The Bill Kelly Show Podcast:

Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly has resigned after being roundly criticized for his force’s failure to control and end a blockade of the capital city that has continued for more than two weeks.

Mr. Sloly left the service Tuesday on the 19th day of protests that have forced businesses to close, left residents feeling intimidated and as local politicians say the city has been abandoned by police. Ottawa is now under three states of emergency invoked by the municipal, provincial and federal governments.

What went wrong with Sloly?

GUEST: Justin Ling, Freelance Investigative Journalist (Macleans, Globe and Mail, The Guardian)

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Fully vaccinated travellers entering Canada will no longer have to take a pre-arrival molecular test — such as a PCR — as of Feb. 28, Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos announced Tuesday.

Travellers will still be required to take a pre-arrival test, but they can instead opt for an authorized rapid antigen test taken no more than one day before their scheduled flight or arrival at the land border. 

Antigen tests are typically cheaper than a molecular test and can provide results within minutes. 

GUEST: Dr. Jason Profetto, Family Physician & Chair of Clinical Skills and an Assistant Professor with McMaster University

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Ontario Premier Doug Ford spoke Tuesday about his government’s plan to remove the province’s proof of vaccination requirement in two weeks and said it’s time to “get on with our lives.”

Ford made the remarks in response to a reporter’s question at an unrelated announcement in Hamilton.

Is Doug Ford recklessly undermining vaccine confidence with his change in tone during Tuesday’s announcement on lifting restrictions?

ALSO: Doug Ford acknowledges division in his family over COVID-19 rules

GUEST: Peggy Nash, Former NDP Finance Critic, and author of Women Winning Office: An Activist's Guide To Getting Elected available May 2022

The Bill Kelly Show Podcast:

The federal government took the unprecedented step on Monday of invoking the Emergencies Act to deal with the ongoing convoy occupation in Ottawa and blockades that have affected border crossings across the country.

Although passed in 1988 as a replacement to the War Measures Act, the Emergencies Act has never been used before.

So what does it do?

GUEST: Nomi Claire Lazar, Full Professor in Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa and author of the book “States of Emergency in Liberal Democracies”

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It’s not about you; it’s about Canada: that’s the message that should echo in the mind of every Tory as they vote for a new leader.

Too many Conservatives regard their party as a place to indulge their deeply held, perfectly legitimate, but boutique causes: climate-policy skepticism, lifting automatic gun restrictions, opposing abortion and so forth.

Moreover, party spokespeople focus on issues of narrow interest, like taxes, deficits and waste, unable to produce a coherent vision of the positive things government is for in a country that believes in the common good.

The Tories have thus made their party an electoral liability. Yet the official Opposition‘s duty and responsibility is to offer a credible alternative to the government of the day. When Tories fail, they condemn Canadians to re-elect a government that few people actually want.

GUEST: Brian Lee Crowley is the Founder and Managing Director of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. His most recent book is “Gardeners vs. Designers: Understanding the Great Fault Line in Canadian Politics

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A new Maru Public Opinion Poll on how Canadians feel about Relaxed Community COVID Restrictions.

GUEST: John Wright, Executive Vice President of Maru Public Opinion