Morning Update: Pfizer, BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine trials raise hopes for early 2021 delivery

Good morning,

Results from clinical trials in the United States and Canada have strengthened Ottawa’s hopes of having a COVID-19 vaccine available for some Canadians early next year, with the possibility of a home-grown vaccine ready by the end of 2021.

Pharmaceutical companies Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech announced yesterday that their vaccine candidate is 90-per-cent effective at preventing COVID-19. The vaccine is among those that the federal government has arranged to purchase.

However, experts are cautioning that data supporting the announcement by Pfizer and BioNTech have not yet been released, and the vaccine could turn out to be less effective as the trial continues. But the development is the best indication yet that the pandemic can eventually be brought to an end.

More coverage:

André Picard: There’s new hope for a coronavirus vaccine, but let’s not celebrate too quickly

B.C. could return to stricter lockdown if new measures are unsuccessful, Horgan says

Toronto to follow Peel Region in adding local restrictions to Ontario’s new reopening system

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CSIS warns China’s Operation Fox Hunt is targeting Canada’s Chinese community

Canada’s federal spy agency says Beijing is targeting members of Canada’s Chinese community who are critical of President Xi Jinping by using undercover state security officials and “trusted agents” to watch them and threaten retribution against their families back in China.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service says these illegal activities are part of a global campaign of intimidation that constitutes a threat to Canada’s sovereignty and the safety of Canadians. One of the most high-profile efforts is Operation Fox Hunt, directed by Beijing’s Ministry of Public Security, which has been under way since 2014.

More coverage:

Trudeau says he is confident Biden will press China to release detained Canadians

Biden’s road to victory ran through American suburbs

Joe Biden won the U.S. presidential election by rebuilding the “blue wall” of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, which Donald Trump won in 2016. But this election also showed how Biden’s road to the White House ran through the suburbs in traditionally Republican states, such as Arizona.

While Biden held a small lead in Arizona as votes were still being counted last night, preliminary results suggest that more Democratic voters than Republicans turned out in the state’s largest, most urban and fastest-growing regions, such as Maricopa County – home to Phoenix, Mesa, Scottsdale and Tempe – as well as Pima County, which includes Tucson.

More coverage:

Decoding the U.S. election: What data reveal about who voted for Biden and Trump

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ALSO ON OUR RADAR

Air Canada to pause route cancellations pending bailout talks: Air Canada said it will see how government aid negotiations progress before potentially cancelling 95 more routes and pulling out of nine smaller domestic airports, a move that could sever more parts of the country from air service.

Also: Airlines win change of heart in Ottawa as government considers bailout loans

Souvankham Thammavongsa wins the Giller Prize: Souvankham Thammavongsa has won the 2020 Scotiabank Giller Prize for her debut work of fiction, the short-story collection How to Pronounce Knife. The stories in the collection illustrate the day-to-day lives of immigrants, from an unlikely Randy Travis fan to an equally unlikely nail-salon superstar.

Armenia, Azerbaijan agree to end fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh: Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia said they have signed a deal to end the military conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region after more than a month of bloodshed.

Hundreds killed in growing Ethiopian war: Nearly 15 million people are at risk from a growing conflict between Ethiopia and Tigray, a powerful region in the north of the country that is seeking autonomy, in which hundreds of people have been reported killed after six days of fierce fighting and aerial bombing.

Premium Brands, coalition of Mi’kmaq First Nations acquire Clearwater Seafoods: Premium Brands Holdings Corp. and a group of Mi’kmaq First Nations are jointly buying Clearwater Seafoods Inc., a partnership that will facilitate the largest investment in the Canadian seafood industry by an Indigenous group.

MORNING MARKETS

Markets maintain focus on vaccine news: Stock markets and commodities continued to push higher on Tuesday, after the euphoria of a coronavirus vaccine had sent global equity indexes soaring to record levels. Just before 6 a.m. ET, Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 1.07 per cent. France’s CAC 40 gained 1.11 per cent while Germany’s DAX slipped 0.13 per cent. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei ended up 0.26 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 1.10 per cent. Wall Street futures were mixed. The Canadian dollar was trading at 76.76 US cents.

WHAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT

David Shribman: “America is in the throes of a concession obsession. Former U.S. vice-president Joe Biden would like one. President Donald J. Trump won’t deliver one. In a country suffering from nervous exhaustion, clinical depression and political vertigo, yet another struggle of wills is under way, yet another public art form is endangered, yet another civic custom is being trampled on.”

John Doyle: “True, and with or without Trump involved in politics, Fox News will sell nostalgia for Trump-era politics. Nothing is over in U.S politics until Fox News says it’s over.”

Gael Campan and Miguel Ouellette: “Like many international trade experts and diplomats, we do not think that this Democratic victory will necessarily mean freer trade between our two countries. While the disputes in the aluminum and steel sectors could settle down, several observations lead us to think that the famous ‘Buy American’ mentality, which amounts to favouring protectionist measures meant to help – but that actually hurt – the American economy will be the new normal.”

TODAY’S EDITORIAL CARTOON

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LIVING BETTER

What will a Biden presidency mean for Trudeau’s climate agenda?

Joe Biden is the next president of the United States. What does that mean for Canada's climate plans? Adam Radwanski and Sarah Petrevan will answer your questions.

Join us this Thursday at 1:30 p.m. ET

MOMENT IN TIME: NOV. 10, 1931

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Canadian Marie Dressler wins Academy Award for best actress

Marie Dressler completed a Hollywood hat trick. On this date in 1931, she became the third Canadian in a row to win the Academy Award for best actress – and we’ve been shut out since. Among glamorous movie stars, she was an outlier: She was a comedienne who mocked her own physique in performances and had titled an autobiography The Life Story of An Ugly Duckling. She had also just turned 63. “The award goes to the grandest old trouper of them all,” Norma Shearer declared in presenting the statuette. Dressler, originally named Leila Koerber, was born in a Cobourg, Ont., house that now features a museum dedicated to her. She got her start by earning laughs when she fell during a church pageant in Lindsay, Ont., at age 5. She left home at 14 to perform in U.S. touring shows, and spent most of her working years in vaudeville and on Broadway. Her award for Min and Bill was part of a short, late-career renaissance in film that included Dinner at Eight and Tugboat Annie. She was MGM’s top box-office draw and made the cover of Time magazine, before dying of cancer in 1934 – at the height of her stardom. Joy Yokoyama

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