The views on that vary among major political parties vying for votes during a fourth wave of a deadly pandemic that has yet to be quelled.
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That leaves voters having to carefully judge the plans those parties are putting forward to protect Canadians, as experts say there will certainly be more pandemics to come.
“To borrow a line from Battlestar Galactica, this has happened before and will happen again,” said Dr. Raymond Tellier, an infectious diseases expert and medical microbiologist at McGill University in Montreal, referring to the fact the world will continue to see new pandemics emerge.
There will be more pandemics
COVID-19 has shown Canadians the devastation pandemics can cause — to people, families, society and the economy — as well as the considerable challenges of bringing them under control.
Mask-wearing shoppers walk through Toronto’s Sherway Gardens mall in June, more than a year after the pandemic was declared. (Alex Filipe/Reuters)
“What this particular pandemic has raised Canadians’ awareness to is the fact that public health crises like this can happen,” said Dr. Jane Philpott, a physician and former federal health minister, who is not involved in party politics at this time.
“And lots of experts have predicted that the gap between this one and the next one will be shorter … so, we need to be prepared.”
How Canada will move forward in future will depend, in part, on politics.
Domestic production for vaccines
The political parties are in agreement that Canada needs to be able to source domestically produced vaccines, rather than rely on external providers, as it did with COVID-19.
The Liberals said their government “has done whatever it takes to keep Canadians safe,” including implementing a vaccine-procurement strategy they credit with helping the country achieve a comparatively high rate of vaccination.
But the party said that “the pandemic laid bare that a decades-long decline in our domestic biomanufacturing capacity needed to be reversed.”
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau speaks with a supporter in his Montreal riding of Papineau on Aug. 15. (Christinne Muschi/Reuters)
The Liberals haven’t released their campaign platform yet but say “pandemic preparedness featured prominently” in the last federal budget. The Conservatives and the New Democrats, meanwhile, have laid out their views on the issue in their own platforms.
Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole greets neighbourhood children as he campaigns in Ottawa on Aug. 19. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press)
The Tories say they’d “ramp up” capacity to research and produce needed vaccines and medicines in Canada, “putting in place a sector strategy to grow the sector in a well-thought-out way rather than just handing out money.”
Additionally, the Conservatives want to “use procurements by government and those receiving government funding” to boost domestic production of personal protective equipment (PPE). They would also reinstate a tariff on imported PPE products.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh watches an N95 mask being tested at the Novo Textiles factory in Coquitlam, B.C., on Aug. 17. (Paul Chiasson/The Canadian Press)
The New Democrats agree Canada must produce vaccines, but they would “establish a Crown corporation charged with domestic vaccine production” to do so. The NDP also pledges to ensure “Canada maintains an adequate and responsibly managed” PPE stockpile “with an emphasis on supporting domestic production.”
The Liberals say the pandemic “made clear” that more domestic PPE production is needed, which is why their government made investments to have N95 respirator masks produced here.
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet steps off his bus as he arrives at a campaign event in Gatineau, Que., on Aug. 19. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)
The Bloc Québécois also pointed to the lack of vaccine production in Canada as being a problem. In an email sent to CBC News ahead of the launch of its platform on Sunday, the party said it will be presenting solutions for rebuilding Quebec’s pharmaceutical industry.
The Green Party said in an emailed statement that it would ensure Canada has a “robust capacity for pharmaceutical manufacturing” and a sufficient PPE stockpile, while working to lessen the country’s overall dependence on global supply chains for essential goods and services.
Green Party Leader Annamie Paul canvasses a neighbourhood on Aug. 15 after launching her election campaign in the riding of Toronto Centre. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press)
The Greens would also invest in Canada’s health and long-term care systems, with an eye to improving the social safety net.
“If we are to be better prepared the next time a crisis strikes, we cannot let this chance slip through our fingers,” the party said.
The Conservatives also want to improve the sharing of “public health intelligence” both within the government and with provincial and territorial counterparts.
A sign points people toward a vaccination site in Montreal. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press)
The New Democrats say they would “provide stable, long-term funding for the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) so they can protect public health and be ready with surge capacity in the event of a crisis.”
The Conservative platform makes no mention of adjusting PHAC funding, but a party spokesperson told CBC News there are no plans to decrease it.
The Liberals said their government, in response to COVID-19, provided funds to PHAC that allowed it “to welcome more than 1,000 new employees and bolster its capacity in a number of critical areas.”
Room for improvement
Those outside the political system are also paying attention to the challenges Canada is facing — including those who have seen the public health system up close.
Philpott, the former Liberal health minister, said she sees a “long list” of things Canada needs to deal with before it confronts a future pandemic.
For her, improving public health capacity is the top priority.
“We have an enormous amount of work to do to improve the governance of public health, the funding for public health, the co-ordination across the federal landscape and the provinces and their internal regions,” Philpott said.
Health-care workers suit up with personal protective equipment before entering the room of a COVID-19 patient at Toronto’s Humber River Hospital in April. (Cole Burston/AFP/Getty Images)
Ujjal Dosanjh, who served as Canada’s health minister from 2004-06 under then-prime minister Paul Martin, believes a national inquiry — after the pandemic is over — is needed to examine the country’s response to COVID-19 and what we can learn from it.
