"Right now, we're seeing terrible tragedies in long-term care facilities across the country," Justin Trudeau said Thursday. "This is unacceptable."
The prime minister's comments on the rising death toll inside Canada's nursing homes and seniors centres were his most negative since this crisis began, and marked a departure from the reassuring tone he's largely stuck to over the past six weeks.
"If you're angry, frustrated, scared, you're right to feel this way. We can do better. We need to do better. Because we are failing our parents, our grandparents, our elders — the greatest generation who built this country," Trudeau continued. "Going forward in the weeks and months to come, we will all have to ask tough questions about how it came to this."
In terms of public policy, COVID-19 will leave behind a number of success stories. Thousands of public servants have worked to implement and deliver billions of dollars in relief. Federal and provincial leaders have collaborated across jurisdictions and party lines. The Canadian health care system has, so far, held up much better than the system in the United States.