Alberta Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw at yesterday’s COVID-19 news conference (Photo: Screenshot of Alberta Government video).

At the first COVID-19 news conference in almost a month, and quite possibly the last one ever, Chief Medical Officer of Health Deena Hinshaw let Albertans know yesterday that they and their still-unvaccinated children will basically be on their own when it comes to the virus’s rapidly spreading Delta variant.

With Delta-dominated post-Calgary-Stampede COVID-19 rates surging and more than 1.5 million Albertans including all children under 12 still unvaccinated, Dr. Hinshaw announced that in less than three weeks Albertans who test positive for COVID-19 will no longer be required to go into isolation, or seemingly anything else.

Calgary physician Joe Vipond, a high-profile critic of the Kenney Government’s approach to COVID-19 (Photo: David J. Climenhaga).

At that point, Alberta will probably be the only jurisdiction in the world where such a state of affairs exists, at least officially. So if COVID-infected Albertans want to go to a bar, hang out in restaurants, sing in church, or attend musical concerts, there’s nothing to stop them. They can fill their boots! 

Unsurprisingly, Stampede officials and UCP supporters dismiss the connection between the annual rodeo and the increase in COVID-19 cases. The government’s news release yesterday rather tendentiously framed the changes as an effort “to support Albertans.”

Starting today, anyone who is known to have come in contact with anyone infected with COVID-19 will no longer be notified – although Dr. Hinshaw said it would sure be nice if the person who did the infecting bothered to let them know. 

Henceforth, she added, COVID-19 will be handled “like other respiratory viruses.” Influenza, the common cold, whatever. Isolation supports and quarantine hotels will disappear. COVID-19 testing will be dumped on doctors’ offices – which is sure to be unpopular with physicians and their patients. Asymptomatic testing? Forget about it. 

“Vaccines are able to drastically reduce the risk of not only contracting the virus, but more importantly, getting severely ill,” Dr. Hinshaw told the news conference – which was not graced by the presence of Premier Jason Kenney or Health Minister Tyler Shandro. 

“From a public health standpoint, this has changed how we need to look at the virus,” she added, claiming the changes will help the province deal more effectively with other communicable diseases.

Calgary physician Joe Vipond, a frequent critic of the government’s half-hearted approach to the pandemic who has been proven right more often than government spokespeople throughout the pandemic, responded sharply on Twitter. 

University of Alberta law professor Ubaka Ogbogu (Photo: University of Alberta).

“We are launching an experiment on a population level, first in the world to basically stop acting on COVID,” Dr. Vipond tweeted. “This is an effort to hide the #s, and achieve herd immunity, that will profoundly hurt us.”

“I can predict other countries putting Albertans on the no entry list soon,” said University of Alberta law professor Ubaka Ogbogu, another prominent critic of the government who once served on the Health Quality Council of Alberta. He quit the HCQA in 2020 to protest government health care policies. 

“We have presently the stupidest public health response to the pandemic in the G7,” he stated. 

Meanwhile, British Columbia moved in the opposite direction and reimposed mask mandates in the province’s Okanagan Valley.

More than half of the province’s daily and active COVID-19 cases are concentrated in the region, B.C. Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry told a teleconference yesterday. The Okanagan is a popular destination for travellers from Alberta.

Former ambassador and advisor to senior Conservative Norman Spector (Photo: Screenshot of Voice of B.C. video).

Dr. Ogbogu’s fears are likely justified and calls are bound to be heard in other Canadian jurisdictions for restrictions on visits by people from Alberta.

“Dear @jhorgan,” Victoria resident Norman Spector tweeted to B.C. Premier John Horgan yesterday evening, “the time may have come to shut the border with Alberta.”

Dr. Spector, a former chief of staff to Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney, deputy minister to conservative B.C. premier Bill Bennett, and Canadian ambassador to Israel, might have been joking. But I doubt it. 

Albertans can expect more of the same, quite possibly expressed less temperately.

Join the Conversation

49 Comments

  1. The UCP is so deaf, and oblivious to reality, with Covid-19, and any other matters they deal with. Come August, the UCP will have a hard time explaining to the media, and to Albertans, as to how things got so horribly wrong. Covid-19 cases will keep on rising in Alberta, going up and up. Actual lockdowns might happen in Alberta, sooner than we think. The UCP is in their own little world, and they cannot see that their failed attempts on managing the Covid-19 pandemic, have never been met with any measure of success. Come to think of it, anything the UCP has done for Alberta, has never been met with any measure of success.

