Category Archives: Canada

Trudeau Got Vaccinated. Again

The Early Morning (Well, Almost On Time) Covid Briefing Bingo

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Is it too early? It’s too early.

A nation cringes!

I’m calling it anyway: regular Wednesday 11:30am Covid briefings until we’re out of this whole “setting record highs in hospital admissions and new cases” mess, which could be March, if then. And of course during this pandemic when is the ONLY standing appointment I have each week? Wednesday, at 11am.

I feel seen.

Nonetheless, I have changed the appointment, because I WILL NOT BE THWARTED GODDAMMIT! I’m too bored. You wouldn’t like me when I’m bored. Hell, most people don’t even like me when I’m fully entertained.

So, come along with me as I attempt to wrest from a federal covid briefing all the entertainment value that may be latent therein, and quite a bit more if my English prof’s notes (“you have over-read this haiku, and I don’t have time to read fourteen pages”) are anything to go by. By which to go. Whatever.

Let’s start with some freshly-made outrage, shall we?

Do you (not) see what I (do not) see?

That’s right: NO MASKS! Shock! Horror! Also, we can’t see the Famous Tattoo from this angle! Call the DailyFail and the NatPoPo! Are we all outraged? Flushed with adrenaline and grasping for our phones? Good, good. My work here is done. Counts as aerobic exercise, people! Probably the most that some of us will get all year.

You see, I then looked at the date and it was 2018. *sad trombone* Doesn’t that seem like ancient history now? It was the Pre-Covidian Age, an era without masks. Masks are to 2022 what fedoras were to 1936. Just don’t tip them; tip your delivery worker!

Also, tips are a way for capitalists to push the burden of fair payment for workers off itself and onto its customers. The only wage should be a living wage.

But where was I before I scrambled to the top of my soapbox (don’t blame me, it’s the only way I can see from the cheap seats!). Right, about to start with the Covid briefing which is, for once, suspiciously almost on time.

Here’s our video:

On Parliament Hill, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau discusses the federal government’s response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the spread of the Omicron variant. He is joined by federal ministers Jean-Yves Duclos (health), Filomena Tassi (public services and procurement) and Mary Ng (international trade). Responding to questions from reporters, the prime minister comments on Quebec’s announcement that it is considering a financial penalty for residents who refuse to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Ten thousand views, by the Seven Hours Later point. Impressive, and possibly a record. People are much more engaged with this one than they were with earlier briefings, perhaps because the gravity of the situation, and the degree to which it was preventable all along, is beginning to sink in. Yeah, that’s what passes for optimism in my house at least these days.

And our cards:

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Covid Briefing Bingo, Welcome to 2022 Edition

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Well Possums, here we are again. What will we do for the two year anniversary of the Covid Briefing Bingo in May? I don’t know about you, but I’m already picking out a dress for the party.

Viktor and Rolf GET me

Let’s all sing the Covid Song!

I believe I can see the future
‘Cause I repeat the same routine
I think I used to have a purpose
Then again, that might have been a dream
I think I used to have a voice
Now I never make a sound
And I just do what I’ve been told
I really don’t want them to come around, oh no
Every day is exactly the same
Every day is exactly the same
There is no love here and there is no pain
Every day is exactly the same
I can feel their eyes are watching
In case I lose myself again
Sometimes I think I’m happy here
Sometimes, yet I still pretend
I can’t remember how this got started
But I can tell you exactly how it will end
Every day is exactly the same
Every day is exactly the same
There is no love here and there is no pain
Every day is exactly the same
I’m writing on a little piece of paper
I’m hoping someday I might find
Well I’ll hide it behind something
They wont look behind
I am still inside here
A little bit comes bleeding through
I wish this could’ve been any other way
But I just don’t know, I don’t know
What else I can do
Every day is exactly the same
Every day is exactly the same
There is no love here and there is no pain
Every day is exactly the same
Every day is exactly the same
Every day is exactly the same
There is no love here and there is no pain
Every day is exactly the same

In any case, by now you know how these work. Here’s our video from Cpac with 184 watching because NOBODY thinks Justin Trudeau will be on time, even if it’s just a videocast from his own house.

On Parliament Hill, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau discusses the federal government’s response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the spread of the Omicron variant. He is joined by federal ministers Chrystia Freeland (finance) and Jean-Yves Duclos (health), as well as Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, and Dr. Howard Njoo, deputy chief public health officer.

