Briefly: With election in sight, the Eby NDP government bowed to Conservative pressure in late July and ended the two-dose minimum for healthcare workers.
Bob Mackin
NDP leader David Eby borrowed a page from Justin Trudeau’s 2021 Liberal campaign playbook and made vaccination against COVID-19 a wedge issue on the way to the Oct. 19 election day.
Eby frequently targeted Conservative leader John Rustad for his perceived vaccine hesitancy and meetings with activists opposed to COVID-19 vaccination.
Premier David Eby getting vaccinated in 2023 (Eby/X)
Responding to Eby’s allegations that he is a “conspiracy theorist,” Rustad defended himself on the Oct. 8 televised debate as “triple vaccinated.”
“The reality is in British Columbia, I also promoted and supported people getting vaccines, especially for seniors, especially for seniors in our communities,” Rustad said. “I was supportive of that. However, I am not anti-vax. I am anti-mandate. I believe that people should have choice. It shouldn’t be thrust upon them and forced upon them.”
During the last, pre-election session of the Legislature, Rustad took up the cause of unvaccinated healthcare workers. He declared victory on July 26 when the NDP government finally ended the two-dose mandate and declared the COVID-19 public health emergency over.
That was just two weeks after Eby rejected Rustad’s calls to lift the mandate. “There’s a very different approach to public health between our party and John Rustad,” Eby said on July 12 in Surrey.
“In 2024 alone, British Columbia witnessed the closure of 188 emergency rooms due to staffing shortages, with rural areas being hit the hardest,” Rustad said, calling it a direct consequence of the mandate.
During the 2021 federal election, theBreaker.news canvassed Trudeau’s B.C. team. Of the 42 candidates, nine showed proof of vaccination with a provincially issued card and four sent social media links. Another eight claimed directly or through aides to be fully vaccinated, but they did not provide proof. Staff of West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea-to-Sky Country incumbent Patrick Weiler refused to prove he received a second dose.
The rest did not respond.
Who got the shot?
Fast forward to the 2024 B.C. election. theBreaker.news emailed a questionnaire to the addresses listed on NDP candidate websites, asking whether each of the 93 had received two or more doses of a COVID-19 vaccine. If so, when and where?
Only one of the 93 NDP candidates running for office responded: Vancouver-Mount Pleasant incumbent Joan Phillip.
“Yes, I have received all my shots of Moderna,” Phillip said by email. “March 23, 2021, May 31, 2021 and Dec 22, 2021 through the Penticton Indian Band.”
Eby did not respond, though he has had at least two doses.
On Nov. 24, 2023, he posted a photo from the UBC Pharmacy where he said he received both COVID-19 and flu shots.
On Jan. 12, 2022, this reporter was coincidentally behind Eby in line at the Vancouver Convention Centre COVID-19 mass-vaccination clinic and briefly spoke with him afterward.
The questionnaire also asked NDP candidates whether they favoured holding a judicial public inquiry to examine B.C.’s pandemic response, in order to be better prepared for the next one. Phillip did not respond to that question.
The federal Liberal government refused to conduct a judicial public inquiry, but will open a new agency, Health Emergency Readiness Canada.
In July 2023, the BMJ called for a national public inquiry due to the 52,750 deaths across Canada as of mid-2023. Canada’s death rate exceeded the global average.
Eby took over the majority NDP government in November 2022 from John Horgan, who called a snap election one year before the legislated election date and two months before vaccines started to arrive in B.C.
Between Sept. 21, 2020, the day the election was called, and Oct. 22, 2020, the last update before the Oct. 24, 2020 election day, 4,049 new COVID-19 infections were announced. At the time, that accounted for more than a third of all B.C. cases.
Meanwhile, the fall 2024 COVID-19 and flu vaccination campaign launched with unusually little fanfare. Government must take a break from communicating with the public during an election, except to promote or advertise important matters of public health and safety.
Everyone six months or older can get the shots at the same time. More information at the ImmunizeBC.ca website.
The virus remains a public health threat across Canada. University of Toronto Associate Prof. Tara Moriarty, who maintains the Canadian COVID-19 Hazard Index, reported Oct. 14 that B.C. had a severe rating, based on infections and spread, healthcare system impact and mortality.
The index estimated COVID-19 was spreading at the rate of 28,000 new infections every day in B.C.
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