Erin O’Toole’s vaccination strategy puts politics before Canadians’ health, liberals accuse

OTTAWA – Conservative leader Erin O’Toole is prioritizing her own political future over the health and safety of Canadians by suggesting that people who are not vaccinated against COVID-19 should be accommodated and public health lockdowns should end, a liberal government minister charged on Friday.

O’Toole’s approach demonstrates a lack of leadership that would only lead to further lockdowns and would do nothing to protect Canada’s beleaguered health care system, Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc said at a press conference.

“What seems to concern Mr. O’Toole the most is his own future at the helm of the Conservative Party,” LeBlanc said in French.

“He is looking to please his party members rather than support health workers.”

O’Toole has been highly critical of the current round of public health restrictions, arguing that they are the result of the liberal government’s inability to procure and deliver rapid tests and personal protective equipment with the required speed.

He says that has led to a “normalization” of the blockades, which the government then finances through economic support programs rather than focusing on strategies that would avoid the need for restrictions in the first place.

O’Toole also said Canadians should accept that not everyone will choose to get vaccinated against COVID-19, and that those people should be accommodated in a way that protects both public health and the economy.

“A population that is largely vaccinated can adequately handle COVID-19,” he said Thursday. “We shouldn’t be locked into the fourth wave.”

Leblanc criticized that suggestion on Friday.

“At a time when our healthcare system is under pressure, Mr. O’Toole encourages people to do things that increase that pressure and that will continue to put Canadians and our healthcare workers at greater risk. “, He said. saying.

“After nearly two years of this pandemic, it’s hard to believe that Mr. O’Toole still doesn’t get it. Vaccines work and vaccines are the best way out of this pandemic ”.

But while O’Toole has said that the unvaccinated should have options, he also says that doesn’t mean that efforts to vaccinate them should stop.

Making that happen, he said Thursday, means lowering the political pressure on those who have not yet received their vaccines, not engaging in divisive politics.

Earlier this week, O’Toole received a booster shot. His office confirmed he felt unwell afterward and used a quick test to make sure he wasn’t infected before heading to the media Thursday.

The issue of vaccination mandates and shutdowns has been difficult for O’Toole to handle with his MPs. Many of them do not agree with the requirement that people show proof of vaccination to go to restaurants or shops or even to work in Parliament buildings.

During the election campaign last summer, Conservatives officially opposed vaccination mandates for workplaces and travelers regulated by the federal government. However, when a vaccination mandate went into effect on Parliament Hill, O’Toole said his group would follow.

Some Conservative MPs saw it as a turnaround, one of several policy shifts he has been accused of since he became leader in August 2020.

Those changes are among the reasons cited by some for the need for an earlier overhaul of O’Toole’s leadership after the 2021 electoral defeat.

A petition meant to force the party to conduct a leadership review ahead of the one tentatively scheduled in 2023 has been invalidated by the party’s national council, but is still gathering signatures.

On Wednesday, he participated in a Facebook Live event by following online review of your performance as a leader.

“I know this is a stressful time,” he said. But you are never isolated. You’re never alone. The best years of Canada are yet to come and, despite how frustrated I am, I know that we are going to push to improve in the opposition and we will do better in the government ”.