September 10, 2024
Kenney fast-tracks removal of health restrictions, as threat of COVID remains...
I thought Kenney had it about right 10 days ago, when his target for lifting restrictions seemed to be mid-March. By then we’d know if Omicron really is burning itself out. But then along came Coutts, and the trucker takeover of downtown Ottawa, and the abrupt firing of Erin O’Toole by his own caucus. (Jack: The rest as they say is history!)

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]

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