Seven members of Alberta’s provincial government were punished for taking a vacation outside Canada, despite guidelines that recommend people to avoid non-essential travel during the pandemic.
Alberta’s prime minister had refused to sanction the authorities on his vacation trips, but on Monday, Jason Kenney changed course, announcing that he had fired his chief of staff and accepted the resignation of his minister of municipal affairs.
Kenney also downgraded five other members of his United Conservative Party (UCP) for flying overseas in recent weeks.
The growing scandal has thrown the UCP into even greater confusion, while Alberta struggles with the highest rate of active coronavirus cases in Canada.
Before the Christmas holiday, authorities across the country, including Alberta, pleaded with residents to stay home to avoid an increase in cases.
But a number of politicians at the federal or provincial level admitted to taking vacations abroad, raising fears that their behavior could undermine confidence in Canada’s fight against the pandemic.
Last week, Ontario’s finance minister resigned after taking a secret Caribbean vacation to St Barts and trying to cover his tracks on social media.
A similar scandal broke out in Alberta when it was discovered that Tracy Allard, minister of municipal affairs – and a key figure in the province’s Covid-19 vaccine strategy – had taken a family trip to Hawaii.
Kenney’s chief of staff, Jamie Huckabay, also admitted to spending time in the UK during the holidays. Huckabay was forced to return by the United States because flights between the United Kingdom and Canada were suspended due to the Covid variant first detected in the United Kingdom.
Kenney further increased indignation over the weekend after initially refusing to sanction any party member, arguing that there was “no public health order or legal barrier” to prevent holidays.
On Monday, however, he was forced to turn around and accused members of his party of the law of “demonstrating[ing] extremely poor judgment ”.
“Millions of Albertans have made real sacrifices in the past 10 months to help keep each other safe. They are right to be angry with people in leadership positions who are on vacation abroad, ”wrote Kenney on Facebook.
Over the weekend, #ResignKenney was the trend in Canada, while political opponents on the left took advantage of Kenney’s refusal to distribute punishments.
“This is a total leadership failure,” said New Democrat (NDP) leader Rachel Notley.
Even center-right newspapers condemned the prime minister.
“The moral authority and credibility that the Kenney government must exercise to convince Albertans to comply with public health recommendations are now severely diminished by the apparent double standard followed by UCP politicians and officials,” said an editorial in the Edmonton Journal.
More broadly, violation of rules without consequences can undermine the sense of collective action in the fight against the virus, said political scientist Lori Turnbull.
“Does the government really believe in its own messages? Do they think it’s okay to travel? Don’t they think it is worth following the guidelines? ” she said. “This is not a person using bad judgment. It is a lack of systemic adherence to the guidelines that the government itself is publishing ”.
At the federal level, two liberal parliamentary secretaries – Kamal Khera and Sameer Zuberi – moved away from their roles after attending memorials for family members or visiting sick relatives.
Conservative lawmaker David Sweet announced his resignation as chairman of a parliamentary committee on Monday, after admitting that he traveled to the United States and “for leisure” without informing party officials.
NDP member Niki Ashton stripped herself of her secondary critical roles in parliament after traveling to visit her sick grandmother in Greece without telling the leader, Jagmeet Singh.
But even traveling out of compassion can send the wrong message when residents made personal sacrifices during the pandemic, Turnbull said.
“There are people who live close to relatives and were unable to be with them when they died. Being separated from one another has been one of the scariest and most miserable parts of this pandemic, ”she said. “For many, it looks like politicians are breaking that rule – but we can’t.”
As the federal government warns that there is likely to be an increase in new cases after the Christmas and New Year celebrations, Turnbull warned that there may be long-term political consequences.
“Being in an elected position is a privileged position. You are in that position, but it is not yours. This office is linked to democracy … and you have to be very, very careful, because your actions can have lasting consequences. “