Foes trade barbs over COVID jabs

The vaccination status of federal election candidates in the riding of Kelowna-Lake Country emerged as a campaign issue Friday.

Tim Krupa, the Liberal candidate in Kelowna-Lake Country, demanded to know if incumbent Conservative Tracy Gray is double vaccinated against COVID-19.

“I was fully vaccinated as soon as possible and I challenge Tracy Gray to step forward and state whether she has been double vaccinated,” Krupa said in a press release.

Krupa claims Gray hasn’t encouraged people to get vaccinated. “Her silence on this issue is deafening. It’s irresponsible, dangerous, and reckless,” he said. “We are in a public health crisis, with the Central Okanagan as a hotspot, and our Conservative incumbent is nowhere to be found.”

Gray’s campaign team retorted: “Tracy Gray strongly believes that someone’s medical history is strictly their own private business. However, we can confirm that she has followed all public health guidance in reference to vaccinations.”

Gray has brought up issues relating to the procurement of COVID-19 vaccine 64 times in Parliament over the past year, her campaign says.

“We understand that Krupa, Justin Trudeau’s former staffer-turnedLiberal candidate may be unfamiliar with Tracy Gray’s strong advocacy for vaccine procurement as he only recently moved back to KelownaLake Country for this election campaign,” Gray’s campaign said.

“Personal attacks and misinformation appear to be his only strategy in this campaign,” her campaign said.

Krupa graduated from UBCO in 2013, was voted Most Likely to Change the World in a UBC Reports’ campus contest, and has worked for three years in Trudeau’s office.

The founder of Discover Wines, Gray was named one of six RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneurs of the Year in 2006. She successfully ran for Kelowna city council in 2014 and served one-term before reclaiming Kelowna-Lake Country for the federal Conservatives from the Liberals in the 2019 election.