B.C. needs a doctor in the house: Wilkinson

B.C. Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson, a former licensed physician, says having a doctor in the premier's seat would be beneficial during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wilkinson, who worked as a doctor in small B.C. communities for about three years in the 1980s before switching careers and becoming a lawyer, says if elected, his medical degree would allow him to communicate with the provincial health officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, at a higher level than his opponents.

There have been 11,687 cases of COVID-19 reported in B.C. since the first case appeared in late January and 253 deaths.

Henry, who is directing B.C.'s COVID -19 response, said Monday that the province, which recorded 499 new cases and two more deaths on the weekend, is now experiencing a second wave of the pandemic.

“There's a whole language and dialect and scientific training that goes through medical school that teaches you how to deal with data and information, and with the human consequences of it. It's exceptionally useful and I'd like to bring that to bear to help the people in British Columbia through this pandemic. I speak the language that she speaks at work,” Wilkinson said Tuesday while campaigning at a dairy farm in Surrey.

“We see a wide range of different approaches to the pandemic around the world, and I'd like to think that someone with an MD like me can look into that and say what's best for B.C., and work with Dr. Henry to make sure we're doing what's best for B.C.”

When pressed on the issue, however, Wilkinson couldn't point to any specific aspect of NDP Leader John Horgan's pandemic plan that he would have done differently.

“It's a matter of sitting down with Dr. Henry and saying how do we optimize the care in British Columbia, how do we optimize the public health profile, because we're rolling into this second wave of the epidemic right now,” Wilkinson said.

Also Tuesday, Wilkinson defended a news release put out by his party that accused the NDP of trying to suppress the vote by calling an election during a pandemic. Wilkinson says Horgan's “selfishness” in calling an early election as the province hit a second wave of the COVID -19 pandemic shouldn't override the public's right to get out and vote.