The vaccine passport system turned into a cast-off pumpkin at midnight.
With a verbal torrent, Premier Jason Kenney trashed the passport scheme he himself adopted, saying it is now basically useless and will never return, no matter what COVID visits upon us.
This made Alberta the first province to drop passports, known as the Restrictions Exemption Program.
Kenney claimed this had nothing to do with the Coutts blockade, or the heated demands from his own caucus for instant abolition, or the pressure on his leadership, building to a vote on April 9.
The premier said it’s all about the waning effectiveness of passports in the face of Omicron; and besides, passport systems are being cancelled from Europe to Quebec and Saskatchewan.
But Kenney is under a special kind of political pressure, forced to court the anti-vaccination segment of his base and his caucus.
[Interesting Read]
