The Variant and the Election: throwing the Chief Electoral Officer under the bus.

 Guest Post by Ron Penney

The
announcement on Friday night that we now have the UK variant has certainly got
our attention. It is much more contagious, and contrary to what was said at the
press conference announcing the arrival of the UK variant, it is also likely
more virulent and may have an increase in mortality of 35%.
 

This
is a serious escalation in the pandemic and it did not need to happen.
 

It is
only recently that we have started to use rapid tests. Nova Scotia has been
using those tests for months to gauge community spread. If we had followed
their example we would have likely identified community spread much earlier and
taken the appropriate public health measures also much earlier and likely
nipped this in the bud, instead of being in the situation where we find
ourselves now. As a result NS has 14 active cases and we have 338.
 

We had
cases over two weeks ago which were of unknown origin. That was the time to
have gone to level 5.
 

And
then when we knew we had a problem a week ago the restrictions were announced
in fits and starts. First the high school in Mount Pearl was closed, then all
the high schools and then all schools. And then restrictions less than level 5
in this region were announced, which only caused confusion, and then the
extension of those restrictions to the rest of the province, and then finally
to Level 5, which ought to have happened at least two weeks ago.
 

We had
all thought of ourselves as the New Zealand of North America but the difference
with them is that once they have a single unexplained case lockdown is
immediate.

They
just had three cases of the same variant in Auckland, with a population seven
times larger than the St. John’s metropolitan area, and went immediately into
an immediate 3 day lockdown. They acted quickly and we dithered. The result is
they have had only 3 additional cases in the community and we have had over
300. They have determined that there is no community spread because they test
their wastewater. A number of jurisdictions in Canada do that but not us, of
course. 

And we
may well lose the capacity to do contract tracing as the number of cases
increase, if that isn’t already the case, and our testing capacity has been
overwhelmed. Then there is the knockdown effect on elective surgeries and routine
blood work. And of course we have the hundreds of families who have had to
endure a two week self isolation and the stress of waiting for a test result.
 

Related:

When Does Granny (and Grandpa) get the Vaccine?

In
Australia, where a few cases in a hotel in Melbourne was responded to by a snap
5 day lockdown, with only a few cases yesterday, which has allowed the
reopening of the Australian Open to limited live attendance. There are only 43
active cases in all of Australia. They have had quarantine hotels where all
travelers have to go on arrival for months. It is only now that Canada has
introduced such a measure.
 

Australia
is federal state like Canada but they have been far more successful in
controlling the spread of the virus than we have been, with the exception of NS
and PEI.
 

We
have failed to take advantage of our geography and are paying the price.
 

What
was a public health success may well become a public health disaster,
particularly if it gets into personal care homes and long term care facilities,
whose residents haven’t been vaccinated yet.
 

We
have been blamed for “complacency” but we have dutifully followed the public
health lead. It’s the direct result of the decisions to open up the hospitality
industry and competitive sports which have caused this, not our complacency.
And it had to come here through travel so it represents a failure of our travel
restrictions.
 

Because
of my age I’ve not taken advantage of any those opportunities but because
others have, with public health approval, I’m now placed at much higher risk
for getting a much more contagious and deadly variant and I’m not happy about
it.
 

And
then we had as a result, an unnecessary and drawn out farce about our how our
election would take place, an election which I have pointed out in an earlier
blog was unnecessary and  designed to
take place before the interim report by Dame Moya Greene, due at the end of
February.
 

The
Chief Electoral Officer has taken the brunt of the criticism for the confusion
over the running of the election but I have a lot of sympathy for him and I
think the blame lies elsewhere.
 

He
knew that he didn’t have the legal authority to have an election with two
polling days. The Elections Act requires the election to be held on the same day
with the exception of individual polls where for weather or other reasons it
has to be delayed on a day to day basis. How do we know that he knew he didn’t
have the legal authority? It’s in his initial statements.
 

Public
health said that they could not change the election date based on legal advice
and that is correct.
 

But as
we have now seen, it is the interplay between public health measures and the
election that is the key. Public Health can’t directly change the election date
or how an election is conducted but it can indirectly cause that to happen.
 

