ERIN O'TOOLE MAY REGRET LAVISHING SO MUCH PRAISE ON ALBERTA PREMIER JASON KENNEY 11 MONTHS AGO FOR HIS GOVERNMENT'S PANDEMIC-MANAGEMENT SKILLS, CHRIS SELLEY WRITES.
Praise for Kenney haunts Tory leader
Erin O'toole may regret lavishing as much praise as he did on Alberta Premier Jason Kenney 11 months ago for his government's pandemic-management skills. Especially since O'toole seemed mostly unwilling to explain, modify or contextualize that praise to reporters at a Thursday morning press conference in Saint John, N.B.
“(Kenney) has navigated this COVID-19 pandemic far better than the federal government has,” O'toole told United Conservative Party members at their online annual general meeting last year. (The Liberals have now repurposed the video as an unusually subtle and potentially effective anti-o'toole Liberal advertisement.)
“Your province was the first to push Ottawa to improve testing options for Canada to help with (the economy), school reopenings and an overall response,” O'toole enthused. “Alberta was the first to roll out widespread testing in pharmacies, and was the first to roll out advanced contact tracing measures and applications.”
“I want to thank Jason Kenney for pushing Ottawa for a swifter, smarter, better response in the COVID crisis,” he added.
O'toole had faced questions about this before Thursday, as the fourth wave of COVID-19 cases in Alberta surged and warnings about dwindling ICU vacancy became ever more dire. But after Kenney's Wednesday evening announcement — the mask mandate and the work-from-home order are back; a vaccine passport of sorts kicks in Sept. 20; and even for the fully vaccinated, social gatherings are limited to two households — it was the number-one topic of discussion Thursday morning among reporters following the Conservative tour.
Does O'toole still think Alberta knows better than Ottawa? Does he still think Kenney specifically has done a better job than Trudeau handling the pandemic? What does he think in general about Alberta's unfortunate situation? Does he think Alberta could or should have done anything different or earlier?
Time after time, he didn't answer, instead retreating to variations on a talking point: “I've consistently said that we will work with the provinces and respect the decisions they make with respect to fighting ... COVID-19,” he would say. “Each province (is) putting decisions forward for the health and economic stability of their provinces (and) they need a federal partner (in Ottawa) that will help them.”
That's a fine position that will likely be overshadowed in news cycle by O'toole's obstinacy on the Kenney-related questions.
It's not like O'toole had been caught swanning around in blackface, or with his trousers down in a massage parlour of dubious repute, or smuggling arms to the Real IRA. These questions were easily answerable. O'toole could have noted that no one had heard of the Delta variant 11 months ago; that Alberta is currently seeing more than five times as many daily cases as it was then, and managing 25 times more patients in the ICU.
“Times have changed,” O'toole could have said, without directly impugning Kenney or his government.
More trenchantly, O'toole could have noted what specifically he had praised — much of which has come good in the months since. No one would argue today against having pharmacies conduct tests. Keeping schools open is a good thing, barring catastrophe that had yet to visit Alberta. Ndp-governed British Columbia was then and still is the champion at combining relatively few restrictions on everyday activity with relatively few cases and fatalities. But it wasn't heresy to hope Alberta might emulate it.
Historians will regard the suspicion of rapid testing among Canadian public health officials — both federal and then, once they were overruled, provincial — as malpractice of the highest order. Kenney, Ontario Premier Doug Ford and others, many of them conservative, who demanded such tests be stockpiled were entirely in the right.
Time and again, premiers (and O'toole as opposition leader) would demand Ottawa enact a new measure — flight bans or on-arrival testing, for example. Time and again the Trudeau government would roll its eyes. And then weeks later it would enact the measure and take the credit. Trudeau should not be able to use pandemic management in his jurisdiction as a case for re-election. But he is. And in a way, by watering down his pointed criticisms with repetitive blather, O'toole is letting him.
O'toole's campaign brain trust seems to think it has mostly done what it can to leave a positive impression on the issues. Now it's about blitzing potential pickup ridings in the final days of the campaign, avoiding gaffes, and talking down Trudeau for his “unnecessary election that is costing us $600 million.” (That figure was mentioned 24 times at Thursday's 45-minute press conference in English alone!)
Robotically repeated talking points has won elections for lesser politicians than Erin O'toole. He at least delivers them with a sort of Zen half-smile, as opposed to the teenager-caught-in-alie look that his predecessor sometimes adopted. It would just be a shame for anyone to lose an election without having put their best foot forward on the biggest issue of the day.