Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he’s not keen to contest a federal election campaign with the COVID-19 pandemic still raging.
But he’s prepared to go to the polls if the opposition parties bring down his government in a vote of non-confidence, or if they frustrate Liberal pandemic relief efforts.
“If the opposition parties decide that we’re not doing the right thing, it could be very difficult to govern, whether or not they trigger an election,” Trudeau said in a recent year-end interview with Rosemary Barton, CBC’s chief political correspondent.
Asked if he might go to Gov. Gen. Julie Payette himself and prompt an election in the coming months, Trudeau said that while it’s a possibility, he understands a federal election campaign is not exactly a top priority for most Canadians with COVID-19 cases mounting.
“We have to make sure that the government is able to do what it has to do, so I’m not precluding any options. But at the same time, I am not eager for an election,” Trudeau said.
When asked if he would commit to holding off on an election until vaccines are widely disseminated to the Canadian public — the Public Health Agency of Canada has said all Canadians who want one will have a shot by the end of September 2021 — Trudeau was non-committal.
During a press conference with reporters Friday, however, Trudeau said “political considerations” and an election are “not our focus right now. Our focus is on supporting Canadians now and in the months to come and getting them vaccinated.”
While he insists he’s reluctant to plunge the country into an election, Trudeau said he’s prepared to fight one on his pandemic record and his push for a greener economy with a planned hike to the federal carbon tax.
“We know the parties don’t agree … there are big disagreements about [climate policy], about all sorts of different things,” Trudeau told Barton.
The Liberal government is just 14 months into its second mandate. The COVID-19 crisis has disrupted much of the government’s planned agenda and has dramatically altered the political dynamics in Ottawa.
While fiercely critical of the government’s handling of the pandemic to this point, the Opposition Conservatives — along with the Bloc Québécois, NDP and Green parties — have been broadly supportive of the government’s COVID-19 relief agenda. The opposition has allowed gargantuan spending bills to pass through Parliament relatively quickly, knowing that most of the money will be flowed to individuals, small businesses and the sectors hardest hit by lockdowns.
Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole, who took the reins of his party in August, has also said he’s ready for an election if the government falls or if one is called — but it isn’t his top priority at this juncture.
“We have to get through the health and economic crisis of COVID-19 before we go to the polls,” O’Toole said in an interview with CTV News earlier this month.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tells chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton that while he regrets not recusing himself from cabinet discussions about awarding WE Charity a multimillion-dollar contract to administer the summer student grants program, he believes “there was no conflict of interest” and it was a ‘communications and optics challenge.’ 4:41
Last week, before the Commons rose for its winter break, the government introduced a new bill, C-19, to allow Elections Canada to make temporary pandemic-related adjustments to the electoral process.
The legislation, if passed, would allow Canadians to vote over a three-day period and cast ballots by mail, and would create special balloting centres in long-term care homes, among other changes.
‘I am there with bells on,’ Trudeau says of vaccination
Trudeau said he has no qualms about receiving a COVID-19 vaccine. While some world leaders have opted to take early doses of the Pfizer product to build confidence among the public — U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence was vaccinated Friday — Trudeau said he would wait until it’s time for healthy people of his age to get a shot.
“When my turn comes, I will do it publicly and enthusiastically. We’ve been trusting our scientists and doctors from the beginning through this pandemic, we’ve trusted them for years to keep us safe from measles, to keep us safe from colds — we trust our scientists,” Trudeau said.
With recent polls showing that a sizeable number of Canadians will refuse a vaccine altogether, or will wait some time before lining up for a shot, Trudeau said he wants Canadians to be assured that the science will not be rushed and that Canada’s regulators will only approve a product that works.
“When Health Canada says this vaccine is safe and effective to use, I am there with bells on,” he said.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tells chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton that regardless of who is Canada’s prime minister or the U.S. president, there are ways to get things done and Canada has been able to work with challenging situations. 7:51
Pfizer is expected to ship 125,000 vaccine doses per week in January 2021 for a total of 500,000 shots — primarily destined for the arms of front line health care workers and long-term care home residents. That’s on top of the 249,000 doses Pfizer has already committed to delivering in December.
All told, roughly 375,000 Canadians are expected to be vaccinated with the two-dose Pfizer shot by the end of January. Canada is also expecting to receive doses of the highly effective Moderna vaccine, which is still being reviewed by Health Canada’s regulators.
While the vaccine news is promising, Trudeau said, Canadians should resist complacency.
“Even with vaccines arriving, it’s going to be a while before we reach whatever critical mass the scientists say is going to be enough. So hang in there, we have to continue being there for each other. We have to continue following public health rules,” he said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that at least 65 to 70 per cent of a given population must be vaccinated to develop some degree of herd immunity and halt the spread of a disease.
