The feds promise we only have one more week to be mad at them Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here to get it delivered weekday mornings. One week more. Despite major setbacks in Canada's vaccine strategy so far, Procurement Minister Anita Anand is confident Canada's vaccine supply will shoot back up next week. While the country is only receiving a paltry 70,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine this week, Anand told CBC News the feds are expecting 336,000 doses the week of Feb. 15. Anand, like every other Liberal MP, is parroting the words of Justin Trudeau that Canada is still on track to attain six million doses by the end of March. Writing in Maclean's, Andrew MacDougall argues this optimistic intra-party yea-saying is detrimental to our political discourse. Liberal backbenchers should feel empowered to speak against their leader—especially when there's good reason to cast blame—if for no other reason than because their constituents would expect them to. For now, the Liberal line still seems to be that Canada is weathering the storm rather well, even as others race ahead on vaccines. This week, Trudeau even ventured that the United Kingdom would prefer to be Canada on some fronts. And while I suppose Boris Johnson would rather have Canada’s death totals (20,000 vs. 100,000), I’m sure he would also rather have Trudeau’s supplicant backbench and Canada’s relatively limp press. On Saturday, a cross-partian group of 13 MPs published an open letter calling on the International Olympic Committee to move the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics to a different country, given China's human rights abuses against Uighurs. The request echoes criticism doled out by UN Ambassador Bob Rae, who requested the UN investigate whether China's treatment of Uighurs constitutes a genocide. This new letter was signed by MPs from all parties—including Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe of the Bloc Québécois, Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Tory Arnold Viersen, the NDP's Jenny Kwan and both Green MPs, Elizabeth May and Paul Manly—as well as organizations such as the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs and the Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador, plus individuals such as Canada's 1994 gold medallist in freestyle skiing, Jean-Luc Brassard. Will this motley crew actually persuade the IOC to change plans? Probably not, but it's a statement worth making. New in Nova Scotia. The province's Liberal party voted over the weekend, choosing 37-year-old Iain Rankin to replace outgoing premier Stephen McNeil. The former minister of environment (later shuffled to the ministry of forestry and lands) was elected on a big environmental platform, vowing to make the province carbon-neutral by eliminating coal and increasing reliance on renewable energy. McNeil has yet to announce when exactly he'll step aside, but expect that to happen before March. Fun fact: Rankin may well be the first Canadian premier to have a diploma in golf club management. Return of the colour code. Ontario's provincial lockdown is set to expire on Wednesday, but it's unlikely Premier Doug Ford will open up the entire economy at once. Ford has already committed to easing restrictions regionally, leaving high-risk urban areas in lockdown for at least a week longer than other regions. That would mean the return of the colour zones, corresponding to different levels of lockdown. The House of Commons is taking a break this week, so a couple of government ministers are using the downtime to make some announcements about new government spending. This morning, Rural Economic Development Minister Maryam Monsef will announce funds to bolster high-speed Internet in Southwestern Ontario; later on this afternoon, Infrastructure Minister Catherine McKenna will appear beside Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante and Government House leader Pablo Rodriguez to reveal a new infrastructure project happening in Montreal. The Senate is still sitting, which means the debate over Bill C-7—the Medical Assisted in Dying bill, or MAiD—could ramp up today. Conservative Senators Don Plett and Denise Batters have vowed to vote against the bill on the third reading. The government is hoping the Senate swiftly sends the bill back to the House with amendments, where MPs can accept or deny the changes, punting it back to the Senate for approval before the government's court-imposed deadline of Feb. 26. Tomorrow, the U.S. Senate will vote on whether to impeach former president Donald Trump for a second time. During what might be the last week we're inclined to pay attention to Trump's name in the news, Shannon Gormley points out in Maclean's the striking similarities between Trump and his Russian pal, Vladimir Putin. A riddle: which president in the last half-decade sought the company of well-turned-out women who sought the company of well-to-do men who were married to other well-turned-out women; used his wealth to become president and used his presidency to increase his wealth; boasted of the size of his wealth but would not reveal its specifics; put much of his wealth into his many real estate holdings; and, for these real estate holdings, bought a golden commode and a seaside abode? But then, that’s not a fair question—not now, when it has two possible answers. —Michael Fraiman | 
