Is Premier Danielle Smith really expecting Paul Alexander, briefly in 2020 a Trump Administration science advisor who urged the then U.S. president let millions of Americans be infected with COVID-19 to establish herd immunity, to show up in Alberta and set out his thoughts to her government?
So it would seem, judging from a brief exchange at an all-candidates’ debate Thursday evening in Medicine Hat where the premier is seeking to represent the Brooks-Medicine Hat Riding in the Legislature after next Tuesday’s by-election.
Smith’s remark suggested she’s reaching into some pretty strange corners to find anti-vaccine voices to support her crackpot views about public health in general and COVID-19 in particular.
The exchange, captured on video by someone at the debate, began with Bob Blayone, the Independence Party of Alberta candidate, telling the audience that, “When I want to learn about something, I reach out to the very best. With COVID, I reached out to Dr. Paul Alexander, Dr. Peter McCollough, Dr. Robert Malone …”
All three are prominent voices in the American anti-vaxx movement championed on social media by the American far-right.
Alexander – he holds a PhD in health research, not an MD – is probably the best known, not only for his short-lived role as scientific advisor to the assistant secretary for public affairs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services but for showing up in many pictures during the Ottawa occupation standing or marching with leaders of the convoy occupying downtown Ottawa.
McCollough is a Texas cardiologist who promoted ivermectin, the now notorious veterinary deworming medicine, as a COVID treatment during the pandemic. Malone claims to be the inventor of mNRA vaccines but has tried hard to undermine their use.
“All they want is to come to Alberta and have a conversation with this UCP Government and we’re gonna get him here to Alberta,” Bayone continued, before the moderator cut him off and moved on to Smith.
“I’ll accept that invitation,” she chirped cheerfully in response. “I’ve got a group of doctors advising me and I know that they’ve already reached out to Dr. Paul Alexander, so I’m interested in hearing what he has to say.”
The short video clip published on Twitter can be viewed here. Scott Schmidt of the Medicine Hat News, who was at the all-candidates forum, said Smith quickly changed the subject, so there was no follow-up.
Obviously, though, there needs to be some effort made to find out if Smith is seriously proposing to bring prominent anti-vaxx advocates from the Internet do-your-own-research circuit here to Alberta to advise her government and Alberta Health Services on public health policy.
Meanwhile, more evidence accumulated yesterday that this is exactly the sort of thing Albertans don’t want their government talking about, let alone acting on.
The CBC published more of the latest public opinion research by Calgary pollster Janet Brown and it buttresses the conclusions of the poll last month by Navigator Ltd. and shows health care is rated by more Albertans than any other to be the single most important issue facing the province today. Inflation showed up as the No. 2 concern in this latest Janet Brown poll.
“I think the reason we’re seeing a rise in health care is because there has been so much focus on what Danielle Smith plans to do with Alberta Health Services,” Brown told the CBC.
“I think one of the reasons that Danielle Smith’s impression scores are so low is because her rhetoric has been overwrought,” she also observed in an earlier story.
As for Smith, she’s hardly talking about the cost of living at all, and what she has to say about health care disturbs more Albertans than it reassures.
So why does the new premier obsessively repeat conspiracy theories about COVID-19 and talk about dismantling AHS for the way it handled the pandemic, even though that seems unlikely to improve her standing in the polls?
Well, obviously, she actually believes the nonsense she’s been peddling to the party base, and continues to push now that she’s premier. This is troubling in a leader with no popular mandate who appears to be riding the down elevator in public support.
She also apparently suffers from the common broadcasters’ affliction of a morbid fear of dead air, so she seems to be compelled to say something if no one else is saying anything. What she wants to yak about the most is quackery and conspiracy.
Seriously, there’s been nothing quite like this gong show in Alberta since Bible Bill Aberhardt, leader of the first Social Credit government on the planet, invited a couple of emissaries from C.H. Douglas, Social Credit’s cultishly nutty philosopher king in London, to come to Alberta and help him run his cabinet in 1935. Their first directive was to replace the RCMP with a Social Credit police force, which sounds faintly familiar, but I digress.
How long Smith’s UCP can put up with this remains to be seen. It probably has a lot to do with the story that the next few public opinion polls tell.
In the meantime, though, brace yourselves for a parade of anti-vaxx activists with lots of not-so-good suggestions for Alberta health care policy.
Support rabble today!
We’re so glad you stopped by! Thanks for consuming rabble content this year.
rabble.ca is 100% reader and donor funded, so as an avid reader of our content, we hope you will consider gifting rabble with a donation during our summer fundraiser today.
Whether it be a one-time donation or a small monthly contribution, your support is critical to keep rabble writers producing the work you’ve come to rely on as a part of a healthy media diet.
Become a rabble rouser — donate to rabble.ca today.
Nick Seebruch, editor