    1. Maybe remember Florida , South Dakota, Texas , doesn’t appear to be any suffering their , rather the opposite

  2. alberta might get to wexit
    as no one will let them in?
    y’all come down for the coal and bitumen tho , eh?
    forget the heatwave
    get you discount beef here

  3. A thread from:

    https://mobile.twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1420584500124397569

    “I now crown Alberta as the new ‘Florida of Canada’ … get a positive #COVID19 test? No need to isolate says new horrible rules by heinously irresponsible
    @CMOH_Alberta.

    “Meanwhile, COVID now spreading faster (RT=1.48) in Alberta than during peak of 3rd wave….

    “5) let this sink in—there is no place in the world that doesn’t ask a #COVID19 positive person to isolate—other than Alberta . @CMOH_Alberta
    is that dangerous & irresponsible. When the first child dies from this, we will ask for your resignation. History will remember too. “

    1. Really? You’re citing the internet’s biggest fear-peddling idiot as a source of information? The guy who back on March 2nd said he wanted to vomit as Texas dropped all covid restrictions saying Abbot would be responsible for the “inevitable surge”? You know, that surge that was inevitable that…NEVER HAPPENED? Despite 40,000+ attending baseball games unmasked and unvaccinated, despite 73,000+ attending an INDOOR boxing match without vax passports or tests? Cases continued to decline by over 70% in the next 2-3 months because covid is “sharply seasonal” (Journal of Infectious Diseases, April 2020).
      Citing loons isn’t the best look.

  4. I hope Jason Kenney and Tyler Shandro are making room in hospitals and care centres for all the post-Covid psychiatric and dementia patients.

    https://t.co/b6Bf1w7uw6

    “BREAKING—20% of recovering #COVID19 patients develop mental illness within 90 days, says large US study. Increased *first-time diagnosis* of anxiety, depression & insomnia by 2-fold! And researchers also found significantly higher risks of dementia.
    https://t.co/ahzlKNZVbO

    Not an influenza, dimwits!

  5. An Alberta plate will be like a Covid anti-passport. *sound of drought whizzled apples hitting a car hood*

  6. Serious question: who actually makes the policy? My assumption is that CMHO advises and the government approves. Normally, the Ministry would make the announcement. Is this a case where Henshaw has to announce a policy that she might not agree with?

    1. Hinshaw is given her talking points from Shandro. You know, the guy with no medical or science background.

    2. At this point I think it is reasonable to file a complaint with the college of physicians about “Dr.” Henshaw, who seems to think she swore a Hypocritical Oath.

  7. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, MD, told a Senate committee on July 13 the Delta variant caused half of US Covid 19 infections. On July 20 that had increased to 80% of infections. Apparently for the UCP and their ever-accommodating Dr. Hinshaw, evolutionary biology and mathematics that apply in the rest of the world do not apply here.

    There will be children who are killed or permanently injured by this newer variant. Each infected person is really a factory for new variants and it is mathematically inevitable some of those new variants will be even more contagious, more lethal, and more effective at evading the current vaccines than the Delta variant. Only 15% of the world’s population is fully vaccinated. The rest are either active or potential Covid variant factories and the UCP and Ottawa can’t wait to open things up. Let’s not even think about breakthrough infections among the already fully vaccinated.

    A couple of days ago in the comments section “Lungta” described Alberta as a “kakistocracy.” I had to look it up. It is a real word that means “a system of government that is run by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens.” Welcome to Alberta where kakistocracy is a tradition with Ottawa not far behind.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kakistocracy

  8. What is the duty and responsibility of Albertans when their own government enact criminally negligent health measures?

    Indeed, to what extent are we obligated to obey a government that has lost the moral/ethical authority to govern?

    Do we, or should we wait until the next election in 2 years, while our friends and neighbours die and get sick because of the government’s wanton disregard for public health, or do we…?

    Suffer or do something about it Albertans.

