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Jodie and Tony Discuss Omicron, Novak Djokovic and Doug Ford Shoveling
66 Plays3 years ago
This week, Tony and Jodie discuss a wide range of issues including the growing presence of Omicron in Ontario, the response to Novak Djokovic and interest in the Winter Olympics.
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Transcript
Introduction to 'And Another Thing'
00:00:17
Speaker
Welcome to another episode of And Another Thing, the podcast that sets the bar for other podcasters in the podcast world. My name is Jody Jenkins. And I'm Tony Clement.
00:00:33
Speaker
Podcast is one of those words, Tony, that if you say it over and over enough, you know, in your head, you're like, is this a, is this a
The Humor of 'Podcast' Repetition
00:00:41
Speaker
real word? You know, those words, sometimes you're like, you say them over and over again. They start to sound really funny. Yeah, I know. And, and of course, uh, people try to, people who are trying to be trendy, try to shorten it to pod. I did a pod the other day. I'm sorry. I don't go for that. It's a podcast. Okay. It's not a pod. And I always think about,
00:01:02
Speaker
You know, saying words over and over again, like I mentioned, I always think of that movie. I want, I don't know if it was Tommy boy or black sheep, but with Chris Farley and David spade, when they're driving down the road, I think they had been smoking dope. And then Chris David spades, like about something about speed limit. And so they start going limit, limit, limit. Funny word. Yeah. Or, or in a hot tub time machine, when they start saying great white Buffalo, great white Buffalo.
00:01:29
Speaker
A classic movie. We've gone off the rails early.
Sponsor Spotlights: Municipal Solutions & Halton GR
00:01:34
Speaker
As always, this show is brought to you by Municipal Solutions. John Mutton and the team do an amazing work. You can find them online at municipalsolutions.ca. And Tony, I know you'll share some more details about what they do and then our other partners as well.
00:01:51
Speaker
Yes, the muttonate, John Mutton and the gang here are doing a great job at Municipal Solutions. Very, very busy these days. They've got lots of big projects. I want to congratulate them for that. And of course, if you haven't heard already, they're great for development services, project management kinds of things, development approvals, permit expediting, planning services with municipalities that work, do a lot of work with municipalities.
00:02:16
Speaker
engineering and architectural services, minor variants, land severances, building permits, they run the gamut. And really if you've got something that you've got to get done that involves a municipality or the province for that matter, go to municipalsolutions.ca and then our continuing sponsor Halton GR, Stephen J. Sparling,
00:02:38
Speaker
He is a municipal lobbyist representing the development industry clients in the GTA West such as Etobicoke, Mississauga, or Oakville, I should say. Yeah, you know, they're expanding. You visit HaltonGR.com and Steven will look after you.
00:02:57
Speaker
Excellent.
Exclusive Content on Loony Politics
00:02:58
Speaker
And who can forget the crew at loonypolitics.com. You can get exclusive content through that site, including our show episodes. You won't hear anywhere else. Use the code podcast to get 50% off an annual subscription. We just did one there.
00:03:15
Speaker
Yeah, lunipolitics.com. That's right. So we can't tell them who was. Oh, we're not allowed to. I don't think so. I don't know if we've ever shared who's been on that. Okay. It was a very important guest with a very important topic. Top secret shows. I was thinking you mentioned, you always mentioned when you talk about municipal solutions, how John can help with minor variants.
00:03:38
Speaker
Is that like the next, will that be the next variant? Like we should call that like, that's right. You gotta be careful when you win a minor variance. That's right. After Omicron comes minor variance.
00:03:50
Speaker
that are running gag where municipal solutions can help you with the Delta variants, the Omicron variants and minor variants. And minor variants. Here we go. John and I, of course, we do some business
COVID Vaccines: Effectiveness & Debates
00:04:01
Speaker
together too. And I said, dude, I'm just going stir crazy here. A cabin fever is setting in. Let's find a good excuse to do a business trip somewhere. You know, let's get out of this place.
