by: jesse snyder
alberta has had the most miserable time among provinces handling covid-19, followed closely by ontario and quebec, according to a new index that aims to compare provincial pandemic responses.
the so-called misery index, created by the macdonald-laurier institute, assesses pandemic responses across a broad range of metrics, including deaths per 100,000 people, excess mortality, vaccination rates, lockdown stringency, gdp losses and the assumption of public debts, among other things.
alberta posted the highest degree of misery, according to mli data, due to high covid-19 cases per 100,000 people, high excess mortality, and a sharp drop in gdp in 2020. quebec had the worst response in the specific area of disease control, with a higher death toll per 100,000 than any other province. the four atlantic provinces, meanwhile, had the lowest overall misery levels, with each outperforming the national average.
the new data supports the argument that strict lockdowns early in a pandemic outbreak are the single-best way to minimize damage to public health and the economy, according to experts at the think-tank.
“lockdowns have heaped misery on the larger, more populous provinces, while atlantic canada’s bubble demonstrated the importance of keeping the virus out in the first place,” said mli senior fellow richard audas, who designed the index.