    Either way, just remember who elected the UCP and gave them a majority no less. Hint: It wasn’t Trudeau’s fault.

  9. What struck me about the most about yesterday’s announcement is that even Sweden, for all their completely irresponsible behaviour during this pandemic, did not reach the point where they had zero restrictions and, in spirit, denied that there was even anything remotely COVID-19 going around. It seems that Alberta has decided to do one better and entered that CON netherworld only occupied by Lou Dobbs, Sean Hantity, and the late Rush Limbaugh (Yes, I am still dancing on his grave.) and has decided that the pandemic isn’t a problem as never was because…PLANdemic, y’all.

    Now, that it can be confirmed that Dr. Hinshaw and Jason Kenney are sharing a brain, it can be confirmed that there is nothing of use coming from the UCP government from now on. Hinshaw pretty much went back to using “personal responsibility” as an infection mitigation strategy, as though it actually worked the last three times it was tried. Ignoring that Alberta has the highest level of vaccine-resistance in Canada and the lowest rate of full vaccination, one wonders if Kenney is just going to denounce the whole pandemic as PMJT’s stunt to steal the next federal election. (Coming late September) As for Hinshaw, she’s working for a pension and, I suspect, early retirement, so she will allow fudged numbers and politically motivated public health measures to be the norm as she backs herself out of the room.

    Now that Alberta’s R-value is creeping upward and infections are rising, the lagging indicators are going to catch up, PDQ. So much for the greatest summer ever.

    I’m guessing that when the pandemic in Alberta gets out of hand again, Kenney is send Shandro to scream and curse at the virus until it falls over laughing and dies. Kenney loves it when a bold plan comes together. In the meantime, Alberta is no place for stable healthcare and the war on decency will continue.

    Poor Alberta, deserves ever ounce of the hardship it endures. Blame Ottawa, again? Sure. Just try it.

  10. Kenney said that pandemic was over and that this would be Albertan’s best summer ever. So it must be true.

    Oops. Is this the same Kenney that said in the Legislature last year that covid was no different that a cold or the flue?

    Not such a good summer for our merchants, for our health care workers, for covid victims, or for farmers who are loosing their crops because of draught.

    OK for MLA’s though. They have the summer off. They are the highest paid MLA’s in Canada. Life is good. These low polling numbers must be the work of those NDP pollsters.

  11. I think it likely that a time will come when COVID-19 will indeed be able to be treated like any number of endemic respiratory viruses, becoming just one more that hits us every year, causing some discomfort & inconvenience but not the kind of suffering & death that has characterized the pandemic thus far. But that time hasn’t arrived yet, & the reason is Alberta’s low immunization rate. The provincial rates are concerning enough in themselves when compared to other jurisdictions in Canada, but dig deeper & you will see broad swaths of the province where they are far lower than they should be.

    Take northwestern Alberta, for example. City of Grande Prairie, 57% of 12+ at least one dose, 47% fully vaccinated; County of Grande Prairie local geographic area (doesn’t correspond to municipal boundaries), 56% & 47%, respectively; Beaverlodge LGA, 52% & 37%. These percentages are even worse if you use entire population as denominator instead of age-eligible, especially in the City of GP, which is one of Alberta’s demographically youngest communities; here, only 47½% have at least one dose & 39% are fully vaccinated. The numbers are comparable, & in some areas even worse, in more rural areas like the High Prairie, Peace River & High level areas.

    Things aren’t significantly different in the rural northeast, rural central & rural south, except in scattered pockets of better uptake. It is also a bit better along the province’s western border with BC & the mountain parks.

    So, I feel it is tragically premature to make these changes now.

    https://www.alberta.ca/stats/covid-19-alberta-statistics.htm#vaccinations

  12. Like someone who puts their hand repeatedly on a hot stove, the UCP and Kenney does not seem to learn from past mistakes and have a stubborn desire to repeat them again and again. Unlike other places in Canada, cautious reopening, does not seem to be something they understand.

    Yes, a lot of people have been vaccinated, but there are places in Alberta where the vaccination rate is much lower. Of course it is also playing a game with numbers – higher more impressive vaccination rates only are created by taking the eligible population instead of the total population. Unfortunately, COVID does not only affect the eligible and can be transmitted by anyone who gets it.