00:04:13
Speaker
look you and I were talking off air and I mean obviously we'll chat a little bit about some COVID stuff we'll start with that because I mean this is a banter episode you and I are just gonna engage each other but we're talking about this off air and I made the point of I have a lot of friends obviously that have encountered
00:04:29
Speaker
Omicron have gotten COVID now, obviously much more prevalent than before. No question about it. Some people with severe reactions, some with nothing, some didn't even know they have it. So it runs the gamut. I would say more so though, the people I'm talking to are on the lesser severe side, of course, but younger populations.
00:04:50
Speaker
Yeah, a scratchy throat is the one I've heard a lot of and cold like sniffles and sinus congestion, that kind of thing. Yeah. And so my point to you, and I'd love to get your thoughts. So we're in Ontario, we're in kind of a pseudo lockdown, restaurants aren't open, you know, nobody can go to arenas, yada, yada, yada.
00:05:13
Speaker
But somebody that got their second dose, let's say mid-summer, let's say July, okay? The research shows, unless I'm completely wrong, that if they didn't get a booster, and here we are in January, so effectively, you know, six months later, that their coverage or protection is minimal at best. Is that safe to say? I think that that is how I've heard it described. Yeah, so I guess that's certainly how they've tried to encourage people to get the booster.
00:05:41
Speaker
Yeah, but I guess my question to you would be if someone is unvaccinated, right? And they're doing their due diligence in terms of like, you know, using a mask and being safe and not just being someone that floats. You know, I don't care if I get it because I don't think that's wise. But if someone's unvaccinated,
00:05:58
Speaker
and is limited in what they can
Restrictions Debate: Fairness for Vaccinated vs. Unvaccinated
00:06:00
Speaker
do, i.e. the VAX passport versus someone who got their second shot in June or July and is effectively in the same boat, that's where I have a problem with what's fair and what's not fair. I really have an issue with that.
00:06:14
Speaker
Well, that's one of the reasons why they had to start to restrict things again. Clearly, the R rate was just multiplying and multiplying. People were getting Omicron quite regularly and a lot of them were breakthrough cases. Now, I certainly can make the medical officers make the argument that if you've got the vaccine, your symptoms will be less. But
00:06:43
Speaker
You know, they did say, you know, when we were getting our shots, and I did get my shot, I want to make that point clear, was that it would have declining utility over time. That's why even when people were getting their first and second shots, they were talking, say, we might need a booster at some point because at some point your antibodies are going to be diminished.
00:07:08
Speaker
Um, and your ability to fight off an infection would be diminished. So yeah, I, I think we reached, I certainly probably reached that point. Uh, cause my second shot was in May and hence I got the booster, uh, this past weekend and felt like crap yesterday, you know, cause of the, the flu like symptoms associated with the booster. Um, but, uh, yeah, I mean,
00:07:33
Speaker
Look, this is a moving target and in a sense you can't blame anyone for the fact that this virus is a very insidious virus that at one point was not even playing by the rules. Delta was more severe, but you could catch it easier. That's not supposed to be how viruses work.
00:07:55
Speaker
Omicron is basically how viruses are supposed to work. It's easier to catch, but it's less severe. That's kind of the history of viruses over 3 billion years. So I think we're back into something that is more predictable that way.
Social Media Backlash on COVID Opinions
00:08:10
Speaker
Yeah and one thing I've also had my eyes open to and I guess maybe it's always been there but it's been amplified during this is the divisiveness and I guess the line in the sand when it comes to society and pitting people against each other and first of all let me just say like I've
00:08:28
Speaker
I've used different social media as an outlet to share my thoughts because I feel helpless. This whole time has been hard for me in the sense of this podcast has really helped actually, but it's been hard to express how I feel without feeling like I'm going to get attacked or bashed because I think there's a way to share how you're feeling and ask logical questions
00:08:50
Speaker
and have a sense of wonder about something. Like I wonder about this, is that how accurate is this? The problem is, is you can't share that these days on COVID vaccines, whatever. You cannot without getting attacked very, very quickly, it seems to me, on social media. So this podcast has been a good outlet. But I saw something the other day,
00:09:12
Speaker
And again, opinion pieces in newspapers, et cetera, they're just that. They're opinion pieces, but they're elevated because they're on a bigger platform. I saw someone in the star. I think it was Heather Malick. I think who wrote it. I don't know her. You might have some be able to shed some light on her, but I don't know her. But she wrote this article that was about the unvaccinated and like the language she used to describe them, I thought was off the charts, in my opinion. And
00:09:39
Speaker
It just it just doesn't help it that stuff does not help the dialogue. Yeah, and it's it really bothers me. And I wish I wish that when we had this whole line of we're in this together, that that actually was the case. But unfortunately, it's been anything but and I'd love to hear your Yeah, I mean, and I won't
00:09:58
Speaker
I, Heather Malick is a somewhat disagreeable person. I think she's got that reputation. So we won't, we won't go there. Um, but, uh, but I think that, you know, people do ask me and I, and I media ask me and others, you know, how, uh, I was, I was interviewed recently about the, uh, the proposed tax in Quebec for the unvaccinated, right?
