CAMBRIDGE, ONT. —
The issue of personal choice around getting vaccinated against COVID-19 continued to dog Canada’s Conservative leader Saturday as he spent the day vying for votes in seat-heavy Ontario, a crucial battleground for any possible election win.
As Erin O’Toole shifted his focus from making policy promises to cheerleading volunteers to get out the vote for Monday’s election day, he faced renewed questions about his decision not to require his candidates to be immunized. He did not answer queries Saturday about whether he knew how many of his party’s 336 candidates had received their shots.
“We have a rule that everyone that’s campaigning for us — candidates, people going door-to-door — have to use vaccines, and if someone is not fully vaccinated they must use a daily rapid test and follow all the public health guidance in the provinces they’re in,” he said at a small rally in Hamilton.
“We’ve said that from the beginning of the campaign and here’s something interesting, we’ve followed it.”
The issue is one that has dogged the leader over the course of the campaign, largely because the Liberals have raised it repeatedly and used it as grounds for numerous attacks. O’Toole is an outlier among the main party leaders for not requiring candidates to be fully immunized with two doses of vaccine before hitting the campaign trail.
At the heart of the matter is the party’s belief in personal freedoms, and its position of promoting vaccines without disrespecting the choices of those who don’t want one.
O’Toole is himself inoculated, and has committed to appointing a health minister who is fully vaccinated against COVID-19. But he didn’t say on Saturday whether he would be asking his candidates for their immunization status or how he would confirm who is or isn’t immunized.
“We need to encourage as many Canadians as possible to get vaccinated,” O’Toole said. “We’re not going to be doing that by wedging people, like Mr. Trudeau, always dividing people. Using even a health-crisis for his own benefit.”
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau has called the crowds of protestors that have followed him throughout the campaign “anti-vaxxer mobs” for their resistance to his plan to make vaccines mandatory for federal workers and airline passengers. The protesters also oppose his support for vaccine passport systems used by a growing number of provinces.
Alberta and Saskatchewan recently joined the list of jurisdictions to adopt such a program after weeks of first opposing the idea and then changing their minds when a wave of cases driven by a more infectious virus variant filled hospitals with COVID-19 patients who are not fully vaccinated.
Before her province announced it would introduce such a system, Saskatchewan incumbent Conservative MP Cathay Wagantall posted a video to YouTube asking people to advocate against it.
“Right now, we, fortunately, are living in a province where our premier does not mandate passports and has not mandated vaccines. I encourage you to contact the premier and your MLA to thank them and to encourage them to continue to persevere in the face of pressure to implement such a passport that discriminates against those who choose not to take the current vaccines being offered by our federal government,” she said.
Wagantall said in a statement Saturday she was asking residents to thank their provincial representative for not introducing such a system, but now that it has, she respects that decision.
And this past week, incumbent Conservative Martin Shields told a federal candidates forum, “I’ve never been asked as a member of Parliament by my party whether I’m vaccinated.”
“It isn’t an issue in our party, it’s your choice, so I’ve never been asked,” the Alberta legislator said, adding he believes getting a shot against COVID-19 should be left up to an individual.
Neither campaign for Wagantall or Shields have returned a request for comment.
While also campaigning in Ontario, the Liberal leader attacked O’Toole for “protecting anti-vaxxers” in his caucus.
O’Toole started his second-last day of campaigning by jogging past a farmers market outside of Waterloo, Ont., without appearing to go inside to capitalize on one of his final chances to meet prospective voters.
During the day, he twice stopped to thank volunteers on different campaigns for a candidate in Waterloo, and then in Cambridge. At the latter location, he appeared to ignore a woman seen standing on a sidewalk near the patio where he had been bumping elbows with campaign workers and shouting questions about what he planned to do for the city and Indigenous Peoples.
Those decisions reflect the party’s overall campaign strategy, which has relied more on O’Toole answering questions from people through virtual townhalls in a broadcast studio in downtown Ottawa rather than pressing flesh in local communities.
He defended taking a more physically distanced approach by saying he’s met thousands more people this way and run a safer campaign than the Liberal effort, which has seen Trudeau appear in crowded rooms and at hospitals.
“I’m proud of the campaign we’re running,” O’Toole said. “I’m proud I’m not a celebrity taking people for granted like Mr. Trudeau.”
O’Toole also received an endorsement Saturday from retired vice-admiral Mark Norman, who was at the centre of a failed prosecution by the Liberal government in a politically heated case that ended his military career.
In a video clip the Conservatives shared on social media, Norman said Canadians have an important decision to make as to who should lead the country through the challenges it faces at home and abroad.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2021.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