Once that threshold is reached, the COVID-19 virus will have fewer possible human hosts, driving down transmission rates.
‘It’s very possible that I caught it’
Trudeau’s wife, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, was an early, high-profile case of COVID-19 in Canada. She tested positive after returning in March from a WE Charity event in the U.K.
Grégoire Trudeau self-isolated in the family home, Rideau Cottage, while recuperating with moderate symptoms of the virus.
In a year-end interview with chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reflects on whether he had been infected with the highly contagious coronavirus and was simply asymptomatic, and discusses when he will get the COVID-19 vaccine. Trudeau also says he’s ‘not eager’ for an election but he’s ready for one if it happens in 2021. 10:32
Trudeau, following public health advice of the time, was not tested for COVID-19 because he didn’t have any symptoms.
In his interview with Barton, he conceded he’s now curious about whether he was infected with the highly contagious virus and was simply asymptomatic.
“It’s very possible that I caught it. I don’t know. We were absolutely asymptomatic,” he said, referring to his three children. “Didn’t have a sniffle, if I did have it. We pulled together as a family and kept an eye on each other.”
Montreal Alouettes wide receiver Tyson Philpot has announced he will be out for the rest of the CFL season.
The Delta, B.C., native posted the news on his Instagram page Thursday.
“To Be Continued. Shoutout my team, the fans of the CFL and the whole city of Montreal! I can’t wait to be back healthy and write this next chapter in 2025,” the statement read.
Philpot, 24, injured his foot in a 33-23 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Aug. 10 and was placed on the six-game injured list the next week.
The six-foot-one, 195-pound receiver had 58 receptions, 779 yards and five touchdowns in nine games for the league-leading Alouettes in his third season.
Philpot scored the game-winning touchdown in Montreal’s Grey Cup win last season to punctuate a six-reception, 63-yard performance.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa sustained a concussion for the third time in his NFL career, leaving his team’s game Thursday night against Buffalo after running into defensive back Damar Hamlin and hitting the back of his head against the turf.
Tagovailoa remained down for about two minutes before getting to his feet and walking to the sideline after the play in the third quarter. He made his way to the tunnel not long afterward, looking into the stands before smiling and departing toward the locker room.
The Dolphins needed almost no time before announcing it was a concussion. The team said he had two during the 2022 season, and Tagovailoa was diagnosed with another concussion when he was a college player at Alabama.
Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said Tagovailoa would get “proper procedural evaluation” and “appropriate care” on Friday.
“The furthest thing from my mind is, ‘What is the timeline?’ We just need to evaluate and just worry about my teammate, like the rest of the guys are,” McDaniel said. “We’ll get more information tomorrow and take it day by day from here.”
Some players saw Tagovailoa in the locker room after the game and said they were encouraged. Tagovailoa spoke with some players and then went home after the game, McDaniel said.
“I have a lot of love for Tua, built a great relationship with him,” said quarterback Skylar Thompson, who replaced Tagovailoa after the injury. “You care about the person more than the player and everybody in the organization would say the same thing. Just really praying for Tua and hopefully everything will come out all right.”
Tagovailoa signed a four-year, $212 million extension before this season — a deal that makes him one of the highest-paid players in the NFL — and was the NFL’s leading passer in Week 1 this season. Tagovailoa left with the Dolphins trailing 31-10, and that was the final score.
“If you know Tua outside of football, you can’t help but feel for him,” Bills quarterback Josh Allen said on Amazon following the game. “He’s a great football player but he’s an even greater human being. He’s one of the best humans on the planet. I’ve got a lot of love for him and I’m just praying for him and his family, hoping everything’s OK. But it’s tough, man. This game of football that we play, it’s got its highs and it’s got its lows — and this is one of the lows.”
Tagovailoa’s college years and first three NFL seasons were marred by injury, though he positioned himself for a big pay bump with an injury-free and productive 2023 as he led the Dolphins into the playoffs. He threw for 29 touchdowns and a league-best 4,624 yards last year.
When, or if, he can come back this season is anyone’s guess. Tagovailoa said in April 2023 that the concussions he had in the 2022 season left him contemplating his playing future. “I think I considered it for a time,” he said then, when asked if he considered stepping away from the game to protect himself.
McDaniel said it’s not his place to say if Tagovailoa should return to football. “He’ll be evaluated and we’ll have conversations and progress as appropriate,” McDaniel said.
Tagovailoa was hurt Thursday on a fourth-down keeper with about 4:30 left in the third. He went straight ahead into Hamlin and did not slide, leading with his right shoulder instead.
Hamlin was the player who suffered a cardiac arrest after making a tackle during a Monday night game in January 2023 at Cincinnati, causing the NFL to suspend a pivotal game that quickly lost significance in the aftermath of a scary scene that unfolded in front of a national television audience.