    It is like we have already seen this disaster movie several times already – too quick reopening followed by a reluctant too slow clamp down. Yes, everyone is tired of COVID, but I think Albertans are also tired of the UCP and Kenney messing it up even more.

    If there is another COVID wave in Alberta, I suspect one of the casualties will be Kenney’s political career. That alone, should make him a bit more cautious in how he approaches things, but like the person drawn to touch the hot stove again and again, he just can’t seem to help himself.

  13. From another news article dealing with her latest public announcement of pandemic platitudes instead of dropping her peals of wisdom via twitter “Hinshaw emphasized the importance of focusing on severe outcomes rather than case numbers.”

    Apparently for the kenney/hinshaw tag team, ‘severe’ outcomes means using health care resources for treatment of covid-19 – if patients would be co-operative and simply remain at home and recover or not recover – as long as NO health care resources are used – everything is great. (This of course, will not apply to ucp donors or party members or other helpers of the regime.)

    Seniors even with two shots have cause for concern. Especially those for whom the two doses will not work – I believe the percentage is roughly 5 or 6 percent. (It could be far greater due to the 3 to 4 month wait between the first and second shots.) Pfizer’s own data recommended only a 3 week wait and showed that efficacy began to drop 3 + weeks after the first dose (when no second 2nd dose was administered on time). NACI is responsible for both endorsing the 4 month delay between shots and the mixing of vaccines. It is a shame that right wing premiers jumped on the NACI bandwagon with ungodly speed because none of them seemed to have properly planned mass vaccination campaigns.

    For seniors who have been vaccinated in AB and have the misfortune to be infected with the delta strain, they will have an additional hurdle to getting medical treatment in hospital, if needed. The ‘TRIAGE PROTOCOL’ awaits. Did no one else think it odd that paramedics would be authorized to pick up prospective patients and take them either to the E.R. or urgent care centres or to HOSPICES? hinshaw made it very clear that there would be NO number of new cases that might cause a change in lifting all pandemic restrictions. kenney values his political career above any number of Albertan lives.

    It is the immunocompromised who will bear the greatest risk and I curse the ucp for what they have done.

    Hopefully the first variant to develop in Alberta will, at least bear the kenney/hinshaw name. They richly deserve credit for the direction in which they have taken the province.

  14. What was stupid was lockdowns over a virus that is 99.8% survivable. It will go down in history as one of the most stupid things in himan history. Destroying the economy, financially ruining millions of people, cancelling surgery,

    Thank God Alberta is finally seeing the light.

    1. Hey Dwight,

      Are you vaccinated? Are you “financially ruined”? Do you know how to spell the word human?

    2. It’s almost as if Dear Leader took the Bible literally when he got to the part that said, “suffer little children”.

      1. Abs: Pedant that I am, I have to respond to this. When the King James Version of the Bible quotes Jesus saying, “Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me,” it means, permit the little children to come to me. Accordingly, the New International Version translates this passage as follows: “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them …” DJC

        1. I think Dear Leader focused on the “suffer” part. He’s on a mission from God, to make children suffer.

      2. No Bible scholar I, but as bit of a linguistics nerd, I’d like to pont out that in this context, the word “suffer” is used in an older sense of “allow” or “permit”. So, in today’s English, Jesus was reported as simply saying, “let the little children come to me”.

  15. Well, frankly, to me Hinshaw just cements her position as an incompetent epidemiologist. Never heard such tripe from a supposed professional, an outlook so far from established norms. The nearest “out there” bonkers quack to her is the Chief PHO from New Brunswick who is making the province free of all restrictions this Friday — Toronto experts have warned she’s too early, but she defended herself using “technical” terms like the proportion of NB population that has been fully vaccinated. In Alberta terms, which like NB, officially only uses population vaccination rates in terms of the “eligible” population because it appeals to the Con premier mind to claim a BIG number, thus dunning all children under 12 as being COMPLETELY unimportant, they are indeed way out in front of Alberta by getting on for 12 percent per capita more vaccinations already achieved. But they are not yet near to 75% of the total population vaccinated.

