding date for July 29th. I would really like to be able to travel there with some peace of mind.

[Barrister]

Mark Machin, head of the CPP Investment Board, resigns after revelations emerged that he travelled to the United Arab Emirates in order to receive a Covid-19 vaccine.

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/02/26/canada-pension-ceo-resigns-covid-vaccine-471736

Curious story.  I'm not sure I agree he should have resigned (unless there is more to the story).  It's not like that story where the rich Vancouver couple travelled up to Beaver Creek Yukon to receive a vaccine - because in that case they lied about who they were.

Clearly Machin was able to travel to UAE because he is much wealthier than the average Canadian (apparently he was paid just over $5 million in 2020) - but does that make it wrong?  I know Canadians are discouraged from travelling abroad, but it isn't forbidden.  And travelling to receive a vaccine seems like a better reason to travel than to merely enjoy a sunny winter vacation.

Besides, I've heard of plenty of Canadian snowbirds being vaccinated in the US.  My aunt and uncle winter in Arizona and were vaccinated a month ago.

Now it's possible there's more to this story.  Maybe Machin didn't quarantine on his return like he is supposed to.  Maybe he did lie to someone, or traded on his position as head of the CPP Investment Board (he does have nearly a half trillion dollars of investments under his control), in order to get the vaccine.

Because otherwise I don't get it.

[HVC]

why's the head of the CPP Investment Board getting 5 million to begin with?

[Grey Fox]

What's the CPP?

[Barrister]

What's the CPP?

I know Quebec has its own Quebec Pension Plan, but don't tell me you've never heard of the Canada Pension Plan.

[Barrister]

why's the head of the CPP Investment Board getting 5 million to begin with?

I was a little taken aback by that figure, but I guess that if you're the kind of person qualified to manage $400+ billion in assets you could easily make that much in the private sector.

Wiki says he is a Brit who was hired from Goldman-Sacks Hong Kong office.  I'm sure he was well compensated in that position.

[Valmy]

What's the CPP?

I know Quebec has its own Quebec Pension Plan, but don't tell me you've never heard of the Canada Pension Plan.

Never hear of it. Do you mean le régime de pensions du Canada? Because if you are talking about the RPC that's different.

[Grey Fox]

What's the CPP?

I know Quebec has its own Quebec Pension Plan, but don't tell me you've never heard of the Canada Pension Plan.

Never in its english abbreviation before.

or what Valmy said. 

[viper37]

Fuck off viper.

Ok, to be fair, I'm only aware of Ontario's KKK parade, I don't think there were any in Alberta.  And given the number of times you called Quebec's laws racists, I'm not going to deprive myself from an opportunity to take a jab at your province.

But, you can not deny the Western provinces tendancy to flirt with right wing radicalism, be it religious or racist, like the former Heritage Front or the Soldiers of Odin, or general Trumpism.  Even you sometimes lean toward the defense of trumpism.

[Jacob]

why's the head of the CPP Investment Board getting 5 million to begin with?

Because that's the kind of money professional investment managers make at that level, I expect.

[Sheilbh]

I'm not comfortable with the rich travelling to buy jabs from somewhere else in the world. Take your place in the queue or ostracism

[viper37]

Viper : What's a tiki torch rally?
Viper's next post : The ultimate end of a tiki torch rally.

I can agree with you that the Liberal party is the status quo party. It only gets pushed to action when the NDP is breathing up its neck. Right now, Singh's NDP is more interested in facilitating a Conservative Majority than use it's power balance position.

You won't get me to defend our Federalism. It's historically racist & borderline racist nowadays. The positive from it are few.

But electing the Canadian Tea party is not the solution.

Singh is unfit to lead a Federal party, that has become clear if it wasn't before.
But I don't get your comparison of the Cons to a facist movement, or border-line facists like the Tea Party.  Please explain.

[Barrister]

I'm not comfortable with the rich travelling to buy jabs from somewhere else in the world. Take your place in the queue or ostracism

What are you, some kind of Bolshevik?

[crazy canuck]

An extraordinary call by our Chief justice to the legislative branch to make the appropriate reforms.

https://cjc-ccm.ca/en/news/statement-chairperson-canadian-judicial-council

[viper37]

Government of Alberta took a lot of flak for it's vaccine online booking tool - just didn't seem to work for anyone when it went online yesterday (and remember this is just for ages 75+).

Went online now just to check it out - it puts you in some kind of online waiting list before booking your appointment.  Right now it says I have to wait 18 minutes (I'm not going to lie and book an appointment - just checking it out) with 3007 people ahead of me.

Shouldn't an online-only system be able to handle 3007 concurrent users?

3007 people ahead of you does not mean there 3008 concurrent users.  There could be multiple "lanes" of service, and there are 3007 in front of you in your current lane while there could ten "lanes", for lack of a better word.
But yeah, it should be better than that.  There ain't that much people in AB, any system should reasonably be able to sort through that in a timely manner.