What went right—and then badly wrong Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here to get it delivered weekday mornings. It'll be news when Canada's sputtering COVID-19 vaccine rollout doesn't face a new setback. Yesterday, Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin admitted that federal officials don't know the extent of the temporary reduction in future Moderna shipments, nor do they know why deliveries are delayed in the first place. And just a day after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Novavax doses would eventually be produced in Montreal, Procurement Minister Anita Anand acknowledged that every other manufacturer turned down Canada's request for domestic production. Ouch. On the bright side, Anand told a parliamentary committee that Health Canada approval of more vaccines could actually accelerate the government's timeline for getting every Canadian a shot. In her latest Vaxx Populi entry, Patricia Treble answers a burning question: What do we know about the Novavax vaccine, anyway? You might have noticed your regular newsletter correspondent's occasional absence in recent weeks. There was a reason for that. This month's cover story tells the inside story of Canada's vaccine rollout—what went amazingly right and then horribly wrong. You'll meet Patrick Bergstedt, the affable Moderna senior executive who was eager to do a deal with Canada. Arianne Reza, the head of procurement in Ottawa, explained the nature of high-stakes pandemic negotiations. Mark Lievonen and Joanne Langley talk through the COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force's recommendations. Brad Sorenson , a Canadian vaccine maker on the outside looking in, talks about his frustration with the feds. And the story starts with Agnes Mills, a legendary Canadian you've probably never heard of—and the first Yukoner vaccinated against the coronavirus. Mills’ single inoculation was an early milestone in Canada’s desperate, stubborn quest for normalcy—a remarkable but still infinitesimally small step in a massive immunization campaign, the largest in Canadian history, meant to beat COVID-19. That campaign needs doses, and a federal bureaucracy upended by the pandemic has been duking it out with the richest countries in the world for what is now the hottest commodity on the planet. Without the ability to produce COVID-19 vaccines at home, Ottawa is bargaining with a powerful pharmaceutical industry that holds all of the cards. And the feds are racing against the clock. Every day without vaccines means more sickness, tragedy and preventable death. This is a story with a lot of ups and plenty of downs. And it makes for a striking Maclean's cover. Remote work write-off: The parliamentary budget officer did the math on a new federal tax deduction that millions of Canadians will likely claim. Ottawa announced a maximum $400 deduction—no detailed paperwork required—for anyone who worked from home more than 50 per cent of the time for four consecutive weeks. Taxpayers can claim $2 a day. The PBO pegged the cost to the federal bottom line at $260 million next year. The solution to economic woes: Tory leader Erin O'Toole, frustrated with a government he thinks is letting down Canadians, doesn't want the Liberals to muck up Canada's economic recovery. His big idea: a committee! "Very Canadian," quipped fellow Maclean's bureau denizen Marie-Danielle Smith. O'Toole hopes the all-party group would focus on the future of Canada-U.S. relations in a world with a President Biden. The Tories want to focus on the threat of Buy American provisions and the prospect that another cross-border pipeline—Enbridge's Line 5–could get axed by enviro-minded politicians. We took a gander at the list of House of Commons e-petitions open for signature. The top petition at the moment, with 14,333 signatories gathered in under two weeks, calls on the federal government to help seniors in Quebec by increasing old-age security payments, boosting health transfers with aging populations factored into the formula, making broadband internet an essential service and compensating seniors groups for lower membership. A brewing fight: Dominion Voting Systems, the company founded in Canada that was eventually caught up in wild—and debunked—accusations of voter fraud in the U.S. presidential election, is taking the offensive. Dominion is now suing Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell for defamation. New York Times columnist Ben Smith tweeted Dominion's request that YouTube preserve certain posts related to the "disinformation campaign" levelled against the purveyor of voting technology. Here's who's on the list the list. —Nick Taylor-Vaisey | 