Only in this pandemic era would the results of a clinic trial be a major news story, but here we are: Moderna, a U.S. pharmaceutical firm, says its latest data show its proposed COVID-19 vaccine is 94.5 per cent effective.
In more good news, the proposed vaccine shows no ill side effects so far and can remain stable at normal refrigeration temperatures for a month – which will greatly help distribution, if the medicine is eventually approved by health regulators.
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It follows news from Pfizer that their vaccine candidate is also progressing through trials successfully.
Both companies are among the drugmakers that Canada has signed deals with to secure millions of doses of supply when the time comes.
Today’s announcement offers hope that we are moving one step closer to eventually finding a way out of the months-long public-health emergency we are in.
That said, the journey to widespread vaccine use will not be easy. Canada is in the middle of a rapidly worsening COVID situation, and new cases and hospitalizations continue to climb. Infectious-disease experts are urging governments to enact new lockdowns to push case counts down to zero.
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TODAY’S HEADLINES
Bob Rae, the Canadian ambassador to the United Nations, said on the weekend that what the Chinese government has done to Uyghur people would fit the definition of genocide. A Chinese spokesperson, in turn, said no, it’s Canada that is committing genocide.
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The Liberal government says it plans to require broadcasters to include Indigenous programming, as part of the reforms being made to the Broadcasting Act. “One could argue that it is one of the main elements of the reform to correct this historical mistake,” Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault told The Globe.
The Federation of Canadian Municipalities is asking the federal government to dramatically increase spending on a program that buys out struggling hotels and turns them into affordable housing.
The House of Commons finance committee may soon be able to get back to work, after the Liberals have agreed to end a weeks-long filibuster by providing more unredacted documents related to WE Charity.
Two independent expert reports say that solitary confinement has continued at Canadian prisons, despite a new government policy put in place last year to end the practice.
New documents shed light on how Canada helped rescue the White Helmet volunteer medics from Syria – but raise questions about why 10 people and their families have been left behind.
And former U.S. president Barack Obama has a new book coming out this week: A Promised Land, the first part of his two-part presidential memoirs. In a Q-and-A with The Atlantic, Mr. Obama describes what he sees as a democracy under threat by conspiracy theories spread by a fragmented media landscape and accelerated, though not began, by Donald Trump, whom he at one point refers to as a “carnival barker.” “If we do not have the capacity to distinguish what’s true from what’s false,” he says, “then by definition the marketplace of ideas doesn’t work.”
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Campbell Clark (The Globe and Mail) on attempts to make U.S. president-elect Joe Biden change his mind about Keystone XL: “Both the feds and Alberta government privately think saving the pipeline is a long shot. There are glimmers of hope: The project has significant union backing, and Mr. Biden is closely allied with labour. But the president-elect’s campaign promise was unequivocal. And many Democrats support it.”
Craig Alexander (The Globe and Mail) on planning for an economic recovery: “However, the current crisis also creates an opportunity to fundamentally rethink public policy as a catalyst for long-term prosperity. It is not adequately understood that Canada was not on the path to prosperity before the pandemic. An aging work force, low investment and poor productivity meant the sustainable pace of economic growth over the next decade would be only 1.7 per cent a year. As a result, the improvement in Canadians’ standard of living would be slow. But bold policy changes now can create stronger sustained growth.”
Erna Paris (The Globe and Mail) on when freedom has limits: “Like the French, many Americans hold rigid commitments to absolute free speech – and to freedom in general. But it is precisely this foundational ideology of libertarian freedom that is propelling what was the world’s most admired nation into tragedy.”
Jean Teillet (The Globe and Mail) on enduring calls to pardon Louis Riel, her great granduncle: “The Métis Nation has never sought state clemency for Riel because, in their view, Riel doesn’t need exoneration. Canada does. Canada would not be exonerating Riel. It would, like Trump’s pardon, be exonerating itself. Perhaps the better move would be for the Métis Nation, in the spirit of reconciliation, to convene a process to consider exonerating Canada.”
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WINNIPEG – The federal New Democrats have kept a longtime stronghold in the Elmwood-Transcona riding in Winnipeg.
The NDP’s Leila Dance won a close battle over Conservative candidate Colin Reynolds, and says the community has spoken in favour of priorities such as health care and the cost of living.
Elmwood-Transcona has elected a New Democrat in every election except one since the riding was formed in 1988.
The seat became open after three-term member of Parliament Daniel Blaikie resigned in March to take a job with the Manitoba government.