“We should all follow the science,” said Dosanjh, who is not involved with any party activities during the current election.
Keeping scientists supplied
Science will remain key for future pandemics — in understanding them, responding to them and halting them.
That means that in addition to vaccines and PPE, scientists will need the proper supplies to do their work.
Specimens await COVID-19 testing at a lab in Surrey, B.C., last year. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press)
McGill’s Tellier said something happened during the COVID-19 pandemic that he’d never seen before.
“We had a shortage of supplies to run tests,” he said.
That was because of the global scramble to source them, which has led Tellier to conclude there should be a stockpile of needed reagents and supplies for laboratories.
Voters and public health
Kathy Brock, a professor at Queen’s University’s School of Policy Studies in Kingston, Ont., said Canadians “tend to focus on the bread-and-butter issues” during elections.
The current pandemic crosses into this context because of the havoc it wreaks on people’s lives and their ability to support themselves and their families.
A man walks two dogs past Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Aug. 15, the day the federal election was called. (Lars Hagberg/Reuters)
“Canadians want to know that the government is going to protect Canadians,” she said.
Brock said it’s important for voters to consider “what the parties are promising and whether or not their strategies are really realistic” on these issues.
Philpott said public health issues tend to recede from the spotlight over time, and that needs to change.
“Public health is one of those things that kind of fades into the background of people’s priorities when they feel like they’re beyond the danger zone,” she said.
“I think it’s incumbent upon all of us — and certainly upon all of our leaders — to keep public health in the top priorities.”
FREDERICTON – New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs has called an election for Oct. 21, signalling the beginning of a 33-day campaign expected to focus on pocketbook issues and the government’s provocative approach to gender identity policies.
The 70-year-old Progressive Conservative leader, who is seeking a third term in office, has attracted national attention by requiring teachers to get parental consent before they can use the preferred names and pronouns of young students.
More recently, however, the former Irving Oil executive has tried to win over inflation-weary voters by promising to lower the provincial harmonized sales tax by two percentage points to 13 per cent if re-elected.
At dissolution, the Conservatives held 25 seats in the 49-seat legislature. The Liberals held 16 seats, the Greens had three and there was one Independent and four vacancies.
J.P. Lewis, a political science professor at the University of New Brunswick, said the top three issues facing New Brunswickers are affordability, health care and education.
“Across many jurisdictions, affordability is the top concern — cost of living, housing prices, things like that,” he said.
Richard Saillant, an economist and former vice-president of Université de Moncton, said the Tories’ pledge to lower the HST represents a costly promise.
“I don’t think there’s that much room for that,” he said. “I’m not entirely clear that they can do so without producing a greater deficit.” Saillant also pointed to mounting pressures to invest more in health care, education and housing, all of which are facing increasing demands from a growing population.
Higgs’s main rivals are Liberal Leader Susan Holt and Green Party Leader David Coon. Both are focusing on economic and social issues.
Holt has promised to impose a rent cap and roll out a subsidized school food program. The Liberals also want to open at least 30 community health clinics over the next four years.
Coon has said a Green government would create an “electricity support program,” which would give families earning less than $70,000 annually about $25 per month to offset “unprecedented” rate increases.
Higgs first came to power in 2018, when the Tories formed the province’s first minority government in 100 years. In 2020, he called a snap election — the first province to go to the polls after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic — and won a majority.
Since then, several well-known cabinet ministers and caucus members have stepped down after clashing with Higgs, some of them citing what they described as an authoritarian leadership style and a focus on policies that represent a hard shift to the right side of the political spectrum.
Lewis said the Progressive Conservatives are in the “midst of reinvention.”
“It appears he’s shaping the party now, really in the mould of his world views,” Lewis said. “Even though (Progressive Conservatives) have been down in the polls, I still think that they’re very competitive.”
Meanwhile, the legislature remained divided along linguistic lines. The Tories dominate in English-speaking ridings in central and southern parts of the province, while the Liberals held most French-speaking ridings in the north.
The drama within the party began in October 2022 when the province’s outspoken education minister, Dominic Cardy, resigned from cabinet, saying he could no longer tolerate the premier’s leadership style. In his resignation letter, Cardy cited controversial plans to reform French-language education. The government eventually stepped back those plans.
A series of resignations followed last year when the Higgs government announced changes to Policy 713, which now requires students under 16 who are exploring their gender identity to get their parents’ consent before teachers can use their preferred first names or pronouns — a reversal of the previous practice.
When several Tory lawmakers voted with the opposition to call for an external review of the change, Higgs dropped dissenters from his cabinet. And a bid by some party members to trigger a leadership review went nowhere.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
FREDERICTON – A 33-day provincial election campaign is expected to officially get started today in New Brunswick.
Progressive Conservative Premier Blaine Higgs has said he plans to visit Lt.-Gov. Brenda Murphy this morning to have the legislature dissolved.
Higgs, a 70-year-old former oil executive, is seeking a third term in office, having led the province since 2018.