The intimacy of those home-based briefings is kind of ironic; it’s like being in a Zoom meeting with your boss’s boss’s boss’s boss, with him making jokey references to his youngest kid and trying to really connect, you know?

Nonetheless, that IS a substantial part of the man’s job, as others have pointed out.

It’s a whole thread, people!

Today we’re back at the office. No shirtsleeves here, folks! Here are our bingo cards. Do you think we should make new ones? We’re at ten now!

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Hadrien and Justin Trudeau en route to work

The Liminal Covid Briefing Bingo

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We’re baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack! Did you miss us, Possums? We missed you too. If we could, we’d buy each of you a copy of Iyanla Vanzant’s book In The Meantime, because that’s very much where we are: after an election, but before Parliament gets back to work.

Post-CERB, pre-UBI.

Jokers to the left of us, murderclowns to the right. Here you are, stuck in the liminal space with me.

Justin Trudeau is late, as usual.

Hadrien and Justin Trudeau en route to work
Quick, Maple Boy, TO THE DIEFENBUNKER!

We’ve got a full house down on Wellington Street, so mark your “Reporter sits in the front row” square. Either the political reportage class of Canada is deathly bored after an election OR they suspect big news. We’re back at the Soon-To-Be-Renamed-If-I’m-Any-Guesser Sir John A. MacDonald building, so I guess even the nomenclature is liminal today.

I was supposed to be finishing my degree as of September, but thanks to paperwork that got pushed to January, so this entire Fall season is liminal for me. As is the Covidian Age, for us all, Possums. For all of us.
Let’s hope it’s a soft landing, Possums.

Here’s our video, Possums. As usual, from CPAC, with a walloping 427 people watching. The reporters got quite the lecture from some young guy in jeans, to which they paid more attention than reporters pay most people, so it must have been important, but the sound was off. C’mon, CPAC, we want our inside scoop!

And our bingo cards are here:

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Ella-Grace, Sophie, Justin, and Hadrien Trudeau walk to Rideau Hall to meet the Governor General prior to her dissolving Parliament and calling an election.

Election Bingo, Rideau Hall Edition

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Here we are, Possums, outside Rideau Hall which once more has a Governor-General in residence, even though it isn’t me. Alas. YOU HAD YOUR CHANCE PEOPLE BUT NOOOOO.

But I’m over that.

Ella-Grace, Sophie, Justin, and Hadrien Trudeau walk to Rideau Hall to meet the Governor General prior to her dissolving Parliament and calling an election.
Ella-Grace, Sophie, Justin, and Hadrien Trudeau walk to Rideau Hall to meet the Governor General prior to her dissolving Parliament and calling an election.

Let’s get straight into it, because as usual I’ve left the blogging to the last minute. So here’s our video of the PM visiting the GG to ask her to dissolve Parliament (which is on vacation anyway) and call an election. Two days ago the Conservatives released a Not Officially Campaign Video on Twitter, one which was greeted with enthusiasm and relief. By everyone who opposes the Conservative Party. Because that thing is a mortifying clusterfuck. An expensive, mortifying clusterfuck produced by pricy foreign consultants that got ratioed all to hell on Twitter.

Behold:

And yesterday the Liberal campaign ad leaked or was handed to FactPointVideo (whoever they are) and posted on YouTube:

Oh oops, was he not supposed to do that? Was that bad?

Hey, mark your “Got your backs” square already! Shall we get into it? Let’s get into it, Possums.

No new Bingo cards for today, but we’ve got ten already from our Covid Briefing Bingo, so let’s use them.

Here is our video, with only 173 people watching. It’s not even the first day of the election and it seems like people are OVER it.

And here are our cards:

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Non-Election Election Bingo, Part the Second

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We’re here, we’re caffeinated, and we’re doing this, Possums. Today is the investiture of the new Governor-General, who is NOT me (despite my second-best-impaired-by-Long-Covid efforts). It is Mary Simon, who, unlike me, is actually qualified for the job.

Here’s the program for the event, and here’s our video, with a mere 155 people watching live:

Mary Simon is sworn in as Canada’s 30th governor general during an installation ceremony in the Senate chamber. The Inuk leader and former diplomat becomes the first Indigenous person to serve in the role.

Here are our bingo cards:

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