Washington Secrets | Safer snorting kits and food insecurity: What happened to Canada?

WASHINGTON SECRETS

BY ROB CRILLY

Welcome to Monday’s edition of Washington Secrets. If a friend sent you this and you’d like to sign up, CLICK HERE. Today, we talk to a filmmaker who is asking what went wrong in Canada, plus we send our congratulations to the new Treasury counselor, who is always easy to spot at D.C. parties…

Inspiration struck when Canadian filmmaker Mira Metter was traveling with her husband a couple of years ago.

“Everyone was saying, ‘Oh my God, you’re so lucky! You live in Canada. It’s so safe. Everyone’s so nice. It’s so great,” she told Secrets.

Not on her little street in Toronto, Metter told her friends. Cars had been stolen in the previous 18 months and three of her neighbors reported break-ins carried out while they were asleep at home.

The result was an extraordinary effort to piece together a different story about Canada, through interviews with 4,500 Canadians and more than 70 policy experts.

It is told in Broken Country, a feature-length documentary that is out now, revealing a land where more than 15,000 patients died in a year waiting for surgeries or tests in its much-vaunted healthcare system, where almost one-fifth of the country is “food insecure,” and where high school students have been given “safer snorting” kits.

For Canadians, Metter said the movie was a chance to have a conversation and start moving discussions towards solutions.

But she said there was a broader message too, particularly in places where Canada’s health and social policies were sometimes presented as a panacea.

“I think for an American audience, I think it sounds a warning bell that this is what bad policy over a prolonged period of time creates, because the problems that we have are not totally unique, and the policies that we’re living with are also being presented on the other side of the border, and it’s not serving the people,” she said.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is one of the most prominent examples of an American politician who frequently points to Canada’s publicly funded, single-payer healthcare model as a more cost-effective system than America’s expensive private version.

But don’t forget that Donald Trump also cited it as a success when he first ran for president.

“As far as single payer, it works in Canada,” said Trump during the first Republican presidential debate, although he went on to say that it probably would not be applicable in the United States.

Metter interviewed a patient who waited 15 hours to see a surgeon after suffering a spinal injury when he slipped on ice. Today, he lives with chronic pain and has only partial feeling below the waist, despite being told later that surgery within an hour could have led to a total recovery.

One of the most controversial issues she tackles is Canada’s “safe supply” programs, which provide government-regulated drugs to addicts as a way for them to avoid the illegal market.

Yet, the result is still 67,000 deaths a year linked to substance abuse, more than traffic fatalities and suicide combined.

And parents in one Ontario town a couple of hours north of Toronto, were infuriated to learn that their children had access to “safer snorting” kits at their school.

A leaflet by the Canadian AIDS Treatment Information Exchange. Parents in Ontario were infuriated to learn their children had access to 'safer snorting' kits at their school — A leaflet by the Canadian AIDS Treatment Information Exchange. Parents in Ontario were infuriated to learn their children had access to ‘safer snorting’ kits at their school (CATIE)

It comes with instructions on how to take drugs more safely, along with colorful plastic straws so that users can more easily identify their own equipment, reducing the risk of picking up pathogens like Hepatitis C or bacteria that cause sinus infections.

“Parents were really upset about it because it takes away their agency as a parent to help navigate their child away from drugs, and it implies that consuming drugs is safe because they’re getting government-regulated instruction manuals and tools to do it,” said Metter.

Affordability was one of the key issues in last year’s election, which saw a Liberal government returned to office under Mark Carney.

Carney has clashed repeatedly with Trump on tariffs. But Metter said that little had changed to make housing more affordable, reduce the tax burden, or help companies grow.

“It’s become impossible for our entrepreneurs to afford to stay,” she said, describing how Canadians that might once have started companies at home, “now starting headquarters in the States because of regulation and taxes and cost, and with that goes the jobs.”

You are reading Washington Secrets, a guide to power and politics in D.C. and beyond. It is written by Rob Crilly, who you can reach at secrets@washingtonexaminer.com with your comments, story tips, and suggestions.

Kellyanne’s boyfriend lands top administration gig

Congratulations to Dr. David Zervos, named today as a counselor to Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent.

The press release details his qualifications and expertise.

“Zervos brings 35 years of experience across global financial markets, central banking, and macroeconomic analysis,” it says. “He joins Treasury from Jefferies LLC, where he spent nearly half of his career serving as Chief Market Strategist and Head of the Global Macro Division for Leucadia Asset Management.”

Not mentioned is his personal connection to Trumpworld. Partygoers in Washington, D.C., know Zervos as the boyfriend of former Trump counselor and pollster Kellyanne Conway.

His long hair, beard, and colorful suits (sometimes paired with cowboy boots) make the couple easy to spot among the navy-suited, red-tied crowd. Will he have to tone down his look for the Treasury?

North Carolina

More bad news for Michael Whatley, who faces an uphill struggle to win election to the Senate from North Carolina. A poll from AARP suggests he is 11 points behind Democratic candidate Roy Cooper.

The good news is that Whatley polls better with older voters — he holds a six-point lead among those aged over 50 — and they are far more likely to vote. The poll found that 83% of those voters rated themselves a “10” on a 10-point motivation-to-vote scale, compared with 66% of voters under 50.

Is that enough for Whatley? Maybe not, but it does offer him something of a strategy to close out his campaign.

“Both candidates would be wise to speak clearly and directly to the issues older voters care about,” said AARP North Carolina State DirectorMichael Olender.

“North Carolinians 50 and older are concerned about national issues like Social Security and Medicare, but are also focused on local conversations like ensuring data centers don’t raise utility costs and addressing the affordable housing shortage,” Olender said. “Older North Carolinians want to know they will be able to age with financial security and independence and are looking for candidates who can answer that plainly.”

Lunchtime reading

Villager tells of 999 call after stumbling on masked men: From Sunday. How a farmer foiled a suspected terror attack on a British air base as she drove home from a party in the early hours of the morning.

A Canadian odyssey and swan song: While we are in Canadian mood, let’s look at another angle. Paul Theroux offers us his True North, the third and final in his North American trilogy, and what he says will likely be his last ever book.