The campaign ahead of the Oct. 21 vote is expected to focus on pocketbook issues, but the government’s provocative approach to gender identity issues could also be in the spotlight.
The Tory premier has already announced he will try to win over inflation-weary voters by promising to lower the harmonized sales tax by two percentage points to 13 per cent if re-elected.
Higgs’s main rivals are Liberal Leader Susan Holt and Green Party Leader David Coon, both of whom are focusing on economic and social issues.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
VICTORIA – If the lead up to British Columbia‘s provincial election campaign is any indication of what’s to come, voters should expect the unexpected.
It could be a wild ride to voting day on Oct. 19.
The Conservative Party of B.C. that didn’t elect a single member in the last election and gained less than two per cent of the popular vote is now leading the charge for centre-right, anti-NDP voters.
The official Opposition BC United, who as the former B.C. Liberals won four consecutive majorities from 2001 to 2013, raised a white flag and suspended its campaign last month, asking its members, incumbents and voters to support the B.C. Conservatives to prevent a vote split on the political right.
New Democrat Leader David Eby delivered a few political surprises of his own in the days leading up to Saturday’s official campaign start, signalling major shifts on the carbon tax and the issue of involuntary care in an attempt to curb the deadly opioid overdose crisis.
He said the NDP would drop the province’s long-standing carbon tax for consumers if the federal government eliminates its requirement to keep the levy in place, and pledged to introduce involuntary care of people battling mental health and addiction issues.
The B.C. Coroners Service reports more than 15,000 overdose deaths since the province declared an opioid overdose public health emergency in 2016.
Drug policy in B.C., especially decriminalization of possession of small amounts of hard drugs and drug use in public areas, could become key election issues this fall.
Eby, a former executive director of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, said Wednesday that criticism of the NDP’s involuntary care plan by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association is “misinformed” and “misleading.”
“This isn’t about forcing people into a particular treatment,” he said at an unrelated news conference. “This is about making sure that their safety, as well as the safety of the broader community, is looked after.”
Eby said “simplistic arguments,” where one side says lock people up and the other says don’t lock anybody up don’t make sense.
“There are some people who should be in jail, who belong in jail to ensure community safety,” said Eby. “There are some people who need to be in intensive, secure mental health treatment facilities because that’s what they need in order to be safe, in order not to be exploited, in order not to be dead.”
The CCLA said in a statement Eby’s plan is not acceptable.
“There is no doubt that substance use is an alarming and pressing epidemic,” said Anais Bussières McNicoll, the association’s fundamental freedoms program director. “This scourge is causing significant suffering, particularly, among vulnerable and marginalized groups. That being said, detaining people without even assessing their capacity to make treatment decisions, and forcing them to undergo treatment against their will, is unconstitutional.”
While Eby, a noted human rights lawyer, could face political pressure from civil rights opponents to his involuntary care plans, his opponents on the right also face difficulties.
The BC United Party suspended its campaign last month in a pre-election move to prevent a vote split on the right, but that support may splinter as former jilted United members run as Independents.
Five incumbent BC United MLAs, Mike Bernier, Dan Davies, Tom Shypitka, Karin Kirkpatrick and Coralee Oakes are running as Independents and could become power brokers in the event of a minority government situation, while former BC United incumbents Ian Paton, Peter Milobar and Trevor Halford are running under the B.C. Conservative banner.
Davies, who represents the Fort St. John area riding of Peace River North, said he’s always been a Conservative-leaning politician but he has deep community roots and was urged by his supporters to run as an Independent after the Conservatives nominated their own candidate.
Davies said he may be open to talking with B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad after the election, if he wins or loses.
Green Leader Sonia Furstenau has suggested her party is an option for alienated BC United voters.
Rustad — who faced criticism from BC United Leader Kevin Falcon and Eby about the far-right and extremist views of some of his current and former candidates and advisers — said the party’s rise over the past months has been meteoric.
“It’s been almost 100 years since the Conservative Party in B.C. has won a government,” he said. “The last time was 1927. I look at this now and I think I have never seen this happen anywhere in the country before. This has been happening in just over a year. It just speaks volumes that people are just that eager and interested in change.”
Rustad, ejected from the former B.C. Liberals in August 2022 for publicly supporting a climate change skeptic, sat briefly as an Independent before being acclaimed the B.C. Conservative leader in March 2023.
Rustad, who said if elected he will fire B.C.’s provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry over her vaccine mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic, has removed the nominations of some of his candidates who were vaccine opponents.
“I am not interested in going after votes and trying to do things that I think might be popular,” he said.
Prof. David Black, a political communications specialist at Greater Victoria’s Royal Roads University, said the rise of Rustad’s Conservatives and the collapse of BC United is the political story of the year in B.C.
But it’s still too early to gauge the strength of the Conservative wave, he said.
“Many questions remain,” said Black. “Has the free enterprise coalition shifted sufficiently far enough to the right to find the social conservatism and culture-war populism of some parts of the B.C. Conservative platform agreeable? Is a party that had no infrastructure and minimal presence in what are now 93 ridings this election able to scale up and run a professional campaign across the province?”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
