I think it's sour grapes. Unlike in the United States, most Canadians never caught COVID-19 before they were vaccinated (4% seropositivity rate in Nov 2021 at ~80% of eligible adults vaccinated.) Immunizing everyone before they were infected was always considered a realistic policy option, and it was pursued aggressively, until that goal was achieved. Not as good as fully containing it, of course (a popular minority position both in government and the public well into 2021) but that seemed increasingly impossible by late 2020, given our lacklustre response out the gate.

In America, I think at some point a certain sense of hopelessness set in. Such goals rapidly became unrealistic. People weren't complying with advice, many governments at various levels were paralyzed or head-in-sand, and most people became infected before they could be immunized, and so hundreds of thousands died unnecessarily.

And it didn't have to happen. Not as badly as it did, as shown by countries which did avoid the harm, to various degrees. And it happened in what should have been one of the countries best prepared to respond and minimize the impact on health. This is a very painful thing to accept. It's much easier, emotionally-socially, to assume it simply had to have happened the way it did and nothing could have been done about it.