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Quebec has been humiliated again. This time, it’s by our own premier asking Ottawa for help in the form of a thousand additional Canadian soldiers to relieve a staffing shortage in COVID-19-infested long-term-care facilities.
That’s how some Quebec commentators, and apparently François Legault himself, see it.
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“The Legault government is reduced to begging for still more help from the Army of the Dominion,” wrote a Québecor columnist, alluding to about 70 soldiers with medical training already working in the facilities known as CHSLDs. “The Quebec pride in which he (Legault) prides himself has taken a beating,” said a Le Devoir editorialist. Legault himself described the situation as “a bit embarrassing” when he announced the request on Wednesday.
And the ultimate humiliation: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in accepting Quebec’s request, and a similar one from Ontario, implicitly criticized the two provinces for mismanaging their seniors’ facilities. It shouldn’t be up to the army, he said, to care for the elderly.
