A video clip of Calgary-Lougheed MLA Eric Bouchard musing about the future of COVID-19 vaccinations on an anti-vaxx video podcast stirred up a storm on social media this week among commenters who fear the United Conservative Party (UCP) may be about to try to ban the what the podcast’s host called “the murder shots.”
Bouchard, as alert readers will recall, was principal sponsor of the so-called “Injection of Truth” town hall held in an evangelical church in his riding in late June. That well-attended event featured the bloviations of a group of discredited anti-vaccine physicians – a description, naturally, that the MLA does not accept as fair or accurate.
Bouchard, who somehow managed to get the nomination in Jason Kenney’s old Calgary riding after the former premier was driven out of office by the UCP’s lunatic fringe, is pretty obviously neither a particularly clear thinker nor a master communicator.
And that may be why, having listened to the passage from the July 3 podcast several times, I’m not absolutely certain whether Bouchard was saying he thinks Premier Danielle Smith’s government is moving toward a complete ban on the COVID-19 vaccine – a play that would certainly let loose an impressive $#%+-storm of lawsuits – or is merely talking about an inquiry along the lines Preston Manning once fanaticized about in a bizarre stab at speculative fiction.
Here’s my transcription of the relevant passage, only part of which is heard in the clip circulating on social media.
Podcast host Bruce Scholl: … When is the UCP going to then call for an inquiry? That’s what we’re all wondering here in Alberta, right? So, stop the shots, do an inquiry, and find out what the hell happened? That’s the ultimate question.
UCP MLA Eric Bouchard: I agree. Well, I’m sure you’re well aware that unfortunately government moves really, really slow. And that’s, uh, unfortunate. But I think from this, uh, you know, the Manning Report is already out. Dr. Gary Davidson has submitted a report, has submitted his report to the premier, and I’m hoping that comes out sooner than later. I’ve had multiple lengthy conversations with Health Minister LaGrange. And, uh, you know, there’s no, no set date, but, I, it, my, my win would be the shots are removed, of course. But, you know, as I mentioned, government moves incredibly slowly, so, I think the fact that the discussions are already – it’s begun. So the wheels are in motion. The fact that we’re not sitting now, we don’t get to discuss it in the Legislature, or in caucus meetings, but, uh, I’m hoping sooner than later. I’m very optimistic. And I’m uh looking forward to seeing Dr. Davidson’s report.
Needless to say, it is difficult to draw clear conclusions about what Bouchard thinks is happening from that murky passage.
Dr. Davidson, of course, is the “contrarian physician” from Red Deer who in 2021 accused Alberta of exaggerating the impact of COVID on the province’s hospitals. AHS called his allegations disappointing and “completely false.”
He was hired by Premier Smith in 2023 to lead a review of pandemic data, possibly in the hopes of creating some new facts more sympathetic to her MAGA-adjacent views of the pandemic, vaccines and quack COVID cures. It sounds as if Bouchard may have seen the report, or heard a description of what it has to say.
Manning is the superannuated Godfather of the Canadian right, paid $253,000 in personal pin money by the province to cobble together an embarrassing report (plus another 253 pages of appendices) advising us to stop putting doctors in charge of public health emergencies and quit listening so much to scientists and medical researchers in the event of another pandemic so we can give equal time to “alternative scientific narratives.”
That said, notwithstanding the best efforts of Scholl (whose potted bio says he “debunks the myths and propaganda of the World Health Organization, the United Nations, and other globalist institutions”), I’m not at all certain from Bouchard’s word salad just what he’s been suggesting to Health Minister Adriana LaGrange, or what she may have indicated to him that she’s considering doing.
But it sure seems as of these might be worthwhile questions for Alberta’s professional media to put to LaGrange and Premier Smith the next time they have a chance to chat with them.
After all, one of the premier’s MLAs has raised some worrisome possibilities here, so asking for a little clarity and noting down their answers for the public would certainly be a reasonable thing to do.
NOTE: Thanks to the author of @disorderedyyc for pointing me to the site of the full podcast. DJC
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