scilly

I think we will be finding out in 2-4 weeks time how successful each country has been in their attempts to control covid-19 and to emerge from lock down.

Remembering that some countries are different for others in that some have central control from the central government, while in other countries, the individual provinces and states have much more control over their own situations and can even over-ride the central (federal) government in a lot of areas.

Think Canada, the US and Australia.

It seems to be that the overwhelming opinion of the UK is that Boris and the rest dropped the ball right from the get go .......... they were dismissing the importance of the virus, just as the US was doing, while not really paying attention to what was happening.

It would have been easy for the UK government to have closed their borders to all non-essential traffic, just as New Zealand did, but also as several countries in the European zone shut down. Instead they were allowing in thousands upon thousands of visitors into the country without checking or quarantine, just let them wander wherever, no care that they were coming in from countries in the midst of a virulent outbreak.

It might have led to the herd immunity that Boris and his advisors were promoting, but most other countries went a different route ............... which means WE do not have herd immunity.

I can tell you that after isolating since March 18, with only very brief excursions out of the house beginning after 6 weeks, so I have had 6 weeks complete isolation and 8 weeks of semi-isolation .......... I shall not be at all happy if an incomer brings covid-19 into my community and we have a major outbreak.

Sasquatch888

I think some on here are missing the point. Countries cannot be shutdown forever, especially ones that are heavily reliant on immigrants and tourists coming into the country, like Canada. Until a vaccine or suppressive drugs are available, it will come down to how effective your local authorities are at dealing with new cases in the form of tracking, testing and localized isolation. It will have to come to that our else the problems caused by shutting down will out-weigh the ones caused by Covid19. That is what most developed countries are starting to rely on now as they get to a point where they are prepared for localized outbreaks.

The UK has been letting foreign nationals into the country and not closed the boarders, true. They have also carried out double the amount of tests per 1m people than Canada. They also include fairly reliable death figures and include deaths from outside of hospital, not many other countries do - not sure about Canada but sounds like their reporting of deaths is unreliable and slow at best. Despite this, the UK is now on a similar trajectory to Canada in new cases and deaths. The daily numbers themselves are still a bit higher in the UK, but again, the above reasons will go some way to explaining this. Considering the UK has double the population in a fraction of the land mass, with a far more intricate public transport network - I am not sure if Canadians can sit there and point fingers and say how badly the UK are doing - especially when you look at figures in built up areas like Toronto and Montreal - and neither have done well when it comes to care homes. There will be pros and cons of how both have handled things.

However now more than ever what with Covid19 and the state of the oil sands, Canada needs us islanders (you know, the founders of Canada) to come into the country as quickly and as numerous as possible.

To answer the OP - Canada should start easing restrictions once their track, trace and isolate procedures are in place, which should (hopefully) be in the next month or 2. Canadians should be praying for that, as if not, to close boarders for a whole summer will be a disaster for the tourism, airline & hospitality industries and the Canadian economy as a whole.

Lets all hope for some more positive times ahead, eh.

dbd33

It's borders, ffs.

Why does Canada need people from the UK? In ordinary times it's open to receiving people from the UK, same as from anywhere else, but doesn't need them more or less than people from anywhere else. What's the case for needing them now?

Engineer_abroad

It is easy politics to close the border and blame the problem on ‘foreigners’.

Sasquatch888

Everyone loves the spelling police.

Why not from the UK? Think I made it pretty clear in my post. Canada needs people from all countries, that have the virus under control, coming in, including the UK. Because of (see post previous post again). For one picking out spelling mistakes, you didn't let the subject matter sink in very well did you?

dbd33

Ah, so the suggestion is that Canada needs people from safe countries and that the UK is safe. That's not an argument for letting in people from the UK but for ranking countries by infection rate and admitting people from the countries with fewer infections; New Zealand, South Korea and so on. If Canada were to admit people solely based on economic benefit America would be first. The UK is neither a particularly important trading partner nor a particular safe country; if there's to be selection by nationality it's not an ideal candidate.

Of course one can make a compassionate case that the victims of Brexit will have to go somewhere and, if thoroughly tested and able to pass IELTS, could be admitted as refugees.

Sasquatch888

Yes and yes. I didn't mention anything about the most economic benefit. Again, you need to read my original post. The point was that even with a more relaxed approach to foreigners coming in, the UK is doing just as well as Canada (you can give and take somethings both countries to better/worse for but the rates of new infections/deaths are both similar and controlled in both countries). The holier than thou posts earlier are baffling.

The effects of continuing with such strict measures will do you a lot more harm, and simply, without the likes of people from the UK (and other countries, to be crystal clear) coming in soon, the impact will be far and wide-ranging (more so than they already are). Therefore, Canada (and other countries) need to put the measures in place to allow that to happen with testing, tracing, isolating where appropriate and open up internationally. Some countries are now doing this, are able to benefit from international travel and take action if infections are reported. And so far it has been working. Canada needs to do this asap.

Oh, and the UK is Canada's third largest trade partner - not that this has anything to do with the economic benefits tourists or the people immigrating from the UK bring. You obviously have no concept of what is happening to the tourism, airline and hospitality industries in Canada, and elsewhere, at the moment. Which, yes, does have an impact on the economy as a whole.

The amount of tourists coming from the UK is second only to the USA. So yeah, I would say you need us. Especially if the land border with Canada's biggest economic contributor remains closed, you will need all the help you can get.

Former Lancastrian

Because some of us are bloody sick to the back teeth of listening to whingeing Brits who have just arrived in Canada constantly complaining and comparing the 2 x countries. Statements like Anyone know where you can get Walkers crisps in Regina, I haven't seen any Robinsons Squash in Calgary, Cell phone plans are ridiculous in Kelowna, They just quoted me $5,000 a year for car insurance in Toronto, The Canadian banking system sucks (all over), How do you get Sky TV and the bloody list goes on and on and on.
Just because we speak a similar language, have towns and cities named the same, have the Queen as our Head of State and still part of the Commonwealth it does mean everything is the same as living in Pontefract. And if you come from Pontefract that's even worse as you are living in Yorkshire which should be reason enough to ban you from ever living or visiting here.

Sasquatch888

All highly personal and not a good reason to influence government policy i'm afraid. Says more about your view of the world more than anything else, being so upset about incidental things. Please refer to previous thread which points out real reasons why Canada needs tourists and immigrants from the UK. And I don't live in Yorkshire...<snipped>

Hurlabrick

Fact check.

The original settlers in Canada were French The Brits came much later and imposed themselves (thankfully so IMHO) in the seven years war.

If you are referring to the act of confederation in 1867, that was a hurried and crude 'sod off, we cant afford you as a colony anymore' act by the British.

Sasquatch888

Ha, true. Should have been clearer. I was meaning the UK immigrants responsible for founding a lot of the Canadian companies and institutions that helped form the country and how it looks today (primarily Scots and Irish).

Engineer_abroad

I think given the second part of FLs name the last bit about Yorkshire was a little joke. Maybe not and the wars of the roses still has a deep impact for FL but more likely a joke

Former Lancastrian

And there is me thinking that a Brit might understand sarcasm in such a post and according to my computer I was using the sarcasm font there again I could have used this

Sasquatch888

I did consider that but whatever it was, it was still a strange thing to say. Hopefully the whole post was a joke.

Sasquatch888

Oh so your other posts were sarcastic as well. That makes more sense. As were the posts from dbd33, gottcha. I have an idea - lets just from now on write all sarcastic responses to posts - I think that will be great, as tone and expression really comes across well from behind a keyboard. SO helpful you figure out what emojis are for