CHANGE OF TUNE

Alberta’s COVID-19 flip-flop a hot topic for leaders on the campaign trail //

ederal leaders on the campaign trail Thursday found themselves facing a curveball thrown by Alberta Premier Jason Kenney.

The premier’s move Wednesday night to declare a public health state of emergency and launch sweeping new restrictions amid a fourth-wave COVID crisis was something the federal leaders were quickly asked about.

Facing the most scrutiny was Erin O’Toole, the Conservative leader who has previously said he supported Alberta’s approach to the pandemic and that it was better than the approach taken by the federal government.

O’Toole did not rescind that support when asked about Alberta’s crisis Thursday. He just said he, as prime minister, would work with all premiers to rein in the pandemic.

“The federal government should be partnering and providing support for the premiers, not picking fights with them as Trudeau has,” he told an audience in Saint John, N.B.

The harshest criticism of the Alberta premier came not from Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, who simply said things would have been better in Alberta right now if Kenney had taken

action sooner on the fourth wave of the pandemic. It came instead from both the left and the right: NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, and PPC Leader Maxime Bernier.

Singh said in no uncertain terms that he condemns Kenney’s leadership on the COVID

pandemic.

“Mr. Kenney is a failure in leadership; the people of Alberta are suffering because of that failure, there’s no doubt about that,” he said in Toronto.

In a campaign stop in Oakville, Bernier took aim at Kenney not for reopening too soon and allowing COVID-19 to surge, but for reversing course.

“Jason Kenney, as you know, said a couple of weeks ago that he doesn’t want a vaccine passport, but today he flip-flopped like O’Toole on the vaccine passport,” Bernier said. “Shame on them.” On Twitter, Bernier went so far as to call Kenney a “despot” for imposing new restrictions.

On Wednesday night, Kenney seemed to acknowledge that the province’s aggressive reopening in July had been a mistake. Despite previously vowing not to, he unveiled a vaccinepassport system, and brought back a series of public health restrictions.

The province is in the throes of its fourth wave of the pandemic. On Wednesday, 24 people died from COVID in the province in a span of 24 hours.