tam’s performance on tuesday was especially frustrating considering how easily she could have avoided causing controversy. “the first…recommendation is still you must follow your local public health advice,” she said at one point. dr. howard njoo, her deputy, expanded: “it’s a big country and there’s obviously different situations throughout the country. so, listen to local public health authorities.”
that’s precisely right, and as far as either of them ever had to go: no matter how many times ottawa journalists ask about it, no one on parliament hill is in charge of whether you can go to a movie or a baseball game, eat at a restaurant (indoors or out), ride in a cable car, rent one of those swan boats or go for a picnic. if tam and njoo had just parked their bus at “ask the provinces,” no doubt some ottawa journalists would have been baffled. here in ontario, many seem to think canada is a federation by dint of some horrible accident of history.
but they could never keep their mouths shut. tam went out of her way to establish that 75/20 per cent threshold, so when we reached it, she was obviously going to face questions about what comes next.
as for the media, there’s more than enough nonsense to ask tam about in the new border restrictions: if variants of concern are still such a worry, why loosen up on mandatory hotel quarantine for those arriving from overseas? if fully vaccinated canadians are allowed in without quarantine, why not other fully vaccinated travellers? if we must watch tam flail around helplessly for good answers, at least the questions could be within her actual jurisdiction.