Canada lags badly in one crucial area Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here to get it delivered weekday mornings. Welcome to a sneak peek of the Maclean’s Politics Insider newsletter. Sign up to get it delivered straight to your inbox. Erin O'Toole unveiled a new pre-campaign promise yesterday. A new Conservative government would launch a public inquiry into "every aspect of the government's pandemic response," which the Tory leader claimed was "slow and confused" at every turn. He also called on the Liberals to appoint a special monitor, seconded from the auditor general's office, to track the federal pandemic response in "real time." O'Toole lamented that Ottawa has failed on vaccine delivery, citing the New York Times as ranking Canada 44th in the world. (Watch O'Toole's full statement.) Meanwhile, a tweetstorm from federal health minister Patty Hajdu celebrated millions in doses delivered to the provinces—a barely veiled clap-back, perhaps, at Doug Ford's complaints last week about a lack of supply. If Hajdu was implying that provinces were sitting on vaccines, these charts prove her wrong—at least to this point. The minister, by the way, is open to an inquiry. Just not right now, apparently. Ford and PM Justin Trudeau chatted about vaccines yesterday. So where exactly does Canada sit? The global vaccine rankings: Refreshing the Our World in Data vaccine tracker has become something approximating a national pastime. Every day, Trudeau's biggest critics spit out the latest on Canada's lacklustre standing. Yesterday, Canada ranked 58th. But that raw data treats the island nation of Seychelles—a country with the population of Milton, Ont.—as a world leader. Canada ranks 39th on the Times tracker, behind Dominica (pop. 16,058) and Monaco (pop. 20,510). A more nuanced calculation cuts out the world's tiniest places and compares peer countries—say, the advanced economies that form the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Canada ranks eighth in the OECD for proportion of people who've received a first dose (and 3rd in the G7, behind only the U.S. and U.K.). We rank sixth in the rolling average of inoculations per day (again, 3rd in the G7). The economist Trevor Tombe estimated Canada was 37 days behind Americans. The bad news for Canadians is on the share of people fully vaccinated. On that score, we rank 29th in the OECD and second-last in the G7 behind Japan—where barely anybody has received even a first dose. O'Toole blamed Trudeau for "forcing a dosing regime" that allowed four-month intervals between shots (far longer than the manufacturers recommend). Trudeau didn't force those intervals, which came from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization. But provinces did react to a paucity of vaccine supply for several months by prioritizing first doses over full vaccinations. Vaccine agreements: Procurement Minister Anita Anand has offered precious few details about the deals she signed with eight manufacturers. She won't talk about what's in those contracts, citing pesky confidentiality clauses. But we asked her office about this email, recently disclosed to the Commons health committee, that suggested Ottawa's deals with Johnson & Johnson and Novavax weren't finalized until months after they were announced. A Johnson & Johnson press release on Aug. 31 announced an agreement-in-principle with the feds. But that email, dated Oct. 26, said contracts still "need to be finalized." The department got back to us with some dates, which make clear that most deals weren't totally done until November. •Medicago: The agreement in principle was signed on Oct. 22. The agreement was finalized on Nov. 13. •AstraZeneca: The agreement in principle was signed on Sept. 24. The agreement was finalized on Nov. 21. •Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline: The agreements were signed on Sept. 11 and Sept. 18, respectively. •Johnson & Johnson: The agreement in principle was signed on Aug. 21. The agreement was finalized on Nov. 27 and came into effect on Nov. 30. •Novavax: The agreement in principle was signed on Aug. 27. The agreement was finalized on Jan. 19, 2021. •Moderna: The agreement was signed on July 24. •Pfizer: The agreement in principle was signed on Aug. 1. The agreement was finalized on Oct. 26. Anand's office added that Canada was "among the first countries to secure doses" of Moderna's vaccine, the fourth to sign with Pfizer, and "the first jurisdiction without domestic biomanufacturing capacity" to sign with AstraZeneca. School shutdowns: Premier Ford won the competition for screenshot of the day yesterday. Just as he was insisting that schools were safe for learning, the city of Toronto shut 'em down. The Children's Health Coalition reacted with a statement urging health authorities not to close schools. Meanwhile, new provincial data showed that Toronto's least-vaccinated postal codes were some of the hardest hit by COVID-19. The most-vaccinated areas were, conversely, spared huge infection rates. Nenshi out: When Calgary's mayor, Naheed Nenshi, announced he wouldn't run for re-election later this October, Maclean's Alberta correspondent Jason Markusoff reacted with, well, very little shock or surprise. He covered Nenshi for several years at city hall and dove deep, just before the pandemic, into the mayor's third-term rough patch. Here's Markusoff's view of Nenshi's decision: This news inevitably gets politico tongues wagging about a foray into federal politics for a would-be star candidate from Liberal central casting. Not gonna happen. The grind of the last few years in hard-times Alberta had left him feeling pretty ground down, so he’s almost definitely ready for a post-political life. Also, his political style—not the best at playing with others, decidedly disdains partisanship—doesn’t lend itself well to the games of Ottawa or a provincial capital. Canada's real estate divide: A new study from the Angus Reid Institute reveals that Canadians want distinctly different housing price graphs. The pollster found that 40 per cent of us want prices to rise, and another 40 per cent want them to fall. Four out of five renters want to buy a home, but 45 per cent of them can't afford it right now—and 25 per cent don't think they'll ever have the means. A new "housing pain index" says 60 per cent of the country is uncomfortable or miserable. Mea culpa: In yesterday's edition, your newsletter correspondent tripped over his own feet when he claimed that 172 seats in the House of Commons is 16 short of a majority government. Of course, 170 seats is a majority. (338/2)+1 should be easy math. Good news of the day: Michael Karlin, a digital government policy guy, tweeted that his "timeline is all rage"—but countered the negativity with great news for local foodies. The City Centre building, the ugliest structure in town that some of the coolest businesses call home, now hosts a Peruvian restaurant. "It captured everything I loved about Lima," he said. Bon appétit. —Nick Taylor-Vaisey | 