We
know that because once we went to level 5, gatherings of more than 5 people
were prohibited, which meant that the use of polling stations was prohibited
and the Chief Electoral Officer had to move to special ballots and vote by
mail. One decision led inexorably to the other.
 

All
this confusion was caused by two factors, the delay in going to level 5, and
the failure of senior public officials to exercise leadership. Instead we saw
an unseemly public passing of the buck from one public official to another. We
needed to have public health officials and Election NL jointly address the
problem rather then having dueling press conferences and media releases.
 

The
Chief Electoral Officer did what he did because he had no choice. His poll
workers refused to work and public health refused to act in a timely fashion.
His reputation has suffered a serious blow and it is unfair to him.
 

He
ought not to have being placed in the position where he was forced to organize
an election in the dead of winter and in the middle of a global pandemic. It is
true that under the current law the Premier was required to hold an election by
August, but that law could have been changed by the House of Assembly, and in
any event August is not February. Even with the roll out of the vaccine at
Canada’s snail’s pace most of us should have been vaccinated by the summer.
 

Everyone
in my age cohort in the UK either has had the vaccine or been offered it, which
is why the UK variant poses less of a risk there than it does here, because
people at the highest risk are protected there. We have the oldest population
in Canada with most of us having another risk factor, which makes the
appearance of the variant very dangerous here. And there is no sign of the
vaccine, and in the case of Newfoundland, only those over 85 are given
priority, contrary to federal guidelines. Four other provinces are giving
priority to those over 70.
 

There
is a constitutional convention that during an election the politicians who are
the government not use their office for political advantage. That has certainly
gone by the wayside.

Everyday
we see the Premier and Minister of Health participate improperly in the
briefings and I suspect that will continue during the extended election
campaign. The reason they are doing so is to take advantage of their profession
and subtlety ask us who they would prefer to be heading up the government
during a public health crisis, a lawyer, economist or medical doctors! And, of
course they want to be seen with the Chief Medical Officer of Health, who is by
a large margin the most popular person in the province at present.
 

The
Minister of Health does appear to have a command of the facts. He would make an
excellent Deputy Minister of Health no doubt, but the fact is that he isn’t the
Deputy Minister of Health, and it is that person who should be at the podium
during an election.
 

In
addition, the Minister of Education has held a joint press conference with the
CEO of the English School District to announce various initiatives for online
education, which the CEO could have and should have announced himself.
 

All to
keep in the public eye during this extended election period.
 

It is
unlikely that the recent extensions to the special ballot process will be the
last one, because the job of supplying special ballots to tens of thousands of
voters is a complex administrative task at a time when very few people want to
put themselves in a position where they might be exposed to the virus.  More importantly, many voters will require
help to navigate the online application process to get a special ballot.
Adverse weather conditions may well effect mail delivery.
 

It is
likely that voter turnout will be adversely effected and if it is below 50% the
legitimacy of the election result may well be called into question.
 

The
only way that litigation can be avoided is to have in person voting, so the
finalization of the election should be delayed until that is possible.
 

But on
the bright side my wish to have the Greene Report released prior to the
election may well be accomplished and we can the cast our vote in a far more
informed manner.
 

If the
Government fails to immediately release the report at the end of the month it
will make a travesty of an already deeply flawed election.

My
advice, wait until you see the report before sending your special ballot in.

REMEMBERING BILL MARSHALL

Bill left public life shortly after the signing of the Atlantic Accord and became a member of the Court of Appeal until his retirement in 2003. During his time on the court he was involved in a number of successful appeals which overturned wrongful convictions, for which he was recognized by Innocence Canada. Bill had a special place in his heart for the underdog.

Churchill Falls Explainer (Coles Notes version)

If CFLCo is required to maximize its profit, then CFLCo should sell its electricity to the highest bidder(s) on the most advantageous terms available.

END OF THE UPPER CHURCHILL POWER CONTRACT: IMPROVING OUR BARGAINING POWER

This is the most important set of negotiations we have engaged in since the Atlantic Accord and Hibernia. Despite being a small jurisdiction we proved to be smart and nimble enough to negotiate good deals on both. They have stood the test of time and have resulted in billions of dollars in royalties and created an industry which represents over a quarter of our economy. Will we prove to be smart and nimble enough to do the same with the Upper Churchill?