What to make of the latest vaccine advice Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here to get it delivered weekday mornings. David Naylor, the co-chair of Canada's COVID-19 Immunity Task Force, appeared yesterday on CBC News to calmly talk viewers through yesterday's vaccine recommendations from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization. Naylor said the panel's "unsettling message" appeared to cast the AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson shots as second-class vaccines. He said they're not, and there's broad agreement that every jab is safe. Naylor's advice, which matched that of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, was to take the first shot on offer. Both men received AstraZeneca. A catastrophe of vaccine messaging: Ottawa bureau chief Shannon Proudfoot chronicled Monday's communications missteps from both the NACI and Health Minister Patty Hajdu, whose testy response to Tory health critic Michelle Rempel Garner didn't particularly meet the moment. Needless to say, crisis comms experts have reams of new case studies to cite. Border politics: Doug Ford's Progressive Conservatives appear to be winding down the play-nice period of the pandemic. The party is reportedly launching an ad campaign directed squarely at Justin Trudeau's Liberals. Ford's education minister, Stephen Lecce, posted a new ad on Facebook a few days ago that called out Ottawa for porous borders—and, to make the point, mocked up an airport arrivals board replete with COVID-positive flights from India. There was a backlash. Channel-changer: Yesterday, this newsletter name-checked the Liberals' efforts to amend elections laws by stashing the new provisions in their budget bill. As it turns out, Liberal MP Ryan Turnbull is hoping a parliamentary committee can study the proposal. There's one problem, he said in a release fired off to the Press Gallery: The pesky opposition still wants to talk about WE Charity. The amendments aren't a random act of legislating. They respond to a court ruling from March. Madame Justice, Round 2: In the other chamber, Conservative Sen. Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu counselled Louise Arbour, the government's chosen external reviewer of toxic military culture, to turn down the appointment. In his own missive circulated to the Gallery, Boisvenu said the Liberals need only to act on the 2015 Deschamps Report, not launch another exercise he dismisses as a "cynical parody." Boisvenu's advice to Arbour: "Save her reputation." The saga of Lisa Raitt: Last week, the Toronto Sun's Mark Bonokoski first reported the former cabinet minister and Tory deputy leader—as well as nine other directors—were unceremoniously dumped from the party's riding association executive in Milton, Ont. Bonokoski, once a speechwriter for Raitt, called local candidate Nadeem Akbar's efforts to elect his own slate to the exec a "coup." The Toronto Star found local insiders "furious" about the dustup. Dale Smith, writing in the Globe and Mail, had another word for the Milton imbroglio: democracy. May the 4th: ...is a day for bad Star Wars jokes. And politicians didn't disappoint—or, depending on your threshold for that particular brand of humour, they did. The clanger of the day goes to Trade Minister Mary Ng, whose well-intentioned but messy photo illustration featured C3P0 and R2D2 getting their shots. Public Safety Canada nets an honourable mention for what must have been the most workshopped tweet. But the best joke goes to Erin O'Toole , who snuck in a jab at the Liberals' Bill C-10, which critics fear could lead to federal moderation of user-generated content. Production value: high. Prank of the month: A pair of Russian pranksters who once duped the PM into believing they were Greta Thunberg—watch that conversation here—was at it again on April 22. Justin Ling, writing for VICE News, told the tale of how Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexei Stolyarov pretended to be the chief of staff to Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny at a closed-door session of the Commons foreign affairs committee. Nobody at that table would talk about the in camera session, but the pranksters aren't shy. They insist their hi-jinx are "just for fun." Keep an eye on the duo's YouTube channel. More reinforcements: Yesterday, a new crew of health-care workers from Newfoundland and Labrador arrived at Pearson Airport. They're beefing up the ranks at the William Osler Health System in hard-hit Brampton, Ont. Here was the scene. —Nick Taylor-Vaisey | 
