Roundup: Promising to take credit for work already accomplished

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Erin O’Toole released his plan yesterday to ensure that the country would reach 90 percent vaccination rates – voluntarily! The centrepiece of this campaign? A series of mail-outs that would appeal to Canadians’ patriotism in order to get vaccinated. Because appealing to “personal responsibility” has worked so well in Alberta. O’Toole’s plan has some additional tinkering around the edges, such as free Uber and Lyft rides to vaccine appointments, or reimbursing employers for the time off to get it done – things that should not be the responsibility of the federal government, quite frankly.

One of the more galling aspects of his “plan,” however, is around booster shots, and insisting that they will “prioritize the signing of contracts” for booster shots – erm, except that the Liberals already did that. They have a contract with Pfizer to provide additional doses through 2024 if need be, which O’Toole is either lying by omission about, or he’s making a somewhat sexist attack against Anita Anand and slighting her work on this file – while literally promising to take credit for the work that she did. Either way, it’s both misleading and a bit gross, but when has it been anything but over the course of this campaign. (Oh, and his promise to “accelerate homegrown development and production of vaccines” pretty much ignores how vaccine development and production works, but hey, this is also the election where leaders keep promising a Green Lantern Ring to solve all of their problems).

Meanwhile, I can’t help but roll my eyes as Conservatives are clutching their pearls that the Liberals are releasing “negative” ads about them. The party has spent the past number of years going on a strategy of shitposting at every opportunity, and of giving their MPs free reign to proffer conspiracy theories like saying that the Liberals want to “normalise sexual relations with children,” and they get the vapours when the Liberals put out attack ads? Girl, please.

https://twitter.com/AaronWherry/status/1434194410263220225

On the campaign trail:

  • Justin Trudeau took the day off, but had his ministers and candidates fanning out across the country to decry the Conservative plan to make assault rifles legal again.
  • Erin O’Toole was in Coquitlam, BC, to say that he would encourage more vaccination with a mail-out campaign to appeal to Canadians’ patriotism. Really.
  • O’Toole continues to obfuscate rather than provide clarity on which gun control measures he would repeal.
  • Jagmeet Singh was in St. John’s, Newfoundland, to promise dental care.
  • Liberal candidate Raj Saini is out of the race – with conflicting stories as to whether he left voluntarily or was pushed – but his name will still be on the ballot.
  • The Conservative candidate for the Northwest Territories has never visited the territory, and is hiding from the media.
  • Here are some profiles of the races in Regina–Qu’appelle, Nanaimo–Ladysmith, Fredericton, and Davenport.
  • Susan Delacourt takes stock of where things are at in the campaign, including the fact that Erin O’Toole may wind up winning the most seats.

Good reads:

  • As the 20th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, Matt Gurney looks to the archives to see what the world was preoccupied with before it happened, and history turned.

Odds and ends:

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