Canada does better than neighbor, and politics plays a role, experts say

Canada seems to be doing a better job handling the COVID-19 outbreak than its southern neighbor, which may stem from Canada's political system or culture, experts said.

The beginning of May saw more than 1.18 million cases and at least 68,900 related deaths recorded in the United States, while there have been just around 60,000 confirmed cases and around 3,800 deaths in Canada.

A survey also found that three out of four Canadians believe the country is doing a better job than the US in handling the outbreak.

"We (in Canada) have a federal government that is supporting provinces' responses. You (in the US) have a chief executive (the president) who is directly undermining the public health response," said David Fisman, an epidemiologist at the University of Toronto.

According to Fisman, there are a number of factors that have enabled Canada to perform at a "higher level" than the US, including consistent funding for public health agencies and a universal healthcare system. But one of the most important ones is the difference between the countries in "political leadership".

A comparative case study has seen how a "dysfunctional" political system can really cost lives. The US response has become infected by "partisan politics" and filled with "federal incompetence", Fisman said. On the other hand, Canada's policies have been "efficiently" implemented with support from leaders across the political system.

Strict measures

Experts also said that Canada introduced strict measures like social distancing quickly, and there weren't any inconsistencies.

Meanwhile, a New York Times report based on 50 interviews concluded that the US failure was due to several factors, including bureaucracy and a "lack of leadership at multiple levels".

"The result was a lost month, when the world's richest country－armed with some of the most highly trained scientists and infectious disease specialists－squandered its best chance of containing the virus' spread. Instead, Americans were left largely blind to the scale of a looming public health catastrophe," the report said.

"What we've seen (in Canada) through this spreading pandemic is that there's a lot of coordination on quarantine measures and closures from one province to the next, whereas you see the US, the 50 states－there's quite large differences in what's happening from one state to the next," Stephen Hoption Cann, a professor of public health at the University of British Columbia, told the Global News.

Richard Schultz, a former political science professor at McGill University, said that there were vast differences between the US and Canada from the perspective of "political culture".

He said that Canada's culture is more deeply rooted in community and social services.

When the 2003 SARS outbreak exposed some failings in Canada's public health system, the country reviewed its federal-provincial relationship on health issues, according to Katherine Fierlbeck, a political-science professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax.