Canadian Politics Today

good on ya! You calling for increased ICU capacity to help offset the consequences of failed pandemic related actions taken by Conservative Premiers/Conservative provincial governments is key in recognizing causal attachments and properly attributing critical review accountability and responsibilities - good on ya!

You Liberal hacks always return to attacking the West, but every province has the same problem with lack of ICU beds, lack of hospital beds, and lack of doctors, including Ontario, which was a Liberal fiefdom for 15 years.

That was painful to read, but every Canadian should.

the one thing that NP article got right was to emphasize the failed Alberta situation... to showcase Conservative Kenny/UCP's wayToSoon moronic moves to stop all restrictions and testing protocols so he could act to declare, "Alberta Was Open For Summer... For The Best Summer Ever". Of course Kenny's pardner, Conservative Premier Moe, did the same for Saskatchewan! The waldo reads that Alberta and Saskatchewan have 15% of the Canadian population and at the worst, 55% of COVID hospitalizations! Notwithstanding when Kenney all but declared the pandemic was over, Alberta vaccination numbers stalled out to the point of Alberta being the least vaccinated province in Canada! 

it's dubious at best to presume to use the failed Conservative Premiers pandemic actions as the rationale to substantiate creating ICU beds that would otherwise not be needed. More pointedly, in order to facilitate proper research and ensure rigorous country comparisons of ICU numbers, comparison criteria must be internationally recognized and standardized... like the definition of critical care, staff to patient ratios and whether staff are dedicated to more than one patient, the ability to provide organ support, to provide for variable staffing, to recognize the impact of patient discharge practices, national population demographics, hospital size and location, and regionalization of care, etc., etc., etc..

after the waldo's cursory look at that NP article, as befits typical NP lack of rigour, broad generalization and questionable sources, I don't see any studies mentioned; notwithstanding the article author's short bio suggests he's nothing more than a political staffer... and certainly has no medical experience or knowledge/training!