    This so-called herd immunity vaccination rate was plucked out of thin air by the provincial public health officers acting in concert well over a year ago, and it has been set at 75% of the TOTAL population, not as in kenney wacko-land at 70% of the merely eligible citizens. As of now, using covid19tracker.ca

    NB first dose 72.4%, fully vaccinated 58.5%
    AB first dose 64.4%, fully vaccinated 54.4%

    The provincial leader is Nova Scotia
    NS first dose 75.5%, fully vaccinated 60.4%

    It’s only my opinion, but our Chief PHO Dr Strang in Nova Scotia, I’d put forward as by far the most solid of the lot right across the entire country, including Dr Henry in BC who by comparison has been flaky, no other term for it, always re-opening too early and then suffering retrenchment such as is happening now in the Okanagan where I have family, by reimposing mask mandates. NS will declare itself “open”, when we reach 75% of the total population, likely in early September.

    My brother and family in Calgary feel trapped by idiotic fellow Albertans who can’t be assed to get any shot whatsover. All across this country, the fully-vaccinated feel that the anti-vaxxers/can’t-be-bothered-covidiots, are holding them hostage by their intransigence. Going out to a restaurant when the other diners are likely unvaccinated is not a tempting prospect. Still, if my relatives hold on for a bit longer, Dr Hinshaw’s hands-off policy to testing and tracing should knock off a few of the nutters and perhaps induce a little sanity in the remainder. Fat chance of that is my guess. But what if AB doctors simply refuse to see unvaccinated patients in their offices? That’ll put the cat among the pigeons, leaving kenney braying about commie docs, and looking for appropriate right wing nutter docs to come and live in the dystopian paradise of Canada and follow his diktats. “More Hinshaws please!” seems to be his outlook. A dangerous man.

    One seriously wonders if some populations won’t sue their provincial governments for incompetence when the Covid outbreak is fully over, say 3 or 4 years from now. Ontario is a very close third behind NS and NB in jabs, because at least Ford gave up on being a Con nutter in that particular matter and let the professionals get on with the job. Manitoba is pretty good as well. Alberta and Saskatchewan are led by sociopathic dolts and trail everyone else, besides the inconsequential PEI.

    England (not including the rest of the UK) is closest to Alberta in being completely out-to-lunch, with the genius Boris Johnson in charge opening up the country on July 19, when new Delta variant cases were over 42,000 per day! Idiocy. In England virtually nobody under 18 has had a vaccination because they haven’t been eligible, so there’s your vulnerable population, them and the 18 to 30 year-old self-identified heroes who won’t get a jab. Plus the overuse of Astra Zeneca there, of course, which is only 66% “effective” at repelling the Delta variant. So vaccination rates in England, which as a percentage of population is almost, I say almost, as good as Canada’s is badly distributed across age groups. That’s down to different philosophies of public health epidemiologists, and the Brits guessed a year ago and got that one wrong. Boris flaps around like a wounded bird insisting things are just fine when anyone can see it’s not. The Con mind is an incompletely formed one.

    Meanwhile, I’m glad I don’t live in kenney land.

    1. I don’t think doctors can refuse to see the unvaccinated. Why? Kenney has hung them out to dry again. Dr. D. announced that when dedicated Covid testing centres shut down, testing will only be offered to those who get sick enough to require treatment. So, off to the hospital or doctor’s office for a test. Who would want to risk going to their family doctor’s office in a few weeks, when the waiting rooms fill up with the Covid-infected seeking Covid tests? Not I. Delta variant is much more contagious than previous variants, and those tests require unmasking. There you go: the doctor’s office becomes a petri dish for Covid spread. It might be prudent to fill any required prescriptions now, and see the doctor for any necessary issues before the testing centres close.

      And by the way, it should get interesting with the flu also circulating this fall, thanks to no masks, distancing or extra sanitation. People can get infected with flu and Covid at the same time. Hospital bed closures are already frightening for anyone ending up in ERs this summer. See where this is going?

      1. No more “do not enter if you think you have Covid” signs posted on the doctor’s office door. Those signs advised patients to seek a Covid test at a dedicated Covid testing centre instead. Now it’s: “Come in, pull yourself up a chair. Let the fun begin, it’s time to let down your hair.” That’s the theme song for Pee-wee’s Playhouse, and the inspiration for Kenney’s Kovid Playhouse. The doctors thought they’d managed to hold him off, but Kenney will get the last laugh at their expense, even if it kills them.