Tagovailoa wound up on his back, both his hands in the air and Bills players immediately pointed at him as if to suggest there was an injury. Dolphins center Aaron Brewer quickly did the same, waving to the sideline.
Tagovailoa appeared to be making a fist with his right hand as he lay on the ground. It was movement consistent with something that is referred to as the “fencing response,” which can be common after a traumatic brain injury.
Tagovailoa eventually got to his feet. McDaniel grabbed the side of his quarterback’s head and gave him a kiss on the cheek as Tagovailoa departed. Thompson came into the game to take Tagovailoa’s spot.
“I love Tua on and off the football field,” Bills edge Von Miller said. “I’m a huge fan of him. I can empathize and sympathize with him because I’ve been there. I wish him the best.”
Tagovailoa’s history with concussions — and how he has since worked to avoid them — is a huge part of the story of his career, and now comes to the forefront once again.
He had at least two concussions during the 2022 season. He was hurt in a Week 3 game against Buffalo and cleared concussion protocol, though he appeared disoriented on that play but returned to the game.
The NFL later changed its concussion protocol to mandate that if a player shows possible concussion symptoms — including a lack of balance or stability — he must sit out the rest of the game.
Less than a week later, in a Thursday night game at Cincinnati, Tagovailoa was concussed on a scary hit that briefly knocked him unconscious and led to him being taken off the field on a stretcher.
His second known concussion of that season came in a December game against Green Bay, and he didn’t play for the rest of the 2022 season. After that, Tagovailoa began studying ways where he may be able to fall more safely and protect himself against further injury — including studying jiu-jitsu.
“I’m not worried about anything that’s out of my hands,” McDaniel said. “I’m just worried about the human being.”
NEW YORK (AP) — When her husband turns on the television to hear news about the upcoming presidential election, that’s often a signal for Lori Johnson Malveaux to leave the room.
It can get to be too much. Often, she’ll go to a TV in another room to watch a movie on the Hallmark Channel or BET. She craves something comforting and entertaining. And in that, she has company.
While about half of Americans say they are following political news “extremely” or “very” closely, about 6 in 10 say they need to limit how much information they consume about the government and politics to avoid feeling overloaded or fatigued, according to a new survey from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and USAFacts.
Make no mistake: Malveaux plans to vote. She always does. “I just get to the point where I don’t want to hear the rhetoric,” she said.
The 54-year-old Democrat said she’s most bothered when she hears people on the news telling her that something she saw with her own eyes — like the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol — didn’t really happen.
“I feel like I’m being gaslit. That’s the way to put it,” she said.
Sometimes it feels like ‘a bombardment’
Caleb Pack, 23, a Republican from Ardmore, Oklahoma, who works in IT, tries to keep informed through the news feeds on his phone, which is stocked with a variety of sources, including CNN, Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and The Associated Press.
Yet sometimes, Pack says, it seems like a bombardment.
“It’s good to know what’s going on, but both sides are pulling a little bit extreme,” he said. “It just feels like it’s a conversation piece everywhere, and it’s hard to escape it.”
Media fatigue isn’t a new phenomenon. A Pew Research Center survey conducted in late 2019 found roughly two in three Americans felt worn out by the amount of news there is, about the same as in a poll taken in early 2018. During the 2016 presidential campaign, about 6 in 10 people felt overloaded by campaign news.
But it can be particularly acute with news related to politics. The AP-NORC/USAFacts poll found that half of Americans feel a need to limit their consumption of information related to crime or overseas conflicts, while only about 4 in 10 are limiting news about the economy and jobs.
It’s easy to understand, with television outlets like CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC full of political talk and a wide array of political news online, sometimes complicated by disinformation.
“There’s a glut of information,” said Richard Coffin, director of research and advocacy for USAFacts, “and people are having a hard time figuring out what is true or not.”
Women are more likely to feel they need to limit media
In the AP-NORC poll, about 6 in 10 men said they follow news about elections and politics at least “very” closely, compared to about half of women. For all types of news, not just politics, women are more likely than men to report the need to limit their media consumption, the survey found.
White adults are also more likely than Black or Hispanic adults to say they need to limit media consumption on politics, the poll found.
Kaleb Aravzo, 19, a Democrat, gets a baseline of news by listening to National Public Radio in the morning at home in Logan, Utah. Too much politics, particularly when he’s on social media sites like TikTok and Instagram, can trigger anxiety and depression.
“If it pops up on my page when I’m on social media,” he said, “I’ll just scroll past it.”
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Sanders reported from Washington. David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder.
The AP poll of 1,019 adults was conducted July 29-August 8, 2024, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.0 percentage points.
