The second-most-predicted event since the election of Jason Kenney and the United Conservative Party as premier and government of Alberta in 2019 has come to pass.
The most predicted event took place immediately after Kenney’s smiley faced June 18 news conference at which he announced, Delta variant or no Delta variant, Alberta was pulling the plug on almost all COVID-19 restrictions on July 1.
“This is a happy day for Alberta,” the premier chirped that sunny day. “On July the first, on Canada Day, Alberta’s public health measures will be lifted and our lives will get back to normal. The end of this terrible time is just two weeks away. It’s hard to believe, but it’s true!”
It wasn’t.
No sooner had Kenney spoken than a great many Albertans predicted the result would be the catastrophic fourth wave of COVID-19 that was soon upon us with a vengeance.
But days after the announcement, the premier had mocked such predictions and called his critics irresponsible “promoters of fear.”
As the fourth wave slammed into Alberta, almost as many folks grimly predicted that, sooner or later, Kenney would blame Chief Medical Officer of Health Deena Hinshaw for the fourth wave and try to throw her under the metaphorical bus.
After all, he had always insisted that his government was acting on her informed advice — even though it often looked as though anti-vaccination, anti-restriction sentiments in the UCP caucus, and Kenney’s desire to ensure the Calgary Stampede could open, were in fact driving the government’s COVID response.
And so it came to pass Monday night that Hinshaw was assigned the role of scapegoat by the premier.
Responding to NDP questions in the legislature, he placed the blame squarely on her shoulders.
When it became apparent things were going south in August, he told MLAs, Hinshaw should have recommended additional measures. “Had there been further recommendations later in August to take additional measures, I would have immediately convened a cabinet committee meeting to approve those,” he said. Here’s the clip.
Of course, Kenney was nowhere to be seen for much of August — on vacation somewhere that has never been specified, although destinations in both Europe and Colorado have been rumoured. Despite claiming since that he was in daily touch with his office, the government appeared rudderless throughout his absence.
Last month Kenney appeared to be prepared to take some of the blame, telling a news conference that “we were wrong in talking about moving this from pandemic management to endemic management in July and August … and for that I apologize.”
However, even then he refused to admit he was wrong to promise “the best summer ever.”
“I said a lot of optimistic things in the summer, because I think it is the job of a leader to convey a sense of hope and optimism, not a sense of despair and pessimism, and from the perspective of where we were in July there were good reasons to be hopeful and optimistic,” he told his September news conference.
After Monday’s comment was widely interpreted as throwing Hinshaw under the bus, the Premier’s Office issued a statement yesterday to CTV denying that was so. “The Chief Medical Officer of Health and her team develop recommendations for public health measures which are then brought forward to cabinet for approval,” it said. “It is a statement of fact that expert officials did not bring forward recommendations forward (sic) at the time in question. The idea that his comments in any way attribute ‘blame’ for the fourth wave — an idea which appears to have emanated from Twitter — is entirely without evidence or reason.”
Of course, Hinshaw is inevitably going to wear some of the blame — if only for bowing to the demands of the premier, his cabinet and caucus for a speedy reopening in the face of a rapidly spreading virus.
But it’s preposterous, as Kenney now appears to be saying, that she should be scapegoated for the sins of the government. Even the New York Times panned his performance last spring and summer.
As former Alberta NDP leader Brian Mason said in a tweet yesterday, “Looks like Kenney will sacrifice Hinshaw in a desperate attempt to save his own skin, but it won’t work. Both are responsible, but Kenney much more so.”
Hinshaw’s regularly scheduled Tuesday COVID-19 briefing was cancelled yesterday for unspecified reasons. The government says that news conference will go ahead today.
Doubtless reporters will have many questions for the chief medical officer of health about Kenney’s comments.
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