In Canada’s pandemic elections, unvaccinated candidates are knocking on doors

MIRAMICHI, New Brunswick, August 23 (Reuters) – In Canada’s federal election, it is traditional for candidates to knock on people’s doors to ask for their support. Before next month’s vote, most of the candidates making the round will be vaccinated against COVID-19, but not all.

The Conservatives, led by the still little-known Erin O’Toole, and the small right-wing People’s Party of Canada (PPC) do not require inoculations for their candidates, as the fourth wave is based primarily on the unvaccinated.

This does not sit well with millions of inoculated Canadians, who enjoy their first taste of freedom and normalcy after 17 months of pandemic life. Three-quarters of them say they have little sympathy for those who choose not to receive the shots, according to an August 17 Angus Reid poll.

“If you have a candidate who goes door to door and isn’t vaccinated and they knock on the door of an immunocompromised senior … then they put him in danger,” said Trevor Boutilier, a 40-year-old bus driver from Ottawa, which has no plans to vote conservative for the first time in its life.

Two days before a quick vote on Sept. 20, Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau forced federal employees and domestic air and rail travelers to be vaccinated, putting the issue at the forefront of his election candidacy.

While campaigning in the Atlantic provinces on Sunday, Trudeau brought in Recruitment Minister Anita Anand, whom he called his “vaccine minister,” and Liberal candidates wore pins that said “I’m completely vaccinated.”

“We now need to protect our children,” Trudeau said at a liberal rally in Miramichi, New Brunswick, referring to children under 12 who still cannot access any of the inoculations. “We have not finished the fight against COVID-19.”

Trudeau, 49, called the election on August 15, two years ahead of schedule, in the hope that his handling of the pandemic, his successful national inoculation campaign and his plans to support the rebound would push the Liberals to the majority after relying on the support of opposition parties since 2019.

“Liberals will want to make (vaccine mandates) a wedge problem because they know it’s divisive within the conservative tribe,” said Nanos Research surveyor Nik Nanos.

In Canada, 72% of the eligible population has already been vaccinated against COVID-19 and support for a vaccination testing system for travel and public events exceeds 61% nationwide, according to a published EKOS survey on the 16th of August.

Even most conservatives and O’Toole himself have had two shots. But about 15% of Conservative voters have not yet been inoculated, compared to 4% of Liberals, according to the EKOS poll. One-third of PPC voters have not been vaccinated.

PPC leader Maxime Bernier on Friday described Trudeau’s vaccine mandate for domestic travel as “fascist”, making it clear where right-wing voters can go if O’Toole agreed with Trudeau.

“This reflects what is happening in the United States, as Republicans are much less likely to be vaccinated than Democrats,” said EKOS President Frank Graves.

Unlike the United States, Canadian politicians of different stripes have generally addressed the fight against COVID-19 as a nonpartisan national health problem.

APPLICATION OF THE CHICKENS

O’Toole, 48, has argued that his position on federal workers is essentially the same as that of the Liberals, as the mandate is unlikely to be fully fulfilled, with the main union representing public officials having of making adaptations such as testing.

But the Conservative leader has struggled more to defend his position on candidates and travel. A campaign official declined to say how many Conservative candidates had not been vaccinated.

“Erin O’Toole will not be limited to the candidates she will present … who will not be vaccinated,” Trudeau said Thursday.

O’Toole last week urged his unvaccinated candidates to receive the shots and said those who do not should do daily testing during the campaign.

Polls have hardened since the race began, in part because many voters didn’t like the idea of ​​having an election during a pandemic, according to pollsters.

During the early days of the campaign, O’Toole shunned face-to-face rallies for virtual events, considering “Mr. Trudeau’s pandemic elections” to be a threat to public health.

Trudeau says the pandemic is the reason why an election is needed, so Canadians can choose the party that will lead them safely.

The Liberals would win 32.4% of the vote, compared to 32.8% of the Conservatives, placing the parties in a statistical tie, according to an EKOS poll released on Sunday.

Reports by Steve Scherer; Edited by Diane Craft and Dan Grebler

Our standards: the principles of trust of Thomson Reuters.