Quebec's Proposed Health Tax for Unvaccinated
00:10:21
Speaker
The health tax.
00:10:23
Speaker
And one of the questions was, you know, how how could how could a government get away with this? And the answer is simple, Jodi. Governments can get away with this if it's popular to do it. Yeah. And, you know, you can talk all about legal rights and charter rights. And until that's litigated in the courts, you know, a year from now, you might get a sense of where the courts are on this. But, you know, how how could Francois Lago even talk about that as Quebec premier?
00:10:50
Speaker
because 60 or 70 percent of the population are with them on that issue. Now, is that right? Is that fair? Is it right to target a minority or is it to simply, you know, you made a choice to be unvaccinated? There are consequences for that choice. Those are the two arguments, basically.
00:11:09
Speaker
But why are there no political consequences? There won't be political consequences until you reach a stage where there's a tipping point and people are fed up with whatever action the government is doing and don't want it to happen anymore. That's the simple political calculation, quite frankly.
00:11:34
Speaker
I don't know how accurate this would be, but I bet, I feel like if you did another poll maybe next week about Legault's proposal there, I think that you might see some difference. I think the more people see it, read about it, hear about it, I think there may be a switch. That's just a guess I have. And they've been polling on Bill 21 in Quebec, which is the secular law and saying you can't wear, you know, you can't
00:12:03
Speaker
symbols of your religion, whether it's a kneecap or whether it's a cross or what have you, as a public sector employee. And, you know, again, that was very popular in Quebec because Quebec believes that they should be a radically secular society. And they are very anti-religious in Quebec, generally in terms of the public square. But
00:12:29
Speaker
the number of people supporting that position has declined as debate over the issue has arisen. So maybe you're right. And I know for a fact, well, how do I know? I don't really know. But just from people reacting in social media and political circles, the curfew in Quebec was not very popular.
00:12:51
Speaker
No, not at all. And sure enough, Lago has lifted the curfew. So again, that's the kind of play that's going on here. And I'm just waiting. We were talking again off air about Premier Mo in Saskatchewan, who had the audacity to say,
00:13:11
Speaker
This thing is endemic. We have to learn to live with COVID. That's the position they have in the UK, by the way. I think most or all of the restrictions are going to be off on January 26th in the UK. So Boris Johnson, the prime minister, is saying, look, we have to learn to live with this. We can't keep doing this lockdown thing. So I think there's going to be more and more political leaders coming to that conclusion. And that, in a sense, they can get away with that because that's where the public is turning.
00:13:41
Speaker
Oh yeah, there's been a, I don't know, I'm assuming it's the same in your circles, but I can tell you in my circles, there has been a massive shift with people's feelings towards this, not only the lockdown, but the handling of COVID in general. And, you know, from a provincial perspective, obviously we're talking about Ontario right now, but from a provincial perspective,
00:14:02
Speaker
Doug Ford says he doesn't watch the polls, but you know darn well that they're following what's going on and what the public opinion is. Yeah, I think there was a freedom of information thing on Doug Ford and polling, indicating every single move that they've been doing has been polled. So I wouldn't put it past any politician to keep polling on this, that's for sure.
00:14:25
Speaker
And we're just, what, four or five months out from an election? Right. June. Yeah, June. Yeah. It's going to be his campaign team in place, as do the other parties. And they're they're basically doing their pre-election positioning at this point. Well, they already I think and again, I'm assuming that this is part of their messaging, but there was an interview done the other day with with Doug Ford and he made the comment like we can't afford to go back to the way the Liberals ran the province and and message. Yeah. Right. So it sounds like that might be their angle.
