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Jason Kenney was positively fizzing with happiness as he announced the arrival of the Pfizer Covid vaccine on the Calgary airport tarmac on Monday.

Clad in a brown UPS jacket, the Alberta premier was so overcome by the event, he even thanked the federal government in passing.  Oh, and vaccine scientists, front-line health workers and UPS all got a little love from Kenney as well.

On Tuesday Kenney appeared at the daily Covid afternoon briefing to announce a provincial outreach program to economically challenged neighbourhoods and communities particularly hard hit by Covid.  Support workers will hand out information and free masks and sanitizer.  The government is also providing new financial aid and free hotels for those who need to self isolate.

Gratitude and care for the most vulnerable — it's almost like the spirit of Christmas is carried in those little vials of vaccine, lowering the levels of political acrimony and toning down the shrillness of partisan rhetoric.

A little political unity is exactly what's needed at the moment.

Alberta, and Canada, are at a perilous stage of the pandemic.  Covid infection rates have climbed into untenable numbers.  In Alberta there are more than 700 people in hospital and more than 20,000 active cases.  Ontario is adding about 2,000 new cases a day.  B.C. recorded 21 Covid deaths the day the vaccine arrived in that province.

Much of the country is under increased gathering restrictions and full or partial retail and restaurant shutdowns.

There's a lot of track to traverse before getting to the light at the end of the Covid tunnel.

There have been plenty of missteps so far in the journey.  In Alberta, polls show voters are particularly unhappy with the government's handling of the crisis so far.  The UCP's right wing base disputes economic restrictions and mask requirements.  It can be argued that Kenney opened the door to that opposition by declaring his reluctance to take away "constitutional rights."

Much of the medical community and the left of the political spectrum argued that restrictions have been inadequate and inconsistent, leading to leaps in spread that threaten to overwhelm the health system.

There will be time to rehash and analyze the government's response when the virus is wrestled to the ground, but for now the way forward should be constructive and unified.

Kenney, at least this week, is modelling that attitude.

His Tuesday press conference appearance was positively statesmanlike, full of resolve without unnecessary rhetoric.  And he even warned against politicization of the vaccine process.

"No minister, no MLA, nobody involved in the political side of government should be picking up any phone to say that so-and-so should be jumping this queue," Kenney declared, when asked about how the vaccine will be rolled out.

The issue of politicians overruling medical advice has been a particularly hot topic in Alberta.  A lead of provincial medical official meeting tapes showed that policy throughout the pandemic has been driven by political considerations as well as medical.

The Alberta government is sounding more sure and steady on the Covid file and it appears that there is some corresponding response on the part of citizens.

While Albertans still have the lowest percentage of people willing to get the vaccine when it is available, pollster Angus Reid reports a sea change happening in the province.  This week close to half of Albertans would roll up their sleeves immediately, while a month ago less than a third were sure about taking the vaccine.

Given Covid-restriction exhaustion and a sense that the vaccine will ultimately solve the problem, keeping the will to fight the pandemic alive will be a huge challenge in the next couple of months.  Sporadic small demonstrations against masks in Edmonton and Calgary show there is still an element of the population that needs convincing the danger is real.

In the spirit of Christmas, Kenney should follow up his good judgment of this week by extending a non-partisan holly bough to all the players in the fight against Covid.  Making peace with the federal Liberals, the Alberta NDP and the provincial medical community would do a lot to focus the fight against the real viral enemy.

Photo Credit: Twitter

The views, opinions and positions expressed by columnists and contributors are the author’s alone. They do not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of our publication.


So I just want to start out by saying none of this 2020 thing is my fault.

Sure, yes, I did write in last year's edition of predictions "There you have it, the year of our existence two-thousand and twenty.  Which, ah, turned into kind of a bummer, didn't it?"

Which as far as predictions go, really softpedals the year we just had.  The devil is in the details, but I didn't predict all this.  Besides, I don't will these things into existence, I just see them.  Like I said last year, "I am but a vessel.  You get what you get."

So here we are once more, to go through the smoothed out folds of my brain to look back on what I predicted 2020 would look like in the waning days of 2019.  It's a bit of a strange journey, but that's the way she goes.  If you'd like to go back and read the whole of last year's predictions, you can right here.

Shall we jump on in?

