Trudeau notes O'toole has praised Alberta COVID plan
Trudeau quick to note how O'toole had earlier praised Alberta's handing of virus
The Liberals used Jason Kenney's dramatic reversal on public health rules to make COVID-19 management central to the campaign Thursday, while Conservative Leader Erin O'toole avoided even saying the Alberta premier's name.
After having declared Alberta “open for business” and “open for good” earlier this year, Kenney was forced to reverse course Wednesday evening, reimposing mask mandates and imposing a vaccine passport system.
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau said the federal government would offer any support it could and has sent ventilators and other resources to the province. But he also said Kenney's choice had helped create the situation in Alberta.
“The choices that leaders make in a crisis matter. Half measures won't do to fight this pandemic, to keep people safe, to prevent further lockdowns,” Trudeau said at an event Thursday in Montreal.
Kenney was forced to act by a hospital system under severe strain. The province has already created additional ICU spaces, but even those new spaces are now nearly 90 per cent full.
The province has more ICU patients than it has ever had and is starting to look to other provinces in the hope they can take patients.
Alberta relaxed restrictions more quickly and more thoroughly than other provinces. Kenney admitted Wednesday he had been too optimistic about the path of the pandemic in July.
Health Minister Patty Hajdu wrote a letter raising concerns about Alberta's approach in early August, which drew a swift rebuke from Kenney who said his United Conservative Party wouldn't be lectured by Hajdu.
Trudeau said O'toole's support for Kenney's approach is a clear sign the Conservatives would prolong the pandemic unnecessarily.
“Just a few days ago, Mr. O'toole was still applauding Mr. Kenney, for his management of the pandemic.”
One of Trudeau's Liberal candidates, George Chahal in Calgary Skyview, released a campaign ad on social media of comments O'toole made last year, saying Kenney had navigated the pandemic better than the federal government and that, “the federal Conservatives can learn a lot from our UCP cousins.”
O'toole was asked repeatedly Thursday morning if he stood by his support for Kenney's COVID management, but his answers didn't even mention Alberta, instead focusing on Trudeau's election call.
“The fact that we're in an election, a $600 million election because of Mr. Trudeau's own political interest shows that he's not going to put the health and economic needs of the country first. Canada's conservatives will,” O'toole said.
O'toole suggested the money being spent on the election would be better served going into the provinces.
At the very least, it takes him away from his message and his closing arguments against Trudeau.
He said Trudeau has been an adversary to provincial governments far too often.
“I will be there as the wing man to the provinces to fight COVID -19 and to secure our future.”
An Alberta Conservative MP, who spoke on background, said their constituents were still focused on removing the Liberal government, even as they were angry with Kenney.
“I've found a number of people who are really upset with our provincial premier, but they also seem very determined to remove Justin Trudeau as prime minister.”
Zain Velji, an Alberta political strategist and partner at the Northweather agency, said it was a major setback for the Conservatives and a potential game-changer.
He said that even in the most charitable interpretation it knocked O'toole's team off their message.
“They can't deny the fact that this is not what Erin O'toole wants to talk about in these critical final days of the campaign. At the very least, it takes him away from his message and his closing arguments against Trudeau,” he said.
Velji said it probably did not open up any new seats for the Liberals in Alberta, but linking bad COVID management to O'toole could hurt him elsewhere in the country. He said the Liberals just had to ensure they were not overplaying their hand.
“My concern for them is always that they get too ham fisted and lose the subtlety and it just becomes crass.”
Duane Bratt, a political-science professor at Mount Royal University, said the province was in a real crisis and O'toole was on record supporting the man who led Alberta to this point.
“We've got 50 per cent of all COVID cases in Canada in this province with 15 per cent of the population. And there are clips of O'toole, praising Jason Kenney,” he said.
Bratt said unlike the Liberals' attempts to invoke the ghost of Stephen Harper, linking O'toole to Kenney was a much easier sell to Canadians and one the Conservatives had to be afraid of.
He said there were only a handful of ridings in Alberta directly in play and they likely became closer contests after Kenney's announcement.
“We already knew that Jason Kenney unpopularity was hurting the federal Conservatives in those ridings, and yesterday didn't help that.”