Canadians deserve a COVID election
REASON THEY CAN’T VACCINATE IS THEY CAN’T DO MUCH OF ANYTHING. — ROBSON
As the polar vortex tightens its grip, the temperature isn’t the only thing dropping across the country. So is faith in the federal government’s management of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout. According to the latest poll by Abacus research, the number of Canadians who think the federal government has done a good to excellent job on ordering vaccines has declined by 15 per cent since early January. Meanwhile, Nanos research found that one in two Canadians do not believe Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s promise that we’ll be vaccinated by September.
Not surprisingly, this has put a chill on Liberal party fortunes, with the party now polling neck-and-neck with the Conservatives for voter intention at 32 and 31 per cent, respectively.
So, is it time for a change of government? Will the opposition smell enough blood to trigger an election this spring, possibly in the form of a budget non-confidence vote?
Conservative Leader erin O’toole was asked the question earlier this week, and he dismissed the idea. “I don’t think (the election) should be held as we’re trying to deal with the second wave of pandemic, when there’s curfews not far from me at night in Quebec. We need the vaccines.” He added that the next election “should be at a time when the country is not in this acute state of crisis.”
Of course, if the vaccines fail to materialize as promised — or, worse, don’t adequately protect Canadians against the new variants now circulating in the population — that acute state of crisis will persist. Canada could still be grappling with outbreaks, closures and lockdowns well into 2022.
At some point, it will be impossible for the opposition to say that things are better left in the hands of the current management. In a minority Parliament, the opposition has the duty to call the government to account when it has lost the confidence of the House. And with the growing number of screw-ups on the Liberal record, it’s hard to see how the government can maintain confidence much longer.
Currently, its worst failing is not even the vaccine delay. It’s having not taken measures to keep out variants of the COVID-19 virus that could spike a third wave of the disease. Already three variants — the british, South African and now brazilian — have been detected. They all arrived via international travel, an area where the federal government could have — and should have — been far more aggressive from day one.
Instead, for almost a year Ottawa did not require COVID-19 testing for persons boarding inbound flights and relied on an honour system of self-monitored home quarantine for returning travellers. And only this month has the federal government enacted limited travel bans and announced mandatory supervised quarantine, though we still don’t know when the latter rule will take effect.
Paradoxically, that may be why O’toole does not want to go to the polls right now. When asked by CTV’S Power Play whether Canada’s new travel restrictions went far enough or were enacted soon enough, he declined to answer, talking instead about “rapid tests to give flexibility on period of quarantine.” He went on to talk about the possibility of shorter quarantines, in some cases of five to seven days instead of 14.
It’s not hard to read between the lines here. O’toole likely doesn’t want to run afoul of a subset of the Conservative base that deems such restrictions on personal liberties unacceptable, even when fighting a global pandemic.
Of course this ignores the fact that countries that have returned to a semblance of normality, such as New Zealand, Singapore, Australia and Taiwan, have all imposed mandatory hotel quarantines.
before naysayers trot out the “island advantage” argument, they should note that other island nations such as britain that aren’t faring nearly as well are now waking up and adopting similar measures. And with a Conservative government, no less.
O’toole may not want to talk about an election. The Liberals are understandably wary, too. but something is going to have to give. A year in, Canadians deserve the chance to pronounce themselves on their government’s performance and choose a direction for the future. Crisis, Part Two, is only beginning.