CALGARY — Health Minister Tyler Shandro had some choice words for Federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu about her letter questioning the lifting of several public health measures in the province such as testing, contact tracing, and mandatory isolation.
Shandro’s thread details his discontent with the nature of Hajdu’s letter. He accuses her of playing politics and unfairly targetting the province while defending Alberta Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw.
The Liberals are currently crisscrossing the country spending your tax dollars electioneering by criticizing provincial gov'ts when it is politically convenient for them to do so. 1/9
— Tyler Shandro ???????? (@shandro) August 5, 2021
“Minister Hajdu noticeably neglected to write a letter to Saskatchewan despite SK and AB having similar approaches to the COVID-19 pandemic,” Shandro says in his tweets. “Instead, Ms. Hajdu chose to target Alberta.”
Shandro says the Federal Liberals are using Alberta as a “punching bag” or political scapegoat to draw attention away from its own “atrocious” track record on COVID-19.
Shandro points to the border remaining open in the early days of the pandemic and slow vaccine procurement as the failings of the Trudeau government. The federal government ordered 44 million doses of Moderna and up to 76 million doses of Pfizer in December 2020, according to the government’s website.
Shandro also voices his support of Dr. Hinshaw in his thread.
“Dr. Hinshaw & her team’s sensible recommendations on moving to the next phase of COVID-19 adaptation are in line with the science,” Shandro said on Twitter. “Dr. Hinshaw has explained the reasoning of her science-based decision at length.
“We will take Hinshaw’s wise guidance over Ottawa’s any day.”
Several doctors have protested the decision and one Alberta doctor levied similar concerns about the misleading nature of Dr. Hinshaw’s explanation, which she published in an op-ed.
Shandro continues his thread by bringing up COVID vaccination statistics in Alberta.
“Since July 1, people who were not fully immunized made up 95 per cent of all cases of COVID-19, 94 per cent of all those hospitalized for COVID-19, and 95 per cent of all COVID-19 deaths,” Shandro says. “Vaccines work. Period.”
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He rounds out his thoughts with a dig at the Prime Minister and his campaign-style visits across the country in recent weeks.
“It’s beyond ironic that at the very time Min. Hajdu was sending her supposed letter of concern, her boss is preparing to crisscross the country for his opportunistic election,” Shandro says.
Justin Trudeau has repeatedly denied that he will call a federal election this year, but federal parties have nevertheless continued to ask for a postponement. NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh wrote a letter to the new Governor-General Mary Simon asking her to squash any attempt at an election call, meanwhile, a strategist for Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole tweeted opposition to an election as well, saying a looming fourth wave of COVID-19 should be the countries top concern.
A Delta-driven 4th Wave is a clear, immediate, and foreseeable threat to Canada. Its mitigation should be the exclusive focus of the government right now, not an election. #cdnpoli
— Dan Robertson (@pdrobertson) August 2, 2021
