NDP, Liberals pitch vaccine passport plans
Trudeau pledges $1B for provinces while Singh backs national system
OTTAWA —As the second week of the election campaign winds down, Canadians were offered competing visions of vaccination passports Friday, with the Liberals’ Justin Trudeau pledging to help provinces develop their own and the NDP’s Jagmeet Singh backing a national system.
At a morning campaign stop in Mississauga, Trudeau promised $1 billion for the provinces to implement a proof of vaccination system, but insisted that verifying vaccination status remains a provincial responsibility.
“Wherever you are across the country, if your premier mandates that everyone in your local restaurant or gym or other non-essential locations must be fully vaccinated and show proof, we’ll pay for the development and rollout of that program,” Trudeau said.
Quebec is planning to introduce vaccination passports next Wednesday, while British Columbia will require proof of vaccination starting Sept. 13 for people attending certain settings and events. Manitoba is also preparing for its own proof-of-vaccination system. The documentation is intended to help open up access to travel, businesses and other services.
The Liberal leader thanked the premiers of B.C. and Quebec, but — prior to news that Ontario would follow suit — took a pointed shot at Premier Doug Ford.
“This is about doing the right thing and the smart thing,” he said. “Already, Premier Horgan and Premier Legault have stepped up. And I certainly hope that here in Ontario, Premier Ford steps up as well.”
In what’s become a familiar presence on the Trudeau campaign trail, he was again met by protestors and hecklers Friday.
In Thunder Bay, Singh threw his support behind the creation of a national vaccination passport system, which he said “would just make life easier.”
“We know that each province has different rules around whether they’re going to bring forward a vaccine passport,” Singh said. “Having an easy document that you can use to prove you’re vaccinated would just make sense.”
The NDP leader also announced his party would move forward with a $10-billion universal pharmacare system, stating the plan would save provinces $4.2 billion, and the average family about $550 a year.
Singh acknowledged it would be “hard work” to get the necessary buy-in from all provinces and territories, but cited increasing health-care transfer payments and the estimated savings from implementing the program as evidence that the party would be there for provinces.
On Friday afternoon, former NDP MP Ruth Ellen Brosseau said she would try to win back the Quebec riding of Berthier— Maskinongé. Brosseau won the seat in 2011, but lost it to Bloc Québécois challenger Yves Perron in 2019. With her entry into the race, the pair are set to face off once again. Brousseau’s return to politics could bode well for the NDP’s presence in Quebec, where it held only one seat at Parliament’s dissolution.
In Atlantic Canada, Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole announced that a Conservative government would boost Employment Insurance benefits to 52 weeks from 26 weeks for workers with serious illnesses.
“You can’t have a healthy economy without healthy workers,” he said at a campaign stop in Corner Brook, N.L.
But on proof of vaccination, the Tory leader said implementing vaccination passports was up to the provinces.
“If the provinces make decisions on proof of vaccination, vaccine passports, we will support and respect what the provinces decide to do. It is their decision to try and balance off making sure people are safe,” O’Toole said.
He also rejected the Liberals’ new emissions reductions targets, which aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to between 40 and 45 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030.
Instead, his party would meet the Paris objectives, which aimed to reduce emissions by 30 per cent, “that were actually set by the tail end of the Conservative government,” O’Toole said.
All three leaders faced questions Friday about efforts to assist Canadians and Afghan allies fleeing Afghanistan, as Canada’s evacuation operations come to an end.
Trudeau and his cabinet ministers sought to reassure those left behind that work is continuing with regional partners to get more people to safety.
Trudeau reiterated that the government did what it could to address the crisis, but admitted that the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan “got even more intense, more quickly, than everyone expected.”
O’Toole said Canada’s leadership on the crisis left a lot to be desired.
“I did say that we need to work with our allies to provide both political and material support in any way to try and help keep people safe and preserve the ability to provide aid to sections of the country,” the Conservative leader said.
“This is something we should be stepping up and working very closely with the Americans, the United Kingdom and other allies on. I don’t think Mr. Trudeau is a serious participant in these discussions.”
Singh said the Liberal government has “failed” to help Canada’s allies in Afghanistan and those who supported Canadian forces.
“These folks are now faced with real serious danger to their lives and their families’ lives, and we promised that we’d have their back,” he said.
The issue has been seen by some Liberal candidates and campaign staff as a potential hurdle for the party as the race between the Conservatives and Liberals closes in.