00:14:55
Speaker
Well, and I noticed that the housing minister, uh, was out saying, uh, you know, uh, Hey, you know, we're, we're, we're creating the opportunity to build more houses. If you elect the liberals, no houses will be built in this province kind of thing. So.
00:15:10
Speaker
Again, they've all gotten the memo. The way this works, Jodi, is that the Cabinet will be briefed on polling, you know, the pre-rit polling, where they stand. The campaign team will brief the Cabinet and the caucus on, you know, look, here's how we're going to be tackling the election. And here are our major messages. Here's the type of people we want voting for us. We want to try to attract a vote for us.
00:15:36
Speaker
So here's the kind of messaging we want to position ourselves. All of that is discussed in Cabinet and Caucus at this point. And basically everybody gets their marching orders saying, here's the message, deliver the message in your writing.
00:15:50
Speaker
Yeah. So it'll be an interesting time. We'll have to do some special. Maybe Looney Politics will get us to do provincial updates like they did fairly. Yeah. And by the way, just on Alberta, because we are a national podcast, I had Jack Mintz on my boom and bust show on
Alberta's Economic Resurgence & Political Impacts
00:16:10
Speaker
the news forum. He's a senior economist and he works out of the University of Calgary. And he said Alberta is starting to have an economic boom.
00:16:20
Speaker
So all of a sudden, first of all, the price of oil, I don't know if you've been tracking the price of oil, it's up to about 85 bucks a barrel, down from a low of about 40. People are still buying oil, folks. Just wanted to let you know. So that's helpful. There's been a number of significant announcements of tech companies and manufacturing companies locating in Alberta.
00:16:48
Speaker
Jason Kenny may be on a bit of a roll and I know we talked about on our program a few months ago about how he was in the doldrums and heated by everyone and etc. But he may have a resurrection here.
00:17:02
Speaker
Interesting. Well, it'll be a good one. When is that election? Is that coming up soon? No, it's not. I think it's not for a couple of years or something. He's just trying to protect his leadership. Yeah, there was that. He was under some pressure in his caucus and in his party. There are people not happy with his managing of COVID. Who's happy with a leader right now? Not too many. I think there's
00:17:24
Speaker
200,000 people assigned a petition against Francois Lago in Quebec and trying to kick him out there and Boris Johnson in the UK, you know, people were upset and Macron in France, you know, he's into he's having an election this spring and people are unhappy. So yeah, it's not a fun time for anybody. But no, Jason has, I think, enough enough room to to launch
Novak Djokovic & French Open Controversy
00:17:51
Speaker
again. There's no question.
00:17:53
Speaker
By the way, speaking of different individuals in the world and vaccines and COVID, Novak Djokovic, of course, with his ordeal at the Australian Open, I saw the French Open has already declared that he's not welcome there. I guess my question is like, so do you have to be vaccinated to play tennis? A, B, isn't tennis an outdoor sport, right?
00:18:19
Speaker
Okay. And I guess the only, the only thing is if, if you can't get into France without being vaccinated or whatever, but yeah, like this, I thought that announcement of like, he's not allowed to play in the French show. But I was like, what are you talking about? He's it's he's playing tennis outside. Like what?
00:18:36
Speaker
Yeah, no, it must be their entry requirements and because he's so high profile now, they can't get around it. They can't give him an exception if that isn't given to an average citizen, I suppose. Maybe that's the reasoning. Yeah, that's what I mean. If it's a requirement to get to the event, then flying or whatever.
00:19:00
Speaker
Like if he but I don't understand like I I guess if he got himself, you know And this is this is how you know, we talked about laws and rules and stuff like that. The other problem with uh, uh, jokovich is he's not well liked Right. So there's nobody gonna be going to the going to battle for him within the tennis world, right? He's just not an agreeable fellow interesting but
00:19:26
Speaker
Anyway, that's all I have to say about COVID. I'm sure you've got, we've, we chewed up a bunch of time with that one, but I'm sure you've got some other things you want to pass along. Well, I, this is still on the COVID situation, but I just want to make sure your guinea pigs are okay.
