Feeling Their Oats

How are things going in Alberta? The Calgary Herald reports that:

A former Trump administration adviser who pushed for a herd immunity approach during the COVID-19 pandemic has been invited to speak to Alberta’s governing body, Premier Danielle Smith said this week.

During a forum ahead of the Brooks-Medicine Hat byelection this week, Smith said a group of doctors who are advising her has reached out to Dr. Paul Alexander, a Canadian researcher and former adviser to a member of U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration. Alexander pushed for a herd immunity approach in 2020 and had previously sought to have greater control over communications from apolitical communications, according to reporting from U.S.-based news outlets.

Smith’s remark came during a forum held this week by the Medicine Hat and District Chamber of Commerce in response to Independence Party of Alberta candidate Bob Blayone. Blayone said he learned about the COVID-19 pandemic by reaching out to Alexander as well as several other doctors who have become popular throughout the pandemic for spreading what has since been deemed to be misinformation.

Blayone said those figures want to come to Alberta and meet with the government.

“I’ve got a group of doctors advising me and I know that they’ve already reached out to Dr. Paul Alexander. So, I’m interested in hearing what he has to say,” said Smith in response.

Meanwhile, in Ontario, Premier Doug Ford declared that CUPE's right to go on strike was illegal -- the day before they had the legal right to do so. He is arguing before the Ontario Labor Relations Board that allowing the strike would undermine Ontario's Labour Relations law. This is from a man who refuses to answer a summons to appear before the Public Inquiry looking into February's occupation of Ottawa.

The nutbars are feeling their oats.

Image: Greg Southam

Its Darker Angels

Erin O'Toole wants to put a kinder, gentler face on his party. But, Bob Hepburn writes, since he became the Conservative leader, he has pandered to the party's darker angels:

The Conservative party has increasingly become the home of far-right conspiracists, COVID-19 anti-vaxxers, emboldened hard-line gun lovers and politicians spouting anti-socialist hysterics.

Through all of this O’Toole has tried to appease the worst elements in the Conservative fold by issuing vague statements that say nothing, neither condemning nor praising the actors who are now defining the party as it prepares to fight the coming election.

Consider the way O'Toole has dealt with his leadership rival Derek Sloan:

O’Toole has refused to condemn Tory MP Derek Sloan for sponsoring a nation-wide petition championed by anti-vaxxers that spreads falsehoods about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines. To date, more than 30,000 people have signed the petition.

Instead, O’Toole insists it is the Liberals’ “incompetence” that’s to blame for Canadians’ fears about the vaccines. Right now, this tacit support for the anti-vaxxer crowd is about the only thing people are talking about when it comes to the Conservatives.

And then there is the case of Pierre Polievre:

O’Toole has given free rein to Conservative finance critic Pierre Poilievre, his most senior MP, to flirt with the conspiracy crowd by becoming a cheerleader for far-right loonies who have convinced themselves that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other global elites are plotting to impose a socialist order on the world, enriching themselves and making the masses poorer.

In recent weeks, Poilievre has gone to vast lengths to demonize what’s called the “Great Reset,” a simple, non-offensive vision by the World Economic Forum that suggests the COVID-19 pandemic provides a chance to adopt policies to reduce economic inequality around the globe.

And, like the nutbars south of the border, the Conservatives are calling their opponents "socialists:"

Far-right Conservatives love to toss the word “socialist” at Liberals and progressives, firing up their base and suggesting Canada is heading toward destruction. During the Trump presidency, the smearing of “socialists” has become more common in Canada.

The best example was a recent column in the National Post by Leslyn Lewis, who finished third in the Tory leadership race and will be the Tory candidate in the Ontario riding of Haldiman-Norfolk. Lewis, a darling of the Tory right and touted as a possible future leader, warned in excitable language that Trudeau is leading “a socialist coup” in Canada, which she described as “a quiet and bloodless revolution that seeks to control our lives through economic dependency,” right down to confiscating part of your retirement savings.

The party is now guided by its darker angels.

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