1) Okay, so, right off the bat a bad call.  Very bad.  I biffed it, and it's too bad.  "Elon Musk will be vaporized by a new high-level security system of his stupid Cybertruck."  Musk, as you probably know, has not been vaporized.  He is still with us.  Though, recently, he did move from California to Texas.  Is that the same thing as being turned to atomized carbon by an overzealous security system?  Who's to say!  I'm no physicist.  We'll give this one half marks.

2) Now we're talking, a good prediction. "The Conservative Party will learn an odd lesson from their 2019 defeat with Andrew Scheer at the helm.  The trouble was they didn't hate Justin Trudeau enough. "Hey, not bad right?  They absolutely went for that in Erin O'Toole, that guy hates Trudeau and his entire leadership is based on what a bad an awful prime minister we have.  Oh, wait just a second, I'm told there's more to this prediction.  "Pierre Poilievre, a true and noble poster, will lead them out of the darkness, the thinking will go."  Right.  Well, bit of a miss.  But, in my defence, Poilievre most certainly could have won, but he decided not to.  Full marks here.

3) I really don't want to toot my own horn here — Jeffery Toobin, I am not — but I absolutely nailed this next one.  Going to quote it at some length: "The gnawing feeling … the world is getting noticeably worse and the people that could be doing something about it are more concerned with keeping … power will continue to gnaw away.  Fortunately Father Disney is here to soothe your worries with another lesser remake of a thing you remember liking at some point in the past."  Not only did we get another live-action remake of a movie that isn't that old, but just this month Disney announced a whole slate of Marvel and Star Wars crap, including a literal clip show of Marvel movie stuff.  Perfect marks.  Onward!

4) "The Toronto Maple Leafs will not win the Stanley Cup this year."  Bam.  Too easy.  Next!

5) This one is pretty good, prediction wise.  Bit more serious than what we've been dealing with so far, so I don't really have a joke, but here you go: "The world seemed to come pretty close to a wider Middle Eastern war… We've been pretty lucky so far, and, what the hell, that luck will hold out another 12 months."  And, yeah.  We've still got another couple weeks, but the U.S. and Iran aren't bombing the hell out of one another, so that's a plus.

6) Well, here's one I biffed on.  "I'm putting a shiny loonie on Bernie [Sanders, to win the U.S. presidency].  Way stranger things have happened."  Way stranger things certainly have happened, but they did not.  The straightforward thing happened though, Joe Biden, who led national polls through most of the race, pulled out the primary and then the general election.  Will Biden actually be inaugurated?  You'll have to wait until the next prediction column for that!  (And, for the record, I put six shiny loonies on Bernie winning, and lost them all.)

7) "The Ford F Series of trucks will remain the best selling vehicles in Canada and the U.S."  Check.  "2020 may not be the worst ever year for natural disasters, but it will certainly rate pretty high."  And check.  Easier than the Maple Leafs prediction.  Climate change is bad and we're rocketing toward worse, but we're doing it in our oversized mega cabs, baby!

8) And finally, another mostly correct prediction.  "The Canadian government led by Justin Trudeau will continue to talk to the citizens of this country like we are complete morons, incapable of complex thought."  This is pretty spot on for a lot of things.  We are still talked down to by our supposed betters in government.  (Remember how we were all essentially too stupid to understand how masks should be worn?  It's not that hard.)  But at the same time, Trudeau has had some real moments this year of genuinely talking to people, rather than at them.  It's something he should perhaps do more often (do not bet on this).  Double-full marks, it's Christmas!

You'll notice there's nothing there about a devastating pandemic sweeping the globe and washing away so much of what we hold dear.

It's been a real bummer of a year, that much I got right.  But, man, did I have no idea.  By the end of this year, somewhere around 15,000 people will have died of COVID here in Canada, untold thousands more will have to live with the consequences of their illness, and countless more will be without loved ones.  And that's before we get to the mass economic misery that will continue to bear out in the wake of this pandemic.

It's been a real shitkicker.  I really do hope next year turns out better than this.  It's been a tough one for me, but not nearly as tough as it's no doubt been for many of you.  Be safe out there.  Be strong.  We may yet get out of this one.

Anyway, enough earnest good well toward all men.  How will 2021 go?  Watch this space in a couple weeks for my predictions for 2021!

The views, opinions and positions expressed by columnists and contributors are the author’s alone. They do not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of our publication.