This is the new Canadian leader of the Opposition, the old one having been booted out for …. not actually opposing anything their government is doing.
It’s also the first time I’ve seen the usually smug PM actually look rattled, especially in the face of the boos and heckling. Just goes to show what can happen when you start opposing the government. But there’s even evidence from within the Canadian “Liberal” government:
LaPresse reports that Liberal MP Joel Lightbound [Louis-Hébert] will oppose mandatory vaccination policies at a 10:15 news conference…
“I can’t help but notice, with regret, that both the tone and the policies of my government changed drastically on the eve and during the last election campaign. From a positive and unifying approach, a decision was made to wedge, to divide, and to stigmatize. I fear that this politicization of the pandemic risks undermining the public’s trust in our public health institutions. This is not a risk we ought to be taking lightly”
Saskatchawan and Alberta have announced they are dropping all covid restrictions. Britain already dropped theirs (because Boris was in deep, political doo doo). Sweden is dropping all theirs, as is Denmark, and nine other nations, with even Israel dumping their Green Pass – in the middle of the largest C-19 outbreak yet.
Meantime Canada’s great neighbour to the South is also seeing the tide turn on mandates in even the Deepest of Deep Blue places:
Just weeks after Youngkin was called a murderer for ending mask rules, Democrats in the Virginia Senate voted with Republicans to pass a statute . . . ending mask rules. Connecticut’s Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont is ending school mask rules as of the end of this month. Colorado’s Democratic Gov. Jared Polis is doing the same.
We’re seeing similar actions from New Jersey’s Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy and Delaware’s Democratic Gov. John Carney.
This follows the Biden Administration changing the HHS guidelines on how to count C-19 deaths:
In an astonishing move, HHS notified hospitals they are no longer required to report COVID deaths beginning Feb. 2, 2022.
That’s because having high C-19 case and death counts was once useful to the Federal and State governments for pushing their “solutions” of lockdowns, masks and then vaccinations. But with exploding numbers for Omicron in the face of all those measures it’s now hurting them so they’re desperate to get those numbers down and this piece of chicanery around the WITH vs OF debate is the way to do it.
Not mentioned is that opponents of government responses (whether lockdowns, masks, or mandates) had made this argument from the start of this insanity.
Several studies suggest the current total death count wildly overestimates deaths from the virus and includes many people who only tested positive. A retrospective study in three large New Jersey hospitals in Nov. 2020 demonstrated that 89% of people who died with COVID had a do-not-resuscitate order in place before their COVID diagnosis. That means these patients were suffering from a terminal condition before receiving a positive COVID test. A review of reported COVID deaths in Minnesota found nearly 40% of deaths recorded were not attributable to COVID. Santa Clara and Alameda County in California distinguished those patients who died due to the illness progression of COVID and those who tested positive at the time of death.
Here’s yet another example of why:
They’ll be many more of these u-turns I’m sure – not because of The ScienceTM, but because of polling, and the internal polling of the Democrats must look even worse than the public polls.
I appreciated this comment:
In the words of blogger Lawrence Person, “Not since the collapse of the Hindenburg Line in 1918 have such bitterly held positions been abandoned so quickly.”
They (and their MSM stenographers) are also starting to rewrite the history on Their COVID-19 Response, including their previous stance on natural immunity.
There’s only one reason for this.
No Minister 
I loved her work in “Murphy Brown”. Good to see that she has gone on to greater things (sarc) 🙂
Any chance of New Zealand getting an actual leader of the opposition? None have appeared on the horizon.
Let’s give Luxon a chance like we did with Bridges, eh? If his performance is underwhelming, he’ll go the same way as “Crusher” did.
His performance is already underwhelming. He is a useless corporate woketard – a bald Jacinda. He has offered no alternative to the covid tyranny and his refusal to meet with the freedom convoy sums up his uselessness.
He got his chance. Luxon wanted the leadership, he has it and he’s failed.
He wasn’t liked at AirNZ, why do National think he’s going to do any better as their leader?
He doesn’t have to be liked. He has to be respected.
@lucia_maria I think it’s too early to tell. If he fails to score more points in the polls against this appalling socialist government by the middle of this year his goose will be well and truly cooked.
Wrong Rob, he is in the biggest popularity contest ever, he has to be liked to win.
True that. National [and ACT] had the opportunity to be on the right side of freedom but they blew it.
The right thing to do was oppose the mandates and other tyranny.
Support for the vaccine was a fair call in the circumstances.
Sure they would have been pummeled by the government press, which they were anyway and sure they would have been thumped at the last election, didn’t they lose anyway?
Now with people finally waking up to the awfulness of the Labour lot they would have looked like heroes.
People are finally starting to wake up to the fact there are no mass graves or people dying in the street and we are a little short of 80,000 deaths.
They lacked a single ounce of courage and don’t deserve our support. The best think to do now is to vote for the true tyranny ie Labour/Green in the hope a true centre/right party will emerge from the wreckage.
The current circumstance of having 4 left wing parties at the top is a recipe for ongoing disaster.
Nonsense, Old curmudgeon, this is just one issue with which you and others are obsessed. You do not have to take the vaccine. An ACT/National government will be miles better than the current motley lot. Your mythical right wing voters do not exist. If you want to be part of a loony fringe then fine but you’re dooming yourself to perpetual curmudgeon status.
Cassandra – your ignorant statement about not having to take the vaccine – tell that to people who were faced with “no jab, no job”, reluctantly got jabbed, and are now suffering vaccine induced illness. As for being obsessed – I am obsessed about the loss of freedom due to the pretense of a health emergency, and I will continue to be until freedom is restored (if that ever happens).
Well said Harry,but don’t be too harsh on Cassandra who is just an elitist twat.
A perfect example as to why National/ACT cannot be trusted
What a pity we can’t meet, Old Curmudgeon, and Harry, we could really exchange insults. Well, not on my part. I’m sure we could have a civil conversation. My freedom to have the jab or not clashes with your freedom to infect others. There are consequences to every action. Another is that if you don’t vote for National or ACT you’re actually giving half a vote to Labour or the Greens. Seeking the mythical right wing voters (you’ll need 150,000) just won’t wrk, I’m afraid.
Just luv the personal attacks … NOT. Sez much for the people that make them. More interested in attacking National/ACT than focusing on the real enemy. No respect that people are entitled to see it and play their way. You Guys are NOT God although you’re acting as though you are … the font of all knowledge. In that respect you and Ardern have much in common.
OC … Cassandra is not an elitist twat and you know it. He is a respected ex senior military officer who served our country with honour and later led an organisation that had/has a huge positive impact on our lives. You?
Surely ‘Sprinkler mallard’ has hastened ardens departure and demise.