00:19:39
Speaker
Yeah, you're going to talk about the hamsters in Korea. Hong Kong. Hong Kong, yeah. We have three guinea pigs, Peaches, Fudge, and Charlotte, and they are completely fine. In fact, last night, we had one of their smaller relatives got stuck in a trap in our house, so we caught a mouse last night. No way. Yeah, which is, I'm pretty sure guinea pigs are rodents, and so the mice are... It's funny because I said to my wife, because I like the guinea pigs. I've never had one before. Are they rodents or marsupials?
00:20:10
Speaker
Frig, I don't know. I don't know. No, they're going to be rodents. Okay. So like I carry them and they're very fun and like, I like them and they're cuddly and, and whatever, but it's like you look at them and without, they don't have a tail. It's like, it's like, it's a big mouse or a squirrel or something, but it's like, I would never, ever, I don't care if it's a clean mouse. I'm never holding a mouse and playing with a mouse, but like a guinea pig, I have no issues. I don't know why it's just.
00:20:37
Speaker
Isn't that funny, eh? Yeah. But there's some, some people have mice or rats as pets. Oh, a hundred percent. Hamsters, mice, gerbils, rats, everything, ferrets. So, but you had a story about the, the hamsters, right? Well, yeah, I think they're, they're in Hong Kong. The concern has been that there's been an animal to human transmission of COVID.
00:20:59
Speaker
Uh, and so they're, I think that they're, they're exterminating hundreds of thousands of small pets, including, uh, including hamsters, but not limited to them as a way to, uh, to eliminate the threat. Like, I guess Hong Kong now, I mean, basically for all intents and purposes,
00:21:18
Speaker
they're under the thumb of China. And China has a zero COVID policy, right? So the minute there's one COVID case in a city, and in China, cities can have 14 million people, right? So, and this has happened
00:21:36
Speaker
several times already this year, 2022, where there's been one or two cases of Omicron found in a Chinese city, bam, the whole thing is locked down, that whole city is locked down. You're confined to your house and all this kind of stuff.
00:21:51
Speaker
And this is their zero COVID policy. And so the analysis is that may have worked for Delta or the original strain, but for Omicron it's just impossible. So China is actually going to be a failure on
00:22:12
Speaker
COVID containment. And the other thing is that their vaccine is not an mRNA vaccine. It's the traditional type of vaccine. So it's just not as useful. They've scientifically proven not to be as useful against COVID as the mRNA. So all of which is to say what's coming up in China in a couple of weeks.
COVID Challenges at Beijing Olympics
00:22:35
Speaker
the Olympics. So not only did they ban any foreigners from attending the Olympics, they have now banned any domestic ticket ticket holders from attending the Olympics. So no one is allowed to go to the Olympics, I guess, unless you're friends, family and coaches.
00:22:53
Speaker
So it's going to be just a miserable affair, I think. And of course, you know, guess what, folks? There will be an outbreak of COVID at the Beijing Olympics. This just in. Yeah, there's going to be an outbreak. So China is going to wig out at that and, you know, they'll be kicking out athletes left, right and center, and that'll be controversial. So just for that at the beginning of February, folks.
00:23:17
Speaker
It's comical because on the sporting side of things, like I have no issues with the Olympics being held. I think they should be held because again, I'm, you know, move, let's move forward. Yeah. But it's like, they should have, I mean, I guess they couldn't have planned this because of who knew, but you know, it'd be nice if it was in the States. Cause then it would go off without a hitch. Cause you look at like, you know, here we have Raptors games in Toronto being played with no one in the stadium or in the arena. And then like the very next thing you're watching 80,000 at a wildcard game.
00:23:47
Speaker
Yeah, I know. It's just ridiculous. NCAA, you know, I mean, people are just going crazy, you know, 70,000, 100,000 at the college football. Yeah, I know. It's, it's weird. It's like, it's like,
00:24:05
Speaker
You know, so many people are that I've talked to down the States. It's like, it's like, it doesn't even exist. Right. And, you know, at the beginning, it was cool to say, well, we don't want to be like the States. And I think a lot of people now are like, ah, maybe we do. Sounds good. Yeah, exactly. So yes, the Olympics are
Tony's Vancouver Olympics Experience
00:24:20
Speaker
coming up. I'm a big Olympics guy. Ever since 1976, Montreal, I've been totally into the Olympics. So I'm looking forward to it despite the controversies and obviously China's controversial.
