Higgs won't throw in the towel, despite discouraging 2021
CBC
Despite a pandemic that he said in October had "consumed" his mandate, Blaine Higgs says he has no plans to throw in the towel as premier in the coming year.
In a year-end interview, Higgs says while soaring case counts, voter anger and plunging poll numbers are discouraging, he has no interest in retiring early and will continue working through his to-do list in 2022 and beyond.
"I don't know if I'm looking like I'm getting tired of being premier or what," he said. "But no, it hasn't affected my duration, at least as far as my motivation to continue on with some of the major files that we're working on."
Nor would his COVID-19 troubles influence his decision on whether to seek another mandate in 2024, when he'll be 70 years old.
"It's not going to play a role in my decision in that regard, and I obviously haven't made any decisions in that regard," he said.
The premier also defended his handling of COVID-19, an approach that was praised early in the pandemic but that has drawn criticism since the late summer, when cases began increasing after a full reopening July 30.
Higgs has acknowledged the lifting of all restrictions happened too early, declaring in October that "we may have made mistakes along the way" but insisting the decisions were based on the best information available at the time.
"We work together as a team to put the full package together that we think is in the best interests," he said in the CBC year-end interview.
"It isn't a unilateral decision, it isn't something where I throw darts at a wall and try to say, 'Well, will this work?' It's done through a basis of calculations to minimize risk."
On Oct. 21, the premier held a downbeat news conference where he sounded dejected about rising COVID numbers and reaching the grim milestone of 100 deaths.
"It is extremely hard to come to terms with the fact that COVID is here to stay," he said morosely. The pandemic that began little more than a year after he became premier had "consumed our mandate," he added.
He also complained about being the target of nasty comments.
"We all can become demoralized. We are all COVID-tired. But the individual comments do matter. They hurt. They hurt my team. They hurt myself. They hurt my family. They hurt our ability to get up and carry on as we must."
Higgs complained again in November during a two-week strike by the Canadian Union of Public Employees. He said being premier "is not a fun job and I'm not making it any more pleasant with what I'm going through right now."
More than 100 workers at a steel plant in eastern Ontario are being laid off either temporarily or permanently, as a company with facilities in Quebec and Ontario cuts its workforce due to challenging market conditions — including U.S. tariffs.
A small town northwest of Thunder Bay, Ont., has become the unlikely home for hundreds of foreign workers, but many may have to leave the community they've embraced after the end of a federal program put in place to fill gaps in Canada's labour market.
There's mixed reaction in Waterloo to an injuction allowing police to detain, arrest and charge anyone who is participating in unsanctioned street parties in that city this weekend.
Diabetes Canada is excited about Prince Edward Island's new pharmacare deal with the federal government, but hopes the province will reevaluate copays on diabetes supplies, says a senior manager with the organization.
After 26 years of accommodating guests from across the world, Faith Embleton says she and her husband Ken are ready to sell their bed and breakfast.
A group of big-name companies including Google, Meta and Dow have signed a pledge to support tripling the world's nuclear energy capacity by 2050, a signal of the technology's growing resurgence in popularity.
Five years on, Toronto-area doctors and public health officials are looking back at what they've learned since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic — and most agree the early experience will prove useful if the city faces another infectious disease crisis.
City staff would like Londoners to take a good look around their home and ask themselves a direct and possibly difficult question: Could everyone in your family survive at home, without leaving and with no other help, for a full 72 hours?
Liberal Leader Mark Carney will officially become Canada's next prime minister within a few hours, taking the reins as the country barrels toward a general election and continues to fend off verbal and economic attacks from U.S. President Donald Trump.
Recent cyberattacks in Newfoundland and Labrador should have been a wake up call for the federal government about the reality of an increasingly hostile world, says one cybersecurity expert.
A recent CBC News analysis found that Nova Scotia is rapidly losing some of its most affordable apartments, but housing experts say there are ways to prevent that.
Premier Susan Holt is defending her decision to not use electricity exports to Maine as leverage against U.S. tariffs, arguing the move might cause long-term pain for New Brunswickers.
Montreal's St. Patrick's Day parade first started on Saint-Paul Street in 1824, and a couple centuries later, this annual tradition is still going strong.