Ontario's state of emergency will last at least until May 11 Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here to get it delivered weekday mornings. Today, in a special meeting at Queen's Park that will gather 28 MPPs from all parties, Ontario Premier Doug Ford will extend the province's state of emergency by 28 days, effectively cementing the new normal until May 11. (Ontario public schools were set to return on May 4, so expect another postponement on that front announced soon.) "Even if we turn [the economy] on a trickle, there's gonna be risk, and I do not want to just jump into this," Ford told reporters during his daily briefing yesterday. "I want to be very, very cautious." (Watch the full press conference here.) Ford's stance gels with that of Justin Trudeau, who last week predicted that it would be "a few months, probably" before the government eases restrictions on travel and work. Implicitly, Ford also rejected calls to consider reopening the economy, like the one that sort of came from Conservative MP Marc Dalton. He hurriedly deleted this tweet from yesterday morning: "Most deaths are in care homes where average life expectancy is 2 yrs & 65% usually pass in the 1st yr. Time to start moving Canada back to work?" (In fact, his tweet was not just tasteless but also factually wrong: not most, but just under half of all Canadian COVID-19 deaths have been in long-term care homes.) The stern and streamlined approach marks a stark contrast with a group of American states whose governors, yesterday, revealed they were already beginning to coordinate their economic reopening. The governors of California, Oregon and Washington have formed a West Coast pact, while New York (which is struggling to keep pace with the number of bodies that need to be buried) is joining New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Delaware to plot their own return on the East Coast. President Donald Trump , meanwhile, is furious at them for planning the party without him, tweeting that "some in the Fake News Media are saying that it is the Governors decision to open up the states, not that of the President of the United States & the Federal Government. Let it be fully understood that this is incorrect....It is the decision of the President." Our southern neighbours could take a cue from the bipartisan Canadian approach, which is continuing to win over the masses. In his latest 338Canada column, Philippe J. Fournier looks at a recent Léger poll that asked 1,500 respondents if they were satisfied with the measures put in place to fight COVID-19 on a provincial and national scale. Overwhelmingly, the answer is yes across the board. The federal Liberals have also risen beyond their Tory rivals if an election were held today, with 37 per cent support against 30 per cent. It certainly isn’t the first time that crisis management has helped the standings of any governing party in public opinion. Naturally, when we are past this pandemic and have the benefit of hindsight, new assessments of the provincial and federal governments’ handling will be made. However, as I have mentioned several times in the past, polls do not predict the future, but rather offer a snapshot in time of a constantly moving target. What we may conclude from current data is that most Canadians are satisfied with their political class—so far. All together, now. Inevitably, while people are cooped up inside and instructed not to visit family or friends, resentment will build towards anyone who seemingly flaunts these rules. This is especially true for politicians. A selfie of the Trudeau family gathered together at a cottage for Easter began making the rounds on anti-Trudeau networks, charging him with hypocrisy for travelling 27 km to spend the holiday together, hours after he told Canadians , "This weekend is going to be very different. You’ll have to stay home." Meanwhile, news broke that several MPs—including Green Party Leader Elizabeth May , Liberal cabinet minister Carla Qualtrough, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer and for some reason Scheer's wife and four children—packed a nine-seater plane to Ottawa over the weekend, literally flying in the face of six-foot distance requirements. (The alternative arrangements for Scheer's family would have been more travel for him, or a string of commercial flights for his family, both of which were deemed a greater health risk and more expensive.) The end of an era. In Fredericton, N.B., a couple of medical professionals tried to fill the dire shortage of abortion clinics in the province. That was five years ago. Now, after receiving no provincial support and subsidizing the procedures out of their own pockets, they're throwing in the towel. Lindsay Jones has the story in Maclean's: “I can’t pay for abortions anymore,” says Edgar, a 37-year-old medical director of Clinic 554, referring to the province’s refusal to cover the cost of abortions outside hospitals—and the fact that he and Edelman routinely pay out-of-pocket for women who can’t afford the procedure. “I’m just a family doctor trying to keep doing health care for people without the government agreeing to reimburse me.” Edelman, a trained social worker who runs the clinic, says the couple feels pushed out of the province. Pay it forward. This year, MPs will receive a scheduled 2.1-per-cent salary increase of $3,756, upping their annual earnings from $178,900 to $182,656. For obvious reasons, some MPs (including every party leader) will donate their extra earnings to food banks or charities that have been hurt by the COVID-19 wreckage. The Hill Times rounded up a list of every MP who's making the donation. Courting trouble. After being ejected from the federal Conservative leadership race for making allegedly racist comments on social media, Jim Karahalios decided to sue the party. Despite the CPC's attempts to get the case thrown out, an Ontario court just gave it the green light. The matter will be heard on May 15. The leadership race itself may be postponed, but the law waits for no one. —Michael Fraiman | 
