Most federal parties are dipping into the CEWS Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here to get it delivered weekday mornings. While the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy was marketed toward small and mid-sized businesses, the political machines are also dipping in. Over the weekend, the federal Liberals, NDP, Conservatives and Greens have all applied for CEWS. (All but the Greens have been approved; the Bloc have no interest in applying.) CEWS is the government's wage subsidy, paying employees up to 75 per cent of their normal wages. The parties rely mostly on donations, which have dried up this year following one of the worst fundraising spring seasons in history. The Liberals employ about 100 people outside of election time; the Tories have 60, and the NDP between 35 and 40 full- and part-timers. It's not just federal parties, either. Alberta's United Conservatives have also applied for the same financial reasons. (Alberta's NDP, who employ just eight people, said they have no plans to.) Certainly more parties will announce their intentions for a little government aid in the coming days. Sunday Funday. Thanks to some beautiful weekend weather, hundreds of Torontonians flocked downtown to Trinity Bellwoods Park, flaunting social-distancing rules, leaving piles of trash and frustrating municipal and provincial politicians. Mayor John Tory went down there personally to figure out what the heck these people were doing, and, like a disappointed parent, later said in a statement, "I know from talking to them tonight these are smart people who simply have to do better going forward." Premier Doug Ford was not so gentle. While not resorting to calling these hipsters "a bunch of yahoos" (a song of the summer contender), he told reporters Bellwoods "looked like a rock concert." The stakes are higher for Ontario, which saw its seventh consecutive day of missed COVID testing on Saturday, issuing only 11,383 tests against a daily benchmark of 16,000. Ford specifically added, for the first time, that people who are not showing symptoms can go get tested. A tense moment. At a House of Commons committee meeting Friday, Health Minister Patty Hajdu cut off Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam during a question asked about Canada's national stockpile of personal protective equipment. The question came from NDP MP Matthew Green, who asked Hajdu whether there had been warnings about an underfunded stockpile of PPE; Hajdu almost answered the question, saying she'd only been health minister for two months before the pandemic struck. Green then asked the same question to Tam, but Hajdu didn't give her a chance to answer : "Actually I’ll answer that, because the conversations at cabinet are private as the member knows." The unusual interjection prompted the Conservatives to accuse Hajdu of "muzzling" Canada's top doctor. It was a good moment for the Tories' current message track: demanding government transparency. On Friday, party leader Andrew Scheer reiterated his call for the government to allow for more in-person House meetings, pushing for Parliament to be declared an "essential service." He laid out a vision that included reduced staff, more masks and fewer MPs. For a while, Scheer's argument fell flat against the severity of the pandemic; now that even Goodwill stores are reopening, one has to wonder when the government will follow. Masks off, masks on. After Theresa Tam shifted her stance on wearing masks in public (official recommendation: do it), many critics pointed out the seeming hypocrisy, since she'd recommended against masks about two months ago. Writing in Maclean's, Inderveer Mahal notes that the goal with a pandemic isn’t to remain consistent; it's to respond to new information. As countries re-open, and economies start up again, the core principles that have allowed the pandemic to be contained, like isolation and social distancing, will become less practical. Physical distancing isn’t exactly possible when you’re getting a haircut. So instead, we’ll have to shift our attention to measures like widespread masking. When better preventative options—like distancing and hand hygiene—aren’t available or practical, wearing a face mask becomes the next best option. Cloth masks are a tool we have in our pockets as our communities across Canada re-open. Take our money, please. Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau is asking Canada's farmers to take the government up on existing agricultural support programs to help with the fallout from COVID-19, before the federal Liberals can offer up any more. To wit, Bibeau told reporters, over the last five years the government has earmarked $1.6 billion into three programs that could be helping struggling farms right now. "Please go and get this money and then it will be much easier for me to identify the gaps and to get the money where it should be going," she said. There can be only one. The Canadian government is hoping to adopt one single contact-tracing app, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday. Contact-tracing apps are like herd immunity: they only work if everyone has them. But it has to be the same app, otherwise the system falls apart. After Alberta released its own app, critics began questioning what the future will look like, if we have dozens of different companies creating their own versions. Apple and Google have already created the software in their phones, but are leaving it to individual governments to figure out which app to use. Not quiet on the eastern front. A Canadian-led NATO battle group was the target of a pandemic-related disinformation campaign in Latvia, with its origins likely in Russia. The campaign claimed the NATO outpost near Riga, the Latvian capital, was suffering a surging outbreak of COVID-19 that was spreading into the city. While the local government swatted down those false reports fairly quickly, it marks the latest in a years-long effort by Russians to sew distrust of the Western deployment in the Baltics. Homecoming. The body of Jennifer Casey, the RCMP captain who died in a Snowbirds crash last week, was flown to her hometown of Halifax over the weekend for a procession through the city on Sunday afternoon, from the airport to Halifax's north end and a few popular spots she frequented while growing up there. Governor-General Julie Payette attended, while hundreds of locals stood on the streets to pay tribute. —Michael Fraiman | 