        (Notice how the shortage of doctors and nurses will get worse with them falling sick or dying.)

    2. @BILL MALCOLM

      You wrote: “One seriously wonders if some populations won’t sue their provincial governments for incompetence when the Covid outbreak is fully over, say 3 or 4 years from now”.

      In April of 2021, the Alberta ucp passed Bill 70: the COVID-19 Related Measures Act, which raised the legal bar for those alleging harm caused by exposure to COVID-19 to force plaintiffs to demonstrate GROSS negligence rather than ordinary negligence.

      The bill extended civil liability protection to pharmacies, residential addiction treatment facilities and continuing care facilities (which merits it’s own special category and soon to be sold off to private industry) as well as Alberta Health Services as long as they acted in good faith to follow public health guidelines during the pandemic.

      Bill 70, once it receives royal assent, will be retroactive to March 1, 2020 (before the pandemic began).

      Ontario passed a similar Bill last October. Last year, British Columbia passed a similar Bill granting civil immunity to essential services, except for long-term care homes.

      Perhaps Bill 70 is why hinshaw is the willing dupe for throwing caution to the winds and abandoning all covid-19 restrictions with unholy haste. As far as I know the bill did not extend immunity to politicians or ministers/members of the government.

      It should also be noted that TWO days before hinshaw made her announcement dismembering what remained of public health guidelines, on the CTV news kenney was shown pronouncing that ‘he’ felt that covid-19 had changed from being a ‘pandemic’ to being ‘endemic’. I suspect by that time, kenney, hinshaw and shandro had already had several discussions about what hinshaw would announce on her press conference but kenney being the show-off that he is, could not help using the word ‘endemic’ which would soon be on everyone’s lips. With this regime, everything is orchestrated.

      Perhaps the spontaneous protests at the legislature grounds and in Calgary will continue. Perhaps they will turn into a general strike. Perhaps now is the time to hit back, as hard as possible, at a regime that is only interested in profit for business and corporations and party friends.

  16. Show your math. Case increases are leading to overwhelming of hospitals — due to vaccinations. The lockdowns were to prevent healthcare collapse, not the impossible goal of Zero covid. So, make the statistical case…

  17. Couldn’t help but notice an advertisement for headstones pops up after the second paragraph of the article on my computer screen. The placement of online ads are such a hoot.

    Also couldn’t but notice the NDP has raised twice as much money as the UCP in the first half of 2021. Second quarter fundraising totals were posted on the Elections Alberta website earlier today.

  18. This is pretty much a communication problem.

    The UCP dont “speak” authoritarianism and the NDP dont speak “freedom”.

    Just because its not a law that you can go to jail for, it doesnt mean you should do it.

    People selling big government solutions cant understand the idea that people are responsible for their own health.

    1. The problem with your libertarian approach, Sir, is that in a global pandemic, it’s the health of others that is at risk from one’s recklessness. Just as my freedom to wave my fists around ends where the other person’s nose begins, my freedom to expose myself to a potentially deadly infectious disease must end where the next person’s vulnerability begins.

    2. BRET LARSON: Libertarianism can also lead to anarchy, and also there is a word that begins with the letter f and ends with the letter m, that can be connected to that. Also the word that starts with the letter f and ends with the letter m, fits with the the nanny state rhetoric that a certain segment of society likes to push. This is from their belief that the government should be less involved in people’s lives mantra. When there are dangers that can affect others, the government has to do something about this, with laws and regulations. If they don’t, things can get worse, and people’s lives can be harmed. Under the circumstances, that have happened in history, with the word that begins with the letter f, and ends with the letter m, there was no care about youth, the infirm, or seniors. The only concern they had was for a certain segment of society, and not the greater good of society as a whole. This latest Covid-19 experiment by the UCP will go horribly wrong, and before the month of August is all done, people will be very disappointed with the UCP, and with Dr. Deena Hinshaw. People will want heads to roll.

    3. “People selling big government solutions cant understand the idea that people are responsible for their own health.”

      Some things can’t be left to individuals, because individuals vary to wildly in their understanding of global issues.

      I’m not sure the individuals would have stood up to the axis in ww2 very well. The allies did.

