The vaccines have landed

30,000 down, hundreds of millions to go

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Yesterday evening, the first 30,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine landed on Canadian soil. More planes and trucks will arrive today, comprising a chunk of the 249,000 doses expected to arrive before the new year. Maj.-Gen Dany Fortin, informally known as Master Planner of the Rollout, reassured the CBC's Rosemary Barton yesterday that "the delivery schedule is unfolding exactly as planned." The inaugural vaccination will likely occur later today or tomorrow.

While early doses will go to seniors and frontline health care workers, Health Canada is warning anyone with allergies to the vaccine's ingredients to wait for a different one. Already in the United Kingdom, two vaccinated individuals have suffered severe allergic reactions to the Pfizer injections. If you're concerned, here's a list of the vaccine's ingredients.

American Republican Senator Ted Cruz took a passive-aggressive shot at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday. Cruz sub-tweeted a video wherein Trudeau announced the feds would pay for all vaccine costs so provinces wouldn't have to. "That's great," Cruz tweeted. "Just out of curiosity, which country was it that developed the vaccine?" The answer: Germany. Cruz has yet to explain why he (likely inadvertently) lauded a German-funded project led by a Turkish-German "power couple ," but, who knows, maybe the guy really digs immigrant-based international cooperation more than he lets on.

In the most gripping Canadian display of obsessive cross-country tracking since last summer's Kawhi Watch, tracking the vaccines from Germany to Canada is becoming a hotly anticipated public spectacle. UPS Canada kicked things off with the first images of the Canada-bound vaccine being produced in Cologne, Germany.

This morning, Minister of International Development Karina Gould and Procurement Minister Anita Anand will host a joint press conference at 11 a.m. Given the nature of their ministries, odds are high they'll discuss plans for donating extra vaccines to countries in need.

Let's keep this party going. As the country excitedly watches these first doses roll out, Anand told CTV she is in talks with Moderna to receive early deliveries of their vaccine as soon as it meets Health Canada's approval. With Pfizer-BioNTech out of the way, Moderna has jumped to the top of the line in Health Canada's regulatory queue. But even though it's coming later (no timeline yet, alas), it will at least be easier to transfer, since Moderna's vaccine doesn't have to be stored at minus-70-degree temperatures. That's good news for the northern territories, which have foregone the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for logistical reasons.

Have yourself a creepy COVID Christmas. "Nobody loves a house party more than COVID," according to a new nightmare-fuelled commercial launched by the government of Alberta. Their awareness website, covidloves.ca, assures Canadians that Covid loves "going to all the places, doing all the things and spreading the fun to everyone." If you haven't yet seen a video starring this horrifying anthropomorphic clown, it's worth 30 seconds of your life to do so now.

Carbon tax 2.0. Trudeau kicked off the weekend with a brazen announcement in unveiling his government's ambitious decade-long climate strategy. The key focus landed, inevitably, on the carbon tax, which will triple by 2030. Reactions were predictable: Green Party leader Annamie Paul said the plan should adopt newer targets instead of relying on old ones, while Conservatives attacked it for going too far. Ontario Premier Doug Ford, one of the tax's loudest critics, called it " the worst thing you could ever see." (Ford's comment may have carried more weight had it not followed a press conference about Ontario's continued spike in deadly coronavirus cases.)

Regardless of your political stance, the move is a bold one—which is in and of itself noteworthy, writes Paul Wells. He expected this government, as it so often has, to have opted for an easy road out of hard work. Instead, Trudeau is finally throwing his stake in the ground.

In response to the news, Tory MP Pierre Poilievre started, as is his wont, a petition to "stop the carbon tax." Poilievre posted a video to Twitter featuring himself gassing up his car like your average Joe. But the president of Canada's Automotive Parts Manufacturers'​ Association, Flavio Volpe, caught one small detail others may have missed: "Please buy a Canadian made car while talking about 'production moving overseas' and 'supply chains withering away'," he tweeted.

A couple cabinet ministers will follow up on Trudeau's announcement today in their own ways. Natural Resources Minister Seamus O’Regan will be in St. John's to discuss the Liberals' promise to plant two billion trees, while Minister of Infrastructure Catherine McKenna will appear alongside Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson and city councillor Jean Cloutier to talk about the city's four new electric buses.

9-8-8. That's Canada's new suicide hotline number, as voted on unanimously by the House of Commons on Friday, the last day before the House wrapped up for the holidays. Canada's current Suicide Prevention Service has a difficult-to-remember 10-digit number (833-456-4566). The motion to create and promote a simpler nationwide service was initiated by Conservative MP Todd Doherty back in November, who lost his best friend to suicide as a teenager.

Maybe no spring election after all? Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole yesterday said he had no plans to force an election while the pandemic is still going on. "I don't think we should have an election until we've rounded that corner in this, the biggest crisis of all our lives," O'Toole said on CTV's QP. It's a logical play by O'Toole, who still struggles with national name recognition and whose party is stuck in second place in the polls behind a popular Liberal government. Then again, April's a long way away.

Happy Electoral College Day. Today's the day the United States Electoral College meets to finally, officially, choose the next president of the United States. It will be Joe Biden, but don't tell that to Donald Trump, who ominously tweeted on Saturday, "WE HAVE JUST BEGUN TO FIGHT!!!" After the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a Republican case that would have attempted to throw out 10 million votes in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin, Trump's team has basically exhausted their legal options, such as they were.

Well wishes to the Mulroneys. Former PM Brian Mulroney was rushed to a hospital for emergency surgery on Friday. The 81 year old, who, as Global News reports, was vacationing in Florida at the time of the emergency, is reportedly recovering well at home. Many questions remain unanswered, including what the surgery was for, whether it took place in Canada or the U.S., and whether "home" refers to his home in Florida or Canada. But those answers can wait—the Mulroneys should enjoy some private time ahead of the holidays.

—Michael Fraiman

Politics News & Analysis