A political analyst the NDP is likely relieved to have kept the seat in what has been one of their strongest urban areas.
Christopher Adams, an adjunct professor of political studies at the University of Manitoba, says NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh worked hard to keep the seat in a tight race.
“He made a number of visits to Winnipeg, so if they had lost this riding it would have been disastrous for the NDP,” Adams said.
The strong Conservative showing should put wind in that party’s sails, Adams added, as their percentage of the popular vote in Elmwood-Transcona jumped sharply from the 2021 election.
“Even though the Conservatives lost this (byelection), they should walk away from it feeling pretty good.”
Dance told reporters Monday night she wants to focus on issues such as the cost of living while working in Ottawa.
“We used to be able to buy a cart of groceries for a hundred dollars and now it’s two small bags. That is something that will affect everyone in this riding,” Dance said.
Liberal candidate Ian MacIntyre placed a distant third,
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau say the Liberals have “all sorts of reflections” to make after losing a second stronghold in a byelection in Montreal Monday night.
His comments come as the Liberal cabinet gathers for its first regularly scheduled meeting of the fall sitting of Parliament, which began Monday.
Trudeau’s Liberals were hopeful they could retain the Montreal riding of LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, but those hopes were dashed after the Bloc Québécois won it in an extremely tight three-way race with the NDP.
Louis-Philippe Sauvé, an administrator at the Institute for Research in Contemporary Economics, beat Liberal candidate Laura Palestini by less than 250 votes. The NDP finished about 600 votes back of the winner.
It is the second time in three months that Trudeau’s party lost a stronghold in a byelection. In June, the Conservatives defeated the Liberals narrowly in Toronto-St. Paul’s.
The Liberals won every seat in Toronto and almost every seat on the Island of Montreal in the last election, and losing a seat in both places has laid bare just how low the party has fallen in the polls.
“Obviously, it would have been nicer to be able to win and hold (the Montreal riding), but there’s more work to do and we’re going to stay focused on doing it,” Trudeau told reporters ahead of this morning’s cabinet meeting.
When asked what went wrong for his party, Trudeau responded “I think there’s all sorts of reflections to take on that.”
In French, he would not say if this result puts his leadership in question, instead saying his team has lots of work to do.
Bloc leader Yves-François Blanchet will hold a press conference this morning, but has already said the results are significant for his party.
“The victory is historic and all of Quebec will speak with a stronger voice in Ottawa,” Blanchet wrote on X, shortly after the winner was declared.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and his party had hoped to ride to a win in Montreal on the popularity of their candidate, city councillor Craig Sauvé, and use it to further their goal of replacing the Liberals as the chief alternative to the Conservatives.
The NDP did hold on to a seat in Winnipeg in a tight race with the Conservatives, but the results in Elmwood-Transcona Monday were far tighter than in the last several elections. NDP candidate Leila Dance defeated Conservative Colin Reynolds by about 1,200 votes.
Singh called it a “big victory.”
“Our movement is growing — and we’re going to keep working for Canadians and building that movement to stop Conservative cuts before they start,” he said on social media.
“Big corporations have had their governments. It’s the people’s time.”
New Democrats recently pulled out of their political pact with the government in a bid to distance themselves from the Liberals, making the prospects of a snap election far more likely.
Trudeau attempted to calm his caucus at their fall retreat in Nanaimo, B.C, last week, and brought former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney on as an economic adviser in a bid to shore up some credibility with voters.
The latest byelection loss will put more pressure on him as leader, with many polls suggesting voter anger is more directed at Trudeau himself than at Liberal policies.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
The New Democrats have declared a federal byelection victory in their Winnipeg stronghold riding of Elmwood—Transcona.
The NDP candidate Leila Dance told supporters in a tearful speech that even though the final results weren’t in, she expected she would see them in Ottawa.
With several polls still to be counted, Conservative candidate Colin Reynolds conceded defeat and told his volunteers that they should be proud of what the Conservatives accomplished in the campaign.
Political watchers had a keen eye on the results to see if the Tories could sway traditionally NDP voters on issues related to labour and affordability.
Meanwhile in the byelection race in the Montreal riding of LaSalle—Émard—Verdun the NDP, Liberals and Bloc Québécois remained locked in an extremely tight three-way race as the results trickled in slowly.
The Liberal stronghold riding had a record 91 names on the ballot, and the results aren’t expected until the early hours of the morning.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
