Canada's biggest province slowly reopens Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here to get it delivered weekday mornings. Ontario Premier Doug Ford unveiled his three-point reopening plan. The province will slowly reopen, starting with small outdoor gatherings and limited non-essential retail this weekend. Next up in three weeks, larger outdoor groups and limited indoor hangs. The final step involves more indoor gatherings (sports! casinos! bingo halls!). The province will wait at least 21 days between phases, and everything is contingent on hitting vaccination targets, which for that third phase means 70 to 80 per cent of adults with one dose and one in four with two doses. Golfers, a flummoxed bunch who wondered why they couldn't walk around a manicured park for a few hours with no one else in sight, can hit the links as early as tomorrow. Border mix-up: Only a few days ago, Ottawa seemed to confirm that Canadians could cross into the U.S. for a vaccine dose and return without quarantining. Then, American border guards reiterated that's not allowed, even though some Canadians already have. Yesterday, the Public Health Agency of Canada said that quarantines were still mandatory. Either way, the land border will stay closed to most of us until at least June 21 (though negotiations are ongoing). Not running again: Nunavut's NDP MP, Mumilaaq Qaqqaq, is bowing out of another run for office. Qaqqaq published a letter in which she reflected on her term—which started with an upset win. "My passion for advancing the rights of Inuit and Nunavummiut does not end here," she wrote. "We still have a lot of time together and I will continue to advocate for Nunavummiut to the best of my ability." Of course, it's up to the Commons to decide how much time is "a lot." Flight 752: An Ontario court ruled the Ukrainian International Airlines plane that was shot down in Iran on Jan. 8, 2020, killing 55 Canadian citizens and 30 permanent residents, was shot down intentionally—and an act of terrorism. Foreign Minister Marc Garneau has said the feds will negotiate reparations with the Iranian government. Polling on low carbon: Natural Resources Canada asked Environics Research to take the nation's temperature on a transition to cleaner energy. The feds recently published the results online. They showed most respondents agreeing that solar, wind and hydroelectric energy are environmentally friendly. Hydroelectric scored the lowest of the three at 76 per cent (the Site C dam was surely on some minds). Less than half of Canadians (43 per cent) added nuclear power to the group. Respondents were also more likely to believe industry needs to contribute more to the transition than individuals. Six steps to save summer: The co-chair of Canada's COVID-19 Immunity Task Force, David Naylor, joined Unity Health Toronto's Fahad Razak and Arthur Slutsky in Maclean's to offer advice on how Canada can beat back the pandemic and enjoy a more normal sunny season. "Vaccines are doing all that was hoped of them," they write. Let’s take the other steps needed to position Canada for a good summer and an even better fall." From chart to finish: Trevor Tombe and Blake Shaffer, the Alberta economists fixated on outdoing each other's visualizations of Canada's quickening vaccine rollout, are now setting their animations to music. Pick your favourite soundtrack: Carmina Burana's "O Fortuna" versus Queen's "We are the Champions". A not-so-minor adjustment: Federal officials, including the Prime Minister, had stated on the record that Canada could expect to receive up to 50 million COVID-19 vaccine doses by the end of June. Yesterday, the new military commander in charge of the rollout campaign, Brig.-Gen. Krista Brodie, revised that number downward to in and around 40 million. Not a trivial change—and the big question is, not for the first time, the reliability of Moderna. That company's projected deliveries are absent from the federal vaccine tracking website. It's been a while: When the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs last faced off in the Stanley Cup playoffs, another Trudeau was still Prime Minister. Anne Murray's "I just fall in love again" was about to top the charts in Canada. And the day after the Habs won the Cup with future cabinet minister Ken Dryden in net, Joe Clark won a federal election. Yesterday, Procurement Minister Anita Anand marked the occasion with an action shot of a GIF , but donned the jersey of Phil Kessel, a prolific goalscorer who potted a goal and notched an assist during the Leafs' epic collapse against the Boston Bruins. This is my last edition of the Politics Insider newsletter. Every email from every reader was, by me, appreciated. You were kind, blunt, gracious and nasty—especially when I went overboard with snark. If you received all 272 of these under my byline, thanks for sticking with me. The newsletter will live on; you'll just see a different name at the end. Keep on subscribing. —Nick Taylor-Vaisey | 