Vacationers receive a PM's scolding Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here to get it delivered weekday mornings. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was definitive yesterday, from his familiar doorstep at Rideau Cottage, about the temptation to travel during these troubling times. “No one should be vacationing abroad right now,” he said. Trudeau also said Canadians who re-enter the country after non-essential travel—i.e. vacationers—will be ineligible for the $1,000 Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit meant to cover short-term sick leave when an employer can't do so. Definitive as he was, Trudeau will still face questions about the timing of recent federal announcements. In the midst of the holidays, when the feds announced that air travellers to Canada will require negative COVID-19 tests on arrival, critics wondered why that particular measure—already popular around the world—wasn't implemented months ago. On the sickness benefit, economist Lindsay Tedds wondered how the government intended to root out ineligible travellers. And will travellers simply head overseas, anyway? The entitlement of Canadian politicians: Pam Palmeter, writing in Maclean's, says every politician that flouted pandemic guidelines and travelled outside of Canada for non-essential reasons should follow the lead of Rod Phillips—until recently Ontario's finance minister—and tender their resignation. As vaccination campaigns ramp up, she writes, public trust is essential. And so is accountability. When elected politicians do not follow their own rules, there is little hope that citizens will. In an age of fake news and disinformation campaigns on social media, there is no room for privileged, entitled politicians. We need real leaders who will lead by example and hold themselves and those in their charge to account. Vaccines will not save us from irresponsible and unaccountable leaders. Mumilaaq Qaqqaq, the NDP MP for Nunavut, is back at work after an extended leave after she experienced "extreme burnout, depression and anxiety." A three-week housing tour in the territory left her dispirited. "I found my heart hurting and soul heavy," she says in a Facebook video. "I couldn't fathom how many Inuit were clearly struggling, so obviously struggling." She's developed a wellness plan to care for her own mental health. Watch Qaqqaq's full video. Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister shuffled his cabinet, promoting three MLAs into the province's executive council (they all got the hockey card treatment): Wayne Ewasko, who'll head up advanced education, skills and immigration; Derek Johnson in municipal relations; and Audrey Gordon, Manitoba's first Black cabinet minister, for the mental health, wellness and recovery portfolio. Gordon, a first-term MLA, will serve as a junior minister to six-termer Heather Stefanson, the new minister for health and seniors. The information commissioner's office publicized four reports—here, here, here and here—that slapped the Privy Council Office on the wrist for, as the Canadian Press put it, "shutting down several requests from the public without good cause." Each information request probed for documents related to the now-defunct Joint Intelligence Committee between 1957 and 1971. In each case, the PCO—a department that reports to Trudeau—improperly closed the files after consultations with other departments went nowhere. The info commish, Caroline Maynard, said the department would abandon that particular practice. What happened? Just a few weeks ago, Ottawa was a beacon of hope for keeping COVID numbers low. "Then came the holidays," wrote the CBC's Joanne Chianello, "and we blew it." As local numbers rise sharply on the heels of unwise indoor gatherings, one epidemiologist said Ottawa's employment landscape—an army of public servants and a large cohort of tech workers—means an inordinately high number of employees can work from home. Which means numbers can fall again. You know what that means: time to track the wastewater (in which the viral signal has, indeed, increased notably). Mea culpa: Yesterday's newsletter incorrectly stated that Rosane Doré Lefebvre is the mother of George Soule's recent newborn. We regret the error. Trump stakes: Will the balance of power shift? Yesterday, Georgia voted in two U.S. Senate races, and early results suggest—what else—a nail-biter. If the Democrats beat the Republicans in both contests, they'd win effective control of the Senate when Kamala Harris replaces Mike Pence as vice-president—and can then break ties in the chamber. Donald Trump, entering his last two weeks as president, campaigned hard for the GOP candidates. Need a handy explainer? The Washington Post's Dave Jorgenson, the newspaper's resident TikTok guy, uses a Risk board to explain the election's stakes. —Nick Taylor-Vaisey | 