Alaska congressional delegation and governor beg Trudeau for special treatment
The Alaska congressional delegation and Gov. Mike Dunleavy are begging Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to give special treatment for Alaskans who want to travel by land to the Lower 48.
“We all agree that we must remain vigilant against the threats to the health and well-being of our people that COVID-19 has create,” say Sens. Lisa Murkowski, Dan Sullivan, Rep. Don Young and Dunleavy.
”We understand and appreciate the magnitude of the task facing your government,” they told Trudeau.
Sure they do.
They forgot to mention the eternal vigilance of President Donald Trump.
They forgot to mention how Trump doesn’t understand or appreciate the magnitude of the task facing the United States and the world. Trump’s disastrous leadership created an obvious threat to Canada, which led to the travel shutdown.
About 800 to 1,000 people a day are still dying in the U.S. from COVID-19, while Trump still downplays the threat, ignoring health experts and science.
Trudeau says the rapidly increase in COVID-19 cases across the United States was the reason to extend border travel restrictions.
“The situation in the United States continues to be of concern. So we're going to make sure we're keeping Canadians safe as best as we can," Trudeau told Global News last week. "Canadians can be deeply reassured to know that their various orders of government are always going to work together to keep them safe, unlike some other places we see around the world.”
In the U.S., the New York Times reports that “the national trajectory is worsening rapidly.”
“Wisconsin has opened a field hospital. North Dakota, which not long ago had relatively few cases, has grown so overwhelmed that it has now ended most contact tracing. Cases have reached record levels recently in more than 20 states, including Illinois, Tennessee, New Mexico, Nebraska and Utah,” the Times said.
New infections are rising fast in Alaska.
Pity the four Alaska politicians have done nothing to pressure Trump to stop his incessant lying about the threats to the health and wellbeing of people in the United States and Canada.
Or to call on Trump and his cronies to be concerned with something more than the election.
Dunleavy is a Trump Yes Man. And Murkowski, Sullivan and Young, who could have done something about the miserable federal COVID-19 response, have retreated into a corner and remained quiet about the failure, hoping to ride out this one out.
The endlessly struggling Murkowski acquiesces and the steadfast Sullivan and Young are Trump cheerleaders, right to the end.
The four sent a campaign letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asking that he allow Alaskans, many of them senior citizens in motor homes, to drive through Canada to reach warmer lands for health reasons. Such travel by snowbirds should be regarded as essential for health reasons, they said. The travelers would all get tested and follow the any rules, they said.
Sure, some old people in poor health drive to the Lower 48 for health reasons and to be closer to medical care. Others do it because they have two homes and like warm weather.
In their letter to Trudeau, the Alaska leaders said the existing Canadian restrictions on travel are “very reasonable.” They also say Alaska has been responsible in dealing with COVID-19, perhaps hoping that Trudeau is not aware of what has been going on here in the last few weeks.
“We have been relatively fortunate so far; Alaska has seen no increase in excess mortality—the gold standard by which a pandemic response can be judged,” the four Alaska politicians boast.
With case numbers exploding in Alaska, it should be getting harder and harder for our politicians to boast about Alaska’s pandemic response. Or to continue to excuse Trump’s negligence.