All eyes in the Canadian travel industry were on Cornwall this weekend where the leaders of the world’s largest democratic economies met from 11-13JUN, with reopening international travel on the agenda.
As the global pandemic waned, it was the first in-person meeting of most leaders in months, and it was also the first in-person meeting between Canada’s PM Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Joe Biden, who was elected in NOV 2020.
Despite that, the border between the two countries – which, in an historic first, has been closed for over a year to non-essential travel – apparently scarcely came up. This was despite the fact that the current ban is set to expire 21JUN.
According to CTV News, the two leaders did discuss the reopening of the Canada-U.S border. But a Canadian official apparently only told CTV that it was a “brief conversation” about a “cautious” reopening.
American publication Forbes had more to report, but still gave no indication of any changes coming soon. Forbes reported no comments by Biden on the subject, but did note remarks made by Trudeau at the news conference at the end of the summit, where the PM said he had spoken with Biden, “about coordinating measures at our borders as both our countries move ahead with mass vaccination.”
Forbes notes that Trudeau has maintained for some time that Ottawa wants to see a threshold of 75 per cent of vaccinated Canadians before relaxing travel restrictions. It also noted that the last two weeks have seen a “10 per cent jump” in vaccination rates in Canada, which it says would see Canada “reach the 75 per cent threshold in early July.”
“We know full well that once people get fully vaccinated, once restrictions are starting to ease in our country, we will have people wanting to travel around the world and that is certainly something we’re looking at to ensure that whatever documentation, whatever processes Canada puts in place, they are able to align with our friends, allies and indeed our partners around the world,” Trudeau is reported saying.
“The best approach will be one that respects people’s privacy, that demonstrates an ability to travel to places all around the world in different systems, and that is reliable and easy, and makes sure it is treating everyone fairly.”
The hypocrisy is stunning, apparently its fine for these “politicians” and their entourage to fly to Europe and meet unmasked, but the rest of us live with their incompetency.::
American, at best, is 50% vaccinated. I don’t see how Canada cam get up to 75% unless your government forces everyone to get vaccinated.
Politics really is dirty -Few are allowed to play it.
Lord help us ! These two together aren’t even enough to make a 1/2 wit!