      Global issues like tax shelters for rich people can only be solved. by government.

      Global warming and climate change as well, we want as few as possible of the means of pollution to be in the hands of regular people and focused in the fewest highly regulated hands as possible.

      And for a pandemic where the way out individually would be a moral choice that puts the health of all above your perceived freedoms – well – this has been the greatest case study in the moral deficiency of western conservative thinking and we see plainly, painfully that such choices absolutely can’t be left to the members if the hoi poloi. We elect leaders not to pander to the stupidest of all possible voter bases – but to lead and so the right thing based on sound reasoning.

      This pandemic has shown that the UCP has a blanket policy of pandering to its base at the expense of all Albertans well being – no matter what. That’s bloody dangerous and i hope moderate conservatives and fiscal conservatives like me in particular can see the NDP represent an Alberta that may be slightly more fair for all and a million times safer in terms of wasted resources. They never pissed money away the way the UCP have done so spectacularly by focusing fountainhead their stupid, uneducated, conspiracy loving voter base.

    4. Bret,

      Some things can’t be left to individuals, because individuals vary to wildly in their understanding of global issues.

      I’m not sure the individuals would have stood up to the axis in ww2 very well. The allies did.

      Global issues like tax shelters for rich people can only be solved. by government.

      Global warming and climate change as well, we want as few as possible of the means of pollution to be in the hands of regular people and focused in the fewest highly regulated hands as possible.

      And for a pandemic where the way out individually would be a moral choice that puts the health of all above your perceived freedoms – well – this has been the greatest case study in the moral deficiency of western conservative thinking and we see plainly, painfully that such choices absolutely can’t be left to the members if the hoi poloi. We elect leaders not to pander to the stupidest of all possible voter bases – but to lead and so the right thing based on sound reasoning.

      This pandemic has shown that the UCP has a blanket policy of pandering to its base at the expense of all Albertans well being – no matter what. That’s bloody dangerous and i hope moderate conservatives and fiscal conservatives like me in particular can see the NDP represent an Alberta that may be slightly more fair for all and a million times safer in terms of wasted resources. They never pissed money away the way the UCP have done so spectacularly by focusing fountainhead their stupid, uneducated, conspiracy loving voter base.

  19. Interesting… I seem to have found the limits of freedom of speech on your site, David. I guess it’s NOT a conversation we can have.

    1. Paul: I’m not sure what this is a reference to. I do occasionally delete comments from readers, although I don’t recall deleting one from you. The reasons are normally: irrelevance, abusiveness, or defamation of a third party. On the latter point, having been sued for defamation in a past life, I am probably overcautious, but since as the publisher I am the one bearing the risk, readers just have to deal with it. All comments are modified, by me, personally. Sometime I exercise my right to modify comments. I do notice that a little more than two hours passed between your earlier comment and this one. Readers need to remember that this blog is my hobby, not my job. While I do raise some income from advertising revenue and donations, it is small and of necessity I am unable to post all comments as soon as they appear. DJC

  20. Our government is insane. It has abandoned its post and left us to die in chaos and anarchy with no recourse except to hide in our houses hoping for herd immunity. Blind and uninformed we now have no way of knowing what risk level we may face in simply going grocery shopping. How can such an ignorant ‘ostrich-head-in-the-sand’ approach possibly work? It will only serve to increase the suffering, make more people sick and afraid, and cause more Albertans to needlessly die. Deena Henshaw, Tyler Shandro and Jason Kenney should be ashamed of themselves and should be tried for crimes against humanity.

  21. It would be great to hear from someone who has a virology degree and is courageous, instead of people who know nothing, making assumptions, who want to be led by kings and queens because they have never grown up and so only seek “safety”. But, of course, the majority of courageous virologists have been silenced. Now, we are being forced to use some common sense, which comes from outside of safety. I am not a virologist, but I am wondering, IF we give a vaccine that is not 100% efficient, it would only make sense that it would create variants, which would be stronger than the original. After all, the virus is all about survival as well as yourself. As we all should know, survival is never found in comfort, but in courage. It would be great if we could speak to those with courage, who have actually ventured out of comfort, instead of those who are weak, thinking they know everything from their comfort zone. We have any enemy out there and it seems like the majority who are speaking, are speaking from underneath the bed, while those who are out fighting the virus with their inefficient vaccines are giving rise to MORE, not less, dangerous variants. Like Kenney said: Covid is here to stay. Go and enjoy your summer. And during that summer joy, it would be wise to read a history book or medical book, instead of 50 shades of grey that is a top seller. Never follow the crowd is always excellent advice.