00:24:31
Speaker
But it's still I think the greatest show on earth and I'm looking forward to it I have you ever been to an Olympic event. Did you go to Vancouver? You probably buy the clothes dude. Oh, yeah, I do. I do. Yeah But I went to Vancouver right and just for six days I was in Vancouver for the Winter Olympics and that was just such a thrill and And to see our Olympic athletes and I got I basically
00:24:59
Speaker
The only Olympic events I attended were hockey games. I went to, I think, 13 hockey games. Oh, wow. Just went crazy and just went, you know, found scalpers tickets and the whole nine yards and was able to go to one quarterfinal game, both semifinals, and then the gold medal game, Canada USA, which was just spectacular.
00:25:21
Speaker
That's cool. Yeah, so it was a real thrill and uh, and there was like all these all these things happening like uh There was uh, the the russians had uh, what they called sochi house so they they kind of built their own Entertainment and sports thing because the next winter Olympics were in sochi russia
00:25:42
Speaker
And so I used to hang out at Sochi House because they had a kind of Russian jazz bar going on, which I thought was pretty cool. And I actually saw Ovechkin there. And like every night I was there, like I'm talking one o'clock in the morning, two o'clock in the morning, Ovechkin was there.
00:26:01
Speaker
just having a great time. And I remember thinking to myself, how is it? I know he's an elite hockey player. He's a Hall of Famer. He's going to break Gretzky's record, all this stuff. But even then in 2010, how is it that this guy can do all this all night and wake up the next morning and play hockey? And the answer, Jody, was he couldn't because the Russian team came in sixth
00:26:24
Speaker
They were just horrible at the Vancouver Olympics. So the short answer is Ovechkin couldn't do it all. He's one of my favorites. He's pretty impressive. You agree he's going to break Gretzky's record? I think so. Gretzky even thinks he will. Yeah, I think he will too. So there you go. He's going to be the goat.
00:26:48
Speaker
Well, are we anything else interesting you want to bring up or let's see guinea pigs, Olympics, COVID, COVID sports, a little shovel. That was good. How do you feel about that? A lot of people are going crazy about it. I don't even care, but I'll be honest. Like I do. So first of all, I don't even care. And I think it's just stupid that anyone's getting worked up over it. The second thing, the people that are making fun of them about the size of the shovel,
00:27:15
Speaker
Who carries a full-size shovel in their car? I see tons of people with the smallest shovel. I have a very little shovel in my car, you know, because that's what you have in your car. It's just stupid now.
00:27:27
Speaker
Someone was like filming it and you know, I, I think it's funny to think like, did he act? I mean, I don't know. I, I, I want to believe that he just went out and was like, let's go find some people to help out or whatever, but it's, I don't know. The whole thing was weird, but I
Doug Ford's Snowstorm Gesture
00:27:42
Speaker
don't even care. I gotta say it's great. Hey, you want to dig people out and drive them around and have at her. Yeah. You think Justin Trudeau would ever do that?
00:27:49
Speaker
Yeah, I doubt it. I doubt it too. Actually, he'd be like, good luck. We'll see you next year. That's right. Yeah, I feel your pain. Anyway, that wraps up another episode.
Conclusion & Upcoming Content
00:28:03
Speaker
We'll be back next week with some exciting new guests and moving forward. We got some big ones coming up as well. Got to give a shout out to Municipal Solutions for their continued support as our presenting sponsor. Find them online at Municipal Solutions.
00:28:23
Speaker
Uh, for, and another thing, and you can find that at loony politics.com. And then also thanks to Halton GR.com for their continued sponsorship. We really appreciate that. And don't forget, you can go to zinc agency.com and pick out some merch, some anything podcast. Did your clothing show up yet or no? Not yet. No, I'm quite looking forward to that. And then I'm going to order some coffee mugs after once, once I see that the process works, which I'm sure it will, I will then be ordering my coffee mugs. All right. We'll do this again in seven days. You got it.
00:28:37
Speaker
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