Toronto Mayor John Tory called for more pandemic-related lockdown restrictions over Christmas on Wednesday as coronavirus cases continue to rise across the Greater Toronto Area.
'We've got to find a way to get people to stay home': Toronto mayor @JohnTory says he's in active communication with Ontario Premier Doug Ford about imposing stricter pandemic measures in the region. #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/wJUrQnDjyg
— Power & Politics (@PnPCBC) December 17, 2020
"We've got to find a way to get people to stay home, and I think part of that might well be just giving them fewer places to go by making sure that the lockdown, you know, is broader in nature," Tory insisted.
"This is a good time to do it, I think, it's a quieter time of the year," Tory argued. "I think it will do less damage to business, recognizing anything you do does some damage to business."
Tory argued that greater restrictions are warranted because of "unacceptable" coronavirus numbers. He also justified his position on the basis that "the hospital situation is getting worse."
Tory took aim at shopping centres in Hamilton, some of which have chosen to extend their hours to accommodate Torontonians who are restricted from doing their holiday shopping in their own city under present lockdown rules. One mall, Lime Ridge Mall, extended their hours so that they could "spread out traffic" and have less shoppers present at a single moment.
"So what you really have to do I think is a broader, regional lockdown that is stricter in nature in the context of just saying to people over this quieter Christmas period, we're going to have many fewer places for you to go because we simply have to get people to stay home and only socialize with the people they live with," Tory suggested.
Tory said that while some people may want to have Christmas with their cousins, aunts and uncles, or grandparents, "we're just saying 'no.'"
"The people you live with are the people you live with, staying home means staying home please, and it's a terrible Christmas in many respects but we can get all this over with faster if people just go along with that."
Ontario has recorded over 150,000 cases of coronavirus and 4,050 deaths related to the virus since the start of the pandemic.
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