  22. It seems highly likely that the change of UCP health policy is connected to the revelation in the Patrick King Court Case that Deena Hinshaw was unwilling or unable to show “material evidence” of the supposed science used to justify Alberta’s COVID restrictions. Officials could not even demonstrate that the virus has ever been isolated. So…. perhaps Kenney, Hinshaw, Shandro and company chose to not make themselves yet more liable than they already are for damages done to Albertans, whether through unjustified lockdowns, government-generated unemployment, business bankruptcies, closure of schools, colleges and universities…. not to mention large increases in deaths through suicide, domestic violence, overdoses, missed surgeries and on and on and on.

    Maybe those individuals first in line to be sued in this province have decided take a pass and not push on with the wholesale frauds making it appear that the Alberta government was acting on the basis of genuine science in the process of setting and enforcing the COVID restrictions including those directed at shutting down places of worship.

    The changes to health policies notwithstanding, the provincial government is continuing to push head with the experimental COVID jabs that have been breaking world vaccine records in causing a proliferation of deaths and injuries. Why is it David Climenhaga and the entourage represented here so oblivious of these considerations.

    1. Anthony: What? You’re going to suggest I’m in the pay of the New World Order? No such luck, I’m afraid. It is utter nonsense to suggest the Patrick King court case – which related to driving with a suspended licence and breaking health protocols and which Mr. King lost, it is important to note – has anything to do with the Alberta government’s dangerous abandonment of sound public health policy. Dr. Hinshaw did not appear because the judge ruled the testimony Mr. King sought from her was not relevant to his case. Having lost in court, Mr. King claimed victory and was believed by a few people of the sort that buy into obscure conspiracy theories. I’m not going to waste a lot of my time, or that of my readers, on this irrelevant nonsense. I will allow this single comment because, unlike others, it at least is civil, and it provides an opportunity to explain why no further comments on this topic will be published. Readers interested in some background about this situation can find it here and here. DJC

  23. Some things can’t be left to individuals, because individuals vary to wildly in their understanding of global issues.

    I’m not sure the individuals would have stood up to the axis in ww2 very well. The allies did.

    Global issues like tax shelters for rich people can only be solved. by government.

    Global warming and climate change as well, we want as few as possible of the means of pollution to be in the hands of regular people and focused in the fewest highly regulated hands as possible.

    And for a pandemic where the way out individually would be a moral choice that puts the health of all above your perceived freedoms – well – this has been the greatest case study in the moral deficiency of western conservative thinking and we see plainly, painfully that such choices absolutely can’t be left to the members if the hoi poloi. We elect leaders not to pander to the stupidest of all possible voter bases – but to lead and so the right thing based on sound reasoning.

    This pandemic has shown that the UCP has a blanket policy of pandering to its base at the expense of all Albertans well being – no matter what. That’s bloody dangerous and i hope moderate conservatives and fiscal conservatives like me in particular can see the NDP represent an Alberta that may be slightly more fair for all and a million times safer in terms of wasted resources. They never pissed money away the way the UCP have done so spectacularly by focusing fountainhead their stupid, uneducated, conspiracy loving voter base.

  24. Some things can’t be left to individuals, because individuals vary to wildly in their understanding of global issues.

    I’m not sure the individuals would have stood up to the axis in ww2 very well. The allies did.

    Global issues like tax shelters for rich people can only be solved. by government.

    Global warming and climate change as well, we want as few as possible of the means of pollution to be in the hands of regular people and focused in the fewest highly regulated hands as possible.

    And for a pandemic where the way out individually would be a moral choice that puts the health of all above your perceived freedoms – well – this has been the greatest case study in the moral deficiency of western conservative thinking and we see plainly, painfully that such choices absolutely can’t be left to the members if the hoi poloi. We elect leaders not to pander to the stupidest of all possible voter bases – but to lead and so the right thing based on sound reasoning.

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