The coronavirus health crisis seems to be over. But the economic and constitutional crises continue.
National-level data show that the number of new COVID-19 cases peaked on April 4. Since then, they have declined 22 percent. In New York, the worst of the virus hot spots, the net change in total hospitalizations began to decline April 2 and, by April 13, more people were leaving hospitals than entering them. In addition, the predicted overload of New York’s hospital bed space never happened.
To put things further into perspective, there are currently about 526,000 active diagnosed cases of coronavirus among 329 million Americans. That is, 99.85 percent of the population do not have the virus. This is nowhere near the tens of hundreds of millions of cases some experts predicted only recently.
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Some might argue these radically lower numbers are evidence of the success of the social lockdown measures the government has imposed on us. But even the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cannot claim convincingly that “social distancing” is effective in slowing the spread of this ill-understood virus. In fact, a new study out of Israel shows that the coronavirus timeline is the same across countries whether they locked down or not.
We have not seen death and other data for Americans denied access to “elective” medical care due to the effective shutdown of the health care system. There are no models that show the ongoing destruction of health care jobs.
The bigger issue is that we can’t have adequate health care without a strong economy. While only a small percentage of Americans have caught the virus, almost everybody has been affected by the government’s response to the pandemic. Tens of millions are out of work. Businesses are shutting down.
This pain is not spread evenly. Have any “non-essential” federal workers been laid off? Or is just the private sector supposed to go through all the economic “inconvenience” of the coronavirus shutdown? The problem, of course, is that millions of unemployed, small and medium-sized business owners and families have too few advocates in the government or the media.
The consequences of this national shutdown, apart from any pandemic, are dire and will not be materially alleviated by government spending. Budget-busting federal stimulus packages may offer temporary relief, but the best stimulus is opening America back up for business.
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The Constitution also is under threat, thanks to shutdown orders by governors. People are being fined for attending worship services, detained for running on empty beaches, and arrested for not wearing masks in public. Meanwhile, some in the media promote on your neighbors for supposed violations, seeking to make us into a nation of informants.
The political left has used the pandemic to push its fanciful concept of a “mail-in” 2020 election, which would open the process to unprecedented fraud. Under its plan, ballots would be mailed to everyone whether requested or not; unlicensed ballot harvesters would collect and drop off ballots in bulk; voter ID would be nonexistent.
And many in the media seem to have zero interest in coverage that might lead to reopening the economy. Instead, they are pushing the shutdown drama narrative, ignoring positive statistics and encouraging states to resist federal advice to reopen. Common-sense outbreaks such as in South Dakota are mischaracterized as irresponsible and dangerous. And every effort by the Trump administration to move toward or even discuss reopening the country, in whole or in part, is criticized as a dire threat to public safety, regardless of the economic consequences of maintaining the lockdown.
We can’t wait until May to reopen, which would mean tens of millions more unemployed, further erosion of our liberties, and untold destruction to our national fabric. The president should push back on governors resisting efforts to reopen the economy and who continue to suppress Americans’ constitutional rights.
The national coronavirus response has been a radical experiment on the American people that destroyed our economy and harmed our liberty. We’ve got to get the country moving again — because, when it comes to the nation’s long-term public health, a strong economy is the best insurance. It doesn’t mean you can’t take significant steps, continue reasonable restrictions to secure the public health, whether at the border or internally, and focus on treating new COVID-19 outbreaks as needed. But we’ve got to get people back to work, back to school, in a regular, organized way while balancing the public health risk. We can’t let the cure kill the patient.
Tom Fitton is president of Judicial Watch, a conservative nonprofit educational and government-watchdog foundation.
OTTAWA – Canada’s unemployment rate held steady at 6.5 per cent last month as hiring remained weak across the economy.
Statistics Canada’s labour force survey on Friday said employment rose by a modest 15,000 jobs in October.
Business, building and support services saw the largest gain in employment.
Meanwhile, finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing experienced the largest decline.
Many economists see weakness in the job market continuing in the short term, before the Bank of Canada’s interest rate cuts spark a rebound in economic growth next year.
Despite ongoing softness in the labour market, however, strong wage growth has raged on in Canada. Average hourly wages in October grew 4.9 per cent from a year ago, reaching $35.76.
Friday’s report also shed some light on the financial health of households.
According to the agency, 28.8 per cent of Canadians aged 15 or older were living in a household that had difficulty meeting financial needs – like food and housing – in the previous four weeks.
That was down from 33.1 per cent in October 2023 and 35.5 per cent in October 2022, but still above the 20.4 per cent figure recorded in October 2020.
People living in a rented home were more likely to report difficulty meeting financial needs, with nearly four in 10 reporting that was the case.
That compares with just under a quarter of those living in an owned home by a household member.
Immigrants were also more likely to report facing financial strain last month, with about four out of 10 immigrants who landed in the last year doing so.
That compares with about three in 10 more established immigrants and one in four of people born in Canada.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
The Canadian Institute for Health Information says health-care spending in Canada is projected to reach a new high in 2024.
The annual report released Thursday says total health spending is expected to hit $372 billion, or $9,054 per Canadian.
CIHI’s national analysis predicts expenditures will rise by 5.7 per cent in 2024, compared to 4.5 per cent in 2023 and 1.7 per cent in 2022.
This year’s health spending is estimated to represent 12.4 per cent of Canada’s gross domestic product. Excluding two years of the pandemic, it would be the highest ratio in the country’s history.
While it’s not unusual for health expenditures to outpace economic growth, the report says this could be the case for the next several years due to Canada’s growing population and its aging demographic.
Canada’s per capita spending on health care in 2022 was among the highest in the world, but still less than countries such as the United States and Sweden.
The report notes that the Canadian dental and pharmacare plans could push health-care spending even further as more people who previously couldn’t afford these services start using them.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
As Canadians wake up to news that Donald Trump will return to the White House, the president-elect’s protectionist stance is casting a spotlight on what effect his second term will have on Canada-U.S. economic ties.
Some Canadian business leaders have expressed worry over Trump’s promise to introduce a universal 10 per cent tariff on all American imports.
A Canadian Chamber of Commerce report released last month suggested those tariffs would shrink the Canadian economy, resulting in around $30 billion per year in economic costs.
More than 77 per cent of Canadian exports go to the U.S.
Canada’s manufacturing sector faces the biggest risk should Trump push forward on imposing broad tariffs, said Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters president and CEO Dennis Darby. He said the sector is the “most trade-exposed” within Canada.
“It’s in the U.S.’s best interest, it’s in our best interest, but most importantly for consumers across North America, that we’re able to trade goods, materials, ingredients, as we have under the trade agreements,” Darby said in an interview.
“It’s a more complex or complicated outcome than it would have been with the Democrats, but we’ve had to deal with this before and we’re going to do our best to deal with it again.”
American economists have also warned Trump’s plan could cause inflation and possibly a recession, which could have ripple effects in Canada.
It’s consumers who will ultimately feel the burden of any inflationary effect caused by broad tariffs, said Darby.
“A tariff tends to raise costs, and it ultimately raises prices, so that’s something that we have to be prepared for,” he said.
“It could tilt production mandates. A tariff makes goods more expensive, but on the same token, it also will make inputs for the U.S. more expensive.”
A report last month by TD economist Marc Ercolao said research shows a full-scale implementation of Trump’s tariff plan could lead to a near-five per cent reduction in Canadian export volumes to the U.S. by early-2027, relative to current baseline forecasts.
Retaliation by Canada would also increase costs for domestic producers, and push import volumes lower in the process.
“Slowing import activity mitigates some of the negative net trade impact on total GDP enough to avoid a technical recession, but still produces a period of extended stagnation through 2025 and 2026,” Ercolao said.
Since the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement came into effect in 2020, trade between Canada and the U.S. has surged by 46 per cent, according to the Toronto Region Board of Trade.
With that deal is up for review in 2026, Canadian Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Candace Laing said the Canadian government “must collaborate effectively with the Trump administration to preserve and strengthen our bilateral economic partnership.”
“With an impressive $3.6 billion in daily trade, Canada and the United States are each other’s closest international partners. The secure and efficient flow of goods and people across our border … remains essential for the economies of both countries,” she said in a statement.
“By resisting tariffs and trade barriers that will only raise prices and hurt consumers in both countries, Canada and the United States can strengthen resilient cross-border supply chains that enhance our